I have recently purchased an S2 and am considering the following mods:
1. Chip
2. Cat-Back
3. Intake (K&N)
4. Throttle body size increase
5. Headers

Has anyone tried any or all of these? What were the results. What is the best mod for the money?

Thanks
Kevin S. Smith

1989 944S2
1974 911S

 

Kevin - the best mod for the money is seat time. If you aren't already, then get involved with your PCA region's driver's ed program. Road Atlanta is a world class track, and you can learn how to drive your car to its potential.

That said - there's not a whole lot you can do to increase the power output of your car. What you list above will help free up the motor a bit (intake & exhaust especially), but don't expect more than a 5-10hp gain total. Most after market companies shy away from the 944S and 944S2 due to the motor being a fairly early 16-valve motor (Porsche's first).

A couple of other things you can do:
1. Remove the balance shaft belt. Note: many club racers do this trick and the net gain is again, an additional 5-10 ponies. NOT RECOMMENDED for street cars, as the engine will vibrate a lot more at idle and low RPM's.

2. Bypass the coolant running through the throttle body. Yes, our cars have coolant that runs through the throttle body. Why? To prevent a condition called icing - where the ice buildup in the TB prevents proper airflow into the engine. It won't add more ponies, but you'll have cooler, denser air going into the engine, which again can allow the motor to breathe easier. I have this done on my car, but can't tell the difference. Still, on a hot day, you don't want your coolant system warming up the air your motor is using!

So, you're basically dealing with ~208hp. Now what you CAN do that will be effective is this: upgrade your suspension so you can get that power to the road. Coil over suspensions with helper springs in the back really make our cars handle much better. Balance that out with sway bars and the right tires, and you've got a great handling car!

Just my $0.42,
-Z-man.

 

The K&N is a filter, not an intake. If you are talking about removing the beautiful tuned S2 airbox and filter and swapping on a K&N Cone, I would suggest not messing with that. Airbox volume is a good thing, and the S2 airbox is large and in a nice spot.

A cat back can get you some sound or tone, and maybe save some weight. You can also just have a different muffler welded on to get most if not all of those gains. The stock header is pretty nice, I would not replace that if it is not cracked or something.

There is a guy selling a cheap S2 chip that is worth a look. Do a search on the main 944 board for more info. Generally the chips do not get you much (if anything) but at least this one is not expensive.

I would not suggest doing much with the intake, throttle body, or header unless you do other head work first (cams, oversize valve, extrude hone, portmatch, etc.) unless you like doing that stuff and don't really care if it does not produce results.

Whatever you do, check (and probably replace) the cam chain tensioner pad. It takes 30 minutes and costs $18 (more if you do the cam cover gaskets) but will save a cam chain crash that can destroy the cams and valves. They tend to fall apart at 120K miles or so and take the cam chain out too, often stripping the cam gears and causing piston/valve contact. Not pretty but very easy to avoid.

Enjoy,
-Joel.

 

I second Z-man on the suspension mods, I've installed front and rear coil-overs with 968 m030 sway bars and the cars handles much nicer.

 

One of the things I did was buy the intake plumbing from EVO here in Tempe, with a K&N cone and had Tim@ SFR vent the nose where the EVO setup placed the cone. It's in front of (& over the radiator) so it's directly taken from the front of the car. That's about as cold as it gets without an auquamist system. You really hear it pulling in the air with the throttle down...

Next step is the Borla cat back exhaust I had on my NA, great sound, frees up a few (modest) ponies but most of all I love setting off r-burner's hypersensitive alarms in parking garages...

 

There is a guy selling a cheap S2 chip that is worth a look. Do a search on the main 944 board for more info. Generally the chips do not get you much (if anything) but at least this one is not expensive.

I am not the guy that is selling the chip over on the 944 board but I did buy one of Dal's firehawk chips last year, seat dyno probaly 10hp. Very nice chip, smoothed out the power over a bigger curve. As I am racing with PCA, I cant chip the car (NASA you can) So the chip has to go. First 100.00 takes it (I paid 200.00 from Dal last fall) He burned a batch of chips from an orginal factory firehawk chip. There is a dyno of the chip somewhere on the 944 board, Search 944 firehawk and see a thread that is a few pages long. Other than the chip, there is not a lot to do without spending really big bucks (cams, head work etc) Suspension is a must for any performance car and if you car has OEM equipment, it is past its useful life. I run Leada's but it is a race car.

