kevinr1247

Hi All,

I've been in the process for awhile of looking for a good turbo and I think I may have found one, only, the PPI revealed a few things that I thought I'd offer up for comment. First off, Compression came in at 140psi on all 4 cylinders but there was 9% leakdown on one of the cylinders. The mechanic said that was in range and felt comfortable with the test and he said it drove like a Turbo should, with good power.

In trying to formulate a fair offer on the car, can someone ballpark parts/labor for the following maintenance items for me? Much appreciated, and I'll post pics when the deal is done!

Other than that the car looks good. Opinions welcome on what these repairs would cost. I realize the engine oil leak could be a major repair, but the mechanic said it's not something that should be a major concern....a 2 on a scale of 5.

Thanks for your help.

gpr8er

Just realize that you're looking at a nearly 30 years old car. These cars have many known issues, belts, leaks, 30 year old toasted hoses. Not to mention the clutch. If your're paying a mechanic to work on the car it can easily blow you out of the water with a single major repair bill. Check out Clark's garage if you haven't already a get a firm idea on what you should expect. Although it is an 88s...

LUCKY DAVE

Two or three years ago I would have said "If you can't do the work yourself RUN AWAY! The first big shop bill will have you so upside down in the car you'll never see the light of day"
With the way the prices for nice examples are (finally!!) rocketing up, I'm not so sure it's true anymore.

kevinr1247

Thanks for the replies. I'm aware of the $ that it could take to dig into major stuff, like plugging oil leaks. Is there an Porsche that doesn't leak? And my thing is that I'm just not as familiar with the 944s as I am the 911s, in terms of maintenance costs.

Some of the maintenance i.e. clutch and timing belt, is fairly recent. From what I describe, minus the oil leak, what am I looking at? Just a ballpark provided a can of worms isn't opened. I know that most of you could probably guesstimate a little closer than I could. I know it's perhaps somewhat of an impossible question to answer as well. But I thought I'd throw it out there. Any bit of info will help me understand what may be required to put the car back into top shape.

Humboldtgrin

Easy $2500 if you have a shop do it. Or $500 if you do it. Sounds like the front of the engine needs new sleeves and seals, trany may need just a seal and hopefully not an output stub axle due to a wear line in the metal(yes ruber will eat metal after a hunded thousand miles,give or take), need a new strut(not cheap), e brake may need new pads or just adjusted (won't know until taken apart). Make sure to replace the fuel lines with stainless steel ones if you buy it!!!!! Unless you want you car up in flames and smoke. Also look under the air filter at the three bolts mounting the AFM to the filter box. The first 951 I bought ate one of the bolts in the first 1000 miles because one backed out and took all the compressor fins off smooth. Check the "J" boot for cracks going to the turbo they are another $100. Everything on these cars cost three to ten times more then any other regular car found on the road. But that's because there a Porsche and 30 years old and need a lot of work to catch up to now. Things you can't check are the torque tube, clutch, ring and pinion in trany(mine were chipped but we're S2 not turbo), condition inside engine(unless you bore scope). If you don't work on it then I wouldn't buy it. I'm pretty sure all of us work on our cars! That's no bull! Do yourself a favor and look on line are prices for the parts you may need. I'm about $7G's just in my suspention. Al together I have about $20G's into it and havn't got to the engine yet. That could be another $20G's in itself. You could easily spend $2500 on just the exhaust pipe from the turbo out. $3 to 4g's on a nice cost on crossover. $3G's on head work. It adds up real real real fast!!! Not to shy you away but you better really like these cars if you buy one that needs lots of TLC! I consider mine my wife, takes all my $ and doesn't put out most the time(on jack stands). If you do buy it then I would seriously consider buying many tools and a grinder so you can modify the tool to work for you. And that's my two and a half cents.

PEvans

If you spend your purchase price again over the next couple of years sorting out issues you are still money ahead. What else are you going to drive for that price that even comes close?

For me I figure if the car is cosmetically good or great I don't mind fixing whatever mechanical comes up, even cans of worms. It's just paying over time.

User 52121

I think most folks here have covered off on things.

Oil leaks - that's anybody's guess. I've heard of the oil cooler cartridge housing being prone to leaks. Could just be a cam seal. Could be a balance shaft housing gasket leak. Like you said, most older Porsches leak to some degree. I'm pretty meticulous about mine and even I can't go more than a month without finding some new source of a minor seep somewhere.

IMO if you've got one bad strut up front, my usual view is "the others can't be far behind". I would just replace all of them - struts up front, shocks out back.

Plugs - that's 5 minutes plus parts. Muffler, etc... you can just have any regular muffler shop do an exhaust, or you can spend big bucks and go with a fancy Fabspeed or something. That's really up to you.

From the PPI results it sounds to me like the pricey items are gonna be shocks/struts, and maybe the trans leak. I'd probably do shocks/struts right away, and just top off the trans fluid to see how long it lasts.

Auto_Werks 3.6

On the turbo it's not a cooler cartridge housing because there is no cooler there.... However this would be my biggest concern for an oil leak. I'm usually pretty lax about small oil leaks because it seems like they always leak something, however my oil filter console o-rings gave up the ghost last week. Unfortunately that means mixing of coolant and oil. I was fortunate that oil was only going into the coolant and not the other way around. I'm neck deep in the repair right now. It's not bad at all, just a little time consuming. That being said, the condition of those seals and O-rings is critical.

Humboldtgrin

Make sure you use the alignment tool for that year block your working with. 86 and earlier are different then 87 and later tool. If you don't use the tool, your o ring at the end of the OPRV may seal wrong and you'll never get oil pressure. Also pump some oil onto the OPRV hole before installing it to help prime the oil pump.

User 52121

I could be wrong, but I think the alignment took is only necessary if you're still running the 2pc OPRV. If you update to the 1pc then alignment isn't a concern anymore.

Auto_Werks 3.6

With the later cars you "can" use the OPRV itself to align it. Not sure about the retrofit one piece for 86 cars. I don't want to mess with it and I have multiple 944s so I bought the correct tool for 87+ from 944 online

Humboldtgrin

Tell you what Don't use the tool and see what happens. I bought both styles, but do things right.

kevinr1247

Thanks all. Purchase in process. The PPI revealed that it's in pretty good shape with what I consider to be general postponed maintenance and a couple of issues that one might expect from a 944T....at least from what I've read. The motor is strong and the car has been well taken care of. All stock. Recent clutch and timing belt. It's an '89, not an '88 S. Same car for the most part is my understanding.

The stainless steel fuel lines mentioned seems like an important preservation/upgrade expense. I've heard of 911s bursting into flames. Is this a noted occurrence for the 944 Turbos as well?

I'm sure some pics will land in this forum in a couple weeks or so, among other questions that no doubt will emerge.

Humboldtgrin

I purchased an 89 944 base for $1250 ten years ago due to fuel lines cracking and engine fire. And that's a base 2.7 model not the high heat turbo model. Yes these cars WILL catch on fire if you don't change your fuel lines! Both of mine are changed. In fact you should replace all the soft fuel lines and fuel filter. Even the J hose going to your fuel pump. 26 years old!