Gary W Jr.

The transmission on my 87 944 is very noisy, a real buzzer. I understand that the pinion bearing wears out on them. I was thinking that if I am going to rebuild the tranni,why not upgrade. Does anyone know of any performance benefit to upgrading to a S2 or Turbo S tranni. The car is a Drivers Ed car and soon to be club racer. I am not concerned with 0-60 or 1\4 mile performance but mid and top end performance.
Thanks

Michael Stephenson

The S2 & Turbo trannies are stronger than those found in the NA cars – not exactly sure how. The Turbo S tranny is even stronger than the regular Turbo tranny, especially the first two gears.

Some Turbo guys like to put S2 trannies in their cars because the S2 has closer gear ratios – I think that it helps them stay on boost as they navigate and exit corners.

Personally, I think the S2 tranny would be better suited to an NA than would the Turbo tranny.

I would imagine that you would want LSD – this seems to be easier to find in a Turbo tranny than in an S2 tranny.

TaboII

Ok Something I can talk about with authority. Though I am not sure about the S2 tranny I am about the Turbo. I have an 87 944 N/A that the original tranny blew on. I replaced it with an 87 turbo tran and man can I feel the diff. The gears are longer making the possible top end a greater speed than the original. I do not know the gear ratios. However, the low end is very much differnt and is IMHO well worth the expence. I added in the msd ignition system to help with the low end problem and it seems to have smoothed out the problem nicely. If you have the money and the time go for it you will not be dissapointed. <img src="graemlins/bigok.gif" border="0" alt="[thumbsup]" /> <img src="graemlins/bigok.gif" border="0" alt="[thumbsup]" /> <img src="graemlins/bigok.gif" border="0" alt="[thumbsup]" />

Dave

I have recently replaced my NA trans with one from a '87 S, and am happy with the results. As I understand it, the S also had the stronger pieces found in the turbo/S2 units, but the gear ratios are not as drastic a change from stock as the turbo/S2. The S transaxel has slightly steeper gearing in 1, 2 and 3, but aren't as tall in 4 and 5, resulting in a closer ratio type gearbox. I haven't had a chance to compare the top end, but while I expected to lose a bit off the line due to the higher first and second gears, my G-Tech has shown the opposite to be true.