healey1968

Let me introduce myself - up until today I was (only) a 996 C2 Cab driver and spend most of my time poking around the 996 board. Well not anymore! My friend started up a LeMons racing team and we went out to pick up our horse today. Although we almost bought a 1979 Datsun 280zx, we opted for a rust free 1983 944*.

Real quick - for those not familiar with LeMons racing: The premise is that your car (aside from safety equipment) can 'net' cost no more than $500. We can sell stuff off the car to add to our budget, buy after market parts to use it up. The net cost must be $500 (you get penalized for every $10 over you spend).

Now, I have a few questions:

We bought the car with a broken timing belt. Supposedly it broke while the car was running, so we're assuming the valves are all damaged. We took a bet that the pistons didn't get it too bad. First off we're going to replace the head with a junk yard unit, so I'm looking for a good DIY. Anybody have experience picking a head up on the cheap? How much should we be looking to spend?

Next we plan on stripping the whole car. The rules require a full welded roll cage and racing seat, so being street legal isn't much of a concern. Our goal is to get the weight down as much as possible. I'll be posting a FS thread later, but we're open to requests or ideas on what parts are worth money and what aren't.

Finally (for now), we've read that these 944's are notorious for throwing the #2 piston rod during LeMons races. Are there any cheap upgrades we can do to the motor for strength and reliability?

Thanks!

Plavan

The 944 is not a great platform for Lemons or Chump racing. For exactly you stated, they blow engines all the time. And those are not cheap.
The only thing you can do, is change the rod bearings after each race or two (from under the oil pan). That is what sucks about them for endurance racing. I wanted one, but after seeing every single one blow up in lemons or Chumpcsr, we went with an E30. The E30 has 240k miles, and now over 48 hours of endurance racing..... Just add gas and oil.

16valver

I got word that you were the one who snagged that car... The one with those horrific seat covers? Hehe...

Since you will have the engine opened up, there are a hand full of crafty (and potentially inexpensive) things you can do to prevent throwing rod bearings. I have no experience in that realm but I'm sure a guru will pop up momentarily and show you how its done.

There was a recent thread posted on how the oil system works on these cars. Its worth a quick look. Things will make a bit more sense. Good luck sir, you will enjoy yourself.

Copilot

Yeah man, that car is famous!! 16valver and I are part of a PacNW 994 club/facebook group, and that car was the cause of many epic threads, basically mocking the guy selling it... I don't know if you followed all his ads, but he started out asking $3k for the car, and would hurl insults at anyone who offered him less and would tell them to go buy a Taurus. Pretty awesome.

Congrats, and if you need any team members, let me know - I'm from southern coastal OR, and know the cars pretty well mechanically.

Without TOO much detailed knowledge of how to optimize the oil system, I think putting in a crank scraper and an oil baffle would help (experts, back me up here whether I'm right or wrong). You can probably pick up a used oil pan with a baffle already in it for cheap, if you scan here or ebay enough.

Copilot

Found a good lead on an engine, too: http://salem.craigslist.org/pts/3876957383.html

16valver

Dude your avatar is epic...haha. I also agree with the scraper and baffle (is what I had in mind). It appears that the creation of air bubbles are the main issue at hand. I'm no expert though.

I'm tempted to go back through and dig up some of the exchanges people had with this guy. What fun! A little sad it didn't end up in my driveway, but I don't need any more dead cars. Post some pics. I want to know for sure if this is the same car!!

healey1968

Would love to see the advice. I've been taking a crash course on the 944 - seems like the oiling system is akin to my 996's IMS. I believe at this point the goal is to run an event with the stock engine before we get crazy with swap ideas - but that means we'll have to beef up the oil delivery.

Sweet. I'll see what we can do with that. I'm all the way up in Seattle, so Salem is... ugh... far.

Tonight we drove out to BFE with our trailer, hooked the car up and drove it back to the garage. Figured I'd get home by 9, but I just rolled in the door. Makes for a long day.

I'm going to guess it's the same car . Awesome seat covers on seats that I don't recognize.

Van

Do some searching - over the winter, some friends and I built a 944 chump car. You'll find lots of pictures of the cage installation, etc. Also, search YouTube and you'll find some videos I've done on how the 944 engine works (like the oiling system) and how to change timing belts.

86 951 Driver

Make sure to run some high ZDDP oil like Brad Penn or VR1.

ninjacoco

YAAAAAY LEMONS!!!

We're currently preparing a semi-new (well, new body with old engine) car for the 24 hour Houston race.

Another 924/944 Chump guy recommended that we pick up a baffled oil pan to try and guard against that little issue. I think we went with 20w50 oil to try and help with the oil sloshage issues, too.

I also tell drivers to keep it under 5K for most of the race. If they need to go a little over to pass, cool, but otherwise, calm yo ****, car's gotta last.

I'm not sure how much just the new engine costs, but we basically got a spare one when we picked up a second car. Keep an eye out for running but ugly/hit/broken elsewhere cars, or if your car gets hit (), keep all the working bits when you pick up a new car.

16valver

Don't quote me on this but I believe the late cars had pans with some sort of built in baffles and/or scrapers. I could be wrong, but I thought I read that somewhere. May not be a bad idea to source one.

Also, I believe that the 83 cars came with a factory cross-drilled crank. If you're lucky, it may have forged internals as well.

odonnell

Correct, 83 and I believe some 84 cars were cross-drilled from the factory.

ninjacoco

Noice. Another reason to keep my '83 engine!

healey1968

Awesome. Any chance there are markings on either the crank or the pistons that will identify if they are indeed 'the good stuff'? I have a feeling we're going to end up doing some bottom end work, but easy identifiers that don't require removing the mains would be nice.

Spare engine - yeah, we're working on it. I even saw a separate car in slightly worse (disassembled) shape listed for $500 in Seattle last weekend, but it's gone now. Wish it was still around, cause it'd make a great parts car.

Not the first time I've read this and I'm going to suggest this to the rest of the team.

FrenchToast

Plavan has a good point. Few 944's I think have even finished these events. But, you've got one, so may as well use it.

Definitely high zinc oil and keep an eye on it. Maybe put in a level sensor. Or convert to dry sump - Lol. If you do that, may as well just get a V8 or something though.

Or, heck, just take out the #2 rod and piston! Might run a little rough, but you won't need to worry about it!

Take care,