 

www.speedforceracing.com has the headers, throttle body, and exhausts available. They make great stuff. Again, you may not see big gains with just that stuff compared to say a Honda. Our NA engines have been really well squeezed from the factory. The exhaust is A LOT lighter from SpeedForce and it sounds great. The car runs a bit smoother too. Its really personal preference when it comes to an S2. Unless you go the Turbo route, or supercharge it. Then you see gains.

Ide love to do my suspension. Maybe next year i will find the M030 setup or something similar.

 

I'm gonna say what everybody is thinking: You should have bought a 944Turbo. I love my S2, but it's just not the right platform for hp mods. If you are dead-set on more hp, it'll be cheaper and more rewarding in the long run to sell your S2 and get a 951. My friend just did some Guru chip stuff to his '86 and I rode w/ him on the auto-x track, my car will never pull like that!

 

Thanks for the advice, everyone. Most everyone is saying what I expected, and I think the K&N and the cat-back are all that I will upgrade on the car, at this time. Just wanted to see what results had been achieved by users from different upgrades. I would have been willing to spend the cash, if the dramatic results had been there, but it does not appear that this is the case.

Thanks again.

 

Not all mods are to simply designed to increase HP, of course, and since the questioner didn't specifically ask only for power mods, I feel justified in submitting the folowing $0.02 or so.

The chips for an S2 will not deliver great power gains in absolute terms, as they can do for a 951, but they can improve driveability - a lot. The NA chips all work on the same premise -- that you are using a higher octane rating than the factory assumed minimum -- and the timing can be set more aggressively as a result. All the chips work according to this principle, and so I would think are (for the most part) pretty much equivalent. No rocket science here, just one of the few obvious "squeezable" gains.

I've got a chipped S2, and I think it's great. The torque in all gears in excellent throughout the rpm range -- if I'm lazy I can just put in in 3rd and drive it like an automatic. Max HP output might not show much improvement on a dyno, I've never bothered to check it to be honest, but the HP and torque is now where and when you need it for real driving. So, as a contrarian opinion, take all the "wild-*** gearhead" derision about chipping a NA car with a grain of salt.

Another upgrade that might be worth considering is a CD ignition, something along the lines of the MSD 6A units. Skip from Paragon wrote up a tech article on this sometime ago; there's also one at Pelican, I believe.

I haven't done this to my S2, although I know others have, but I did upgrade the ignition on my '86 NA, and it made a noticeable difference. Again, more torque down in the lower ranges, a bit more "seat of the pants dyno" -- nothing overly dramatic, but noticable, and noticeably more fun driving (which is the whole point, right?)

OK; that's my minority report.

-Mark

 

I've also recently purchased an S2, and wouldn't mind more torque, and may go the chipped route.

There are also lots of things that can be done to free up hidden power. Parasidic loss adds up fast when you consider all of the inertia in an engine. By reducing inertia through lighter weight wheels, rotors, axles, driveshaft, clutch, flywheel, and pullies you can free up quite a bit of power. whether or not there are parts readily available, I'm not sure, but many people don't realise that going from a 23-24lb wheel to a 17-18lb wheel you will free up a couple hp, but you'd need to bust out a dynamics book to figure out how much.

 

I will be getting a S2 cab in the next few weeks, I am considering replacing the catback system with stock pieces. PM me if you are interested. I live in Crabapple off of 140.

 

I fitted a chip to my stock S2 last month and am loving it.... Actual gains are difficult to pinpoint, but it it just feels better. Fuel consumption is up a bit, but thats probably because I love the pull, and tend to drive a bit harder now. I only use 98 Leaded. Go Ozone!

 

Shoot, If I could run high octane leaded gas, I'd face the head to bump the compression up to about 13:1. You probably don't have to have a Catolytic converter either?

 

Nope..... Were a bit behind down here in the 'save the planet' marathon.