reno808

You seem to have been tracking your car for over 10 years i think thats alot. I am surprised it lasted as long as it did. Did you replace your rod bearings or are they original?

gt37vgt

yeh this thing has been good to you ..it deserves it lease a bottom end ..

mudbuddha

I'd look into a Darton MID sleeved block with Wossner pistons and rods from Chris White- good stuff. If you are going w/ the new bottom end, going up in displacement is not that much more expensive.

ninefiveone

Original bottom end. In a lot of ways this is the inevitable result when you go with the organic bolt-on approach over 10 years, rather then building the motor for this kind of usage from the start.

Yeah, I agree the car has been good to me and I'm not eager to move on from it.

At the same time, my main hobby and interest is driving at the track. For this to work for me, I need a good cost effective plan that results in a reliable track car. If I can't figure that out, a Cayman S starts to look attractive.

I'm going to give Chris a call shortly and see what the options are there.

Grandpa#3

You have very valuable experience with the car and know how it reacts to any given thing thrown at it, how it handles and performance. Time for a rebuild is less worry and much less time than tearing it apart, selling piecemeal and then the time spent mailing parts off. Give your car a heart transplant and she will reward you in the end. My best to you in whatever you decide.

Cheers,
Larry

ninefiveone

You've got a good point, Larry. The economics are still making this a coin flip though.

Maybe I should create a poll and let people vote. In any case here are the options:

- Go the Chris White route. I'm convinced this is the only way to get the track reliability I'd need. Dry sump, oil coolers, etc. Unfortunately, this is a $25K option
- Get a complete short block and swap into my car and track it less aggressively. I'll guess $5K for this
- Sell the car as is and move onto Cayman S. Lart, any interest?

944CS

I'd first drop the front suspension/crossmember and see exactly what you are up against. Ritzblitz just had his car shut off on him at NJMP. He said he heard a couple loud knocks before it shut off. Same sound while cranking the engine. Turns out his original 3 piece OPRV stuck. He didn't spin any bearings, came close, and #4 actually looked the worst. Crank isn't hurt at all. Who knows, maybe you might be this lucky. He is also running Mobil 1, mostly 0w-40 with some Valvoline VR1 synthetic 20-50 mixed in.

944CS

And just for reference, with an additional baffle and the I-J windage tray and teflon crank scraper I think you'll be fine. My oil pressure never dropped below 3 bar after installing this in my Turbo, and that's also with Mobil 1 15w-50

ninefiveone

You're right... I should drop the oil pan before I throw in the towel. A pleasant surprise would be...very pleasant!

CPR

NFO...Seeing as this car gave you a good 8 years or so of use under heavy abuse (I say that kindly ), why not just buy a SB and send to Chris White for a rebuild with some stouter upgrade parts? That option, I would think, would not run you more than $6-$7k.

Although I think I have settled on building a 3.0L.....good lord, did I just say that?

BTW...fingers crossed for the 'pleasant surprise'. Keep us posted.

gt37vgt

these cranks are pretty hardy /hard they often survive a spun bearing with no damage you should realistically be able to freshen it up for 3 k with or without a short block

DDP

One thing to remember, if your hobby truly is driving and not wrenching, a project (fresh motor) may take longer than you'd like. Projects are always more costly then you figure, they take longer then you figure and sometimes are an overall pain, more so if you're just into driving. If you've had the car 10 years, I'd personally think about moving on. There are much more modern cars that would be loads of fun on the track and be dead nuts reliable. Although, an LS1 could be fun. First thing first, see what's up with the motor. The next step is to go test drive some newer cars. Then it'd be fair to say you're making a more educated decision. Good luck.

ehall

Wait a damned minute. you live in THIS country and you want the opinion of the voters?
Good Idea....cough...cough...

Chris White

Lots of decent advice. I think it will come down to how much did you enjoy the 944. If you really liked driving it and still enjoyed being ‘that 944 turbo guy’ at the track then it makes sense to build it right so you can have another 10 years of fun.

If you just want a dependable high performance car for street and track and you don’t really worry about having a ‘special’ track car then the Cayman S is a nice choice – it’s a very pleasant car to drive on the track. You won’t be driving anything ‘special’ and nobody will want to look under the hood….but it will not ask for any special attention (mechanical) either.

My guess, based on your current mods and our chat, is that you like to be a little different than the new car guys and you like your car to suit your preferences…that’s why you are a 944 guy!

Keep all the good parts you have now, add a 3.0 bottom end and other parts to keep it cool and well-oiled and run with a little less boost and RPMs and it will run for a very long time. You will love the new midrange torque and you won’t need to run the revs up as much (you still can when you want – but it won’t be necessary!)

ninefiveone

Thought I'd share an update....the car is now waiting to get the Chris White treatment.