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I inherited a 1990 Porsche 964 C4 from my father that in his advanced age he let sit in his back yard for over 5 years. I've been messing around with it to see if I could fuel the spark to want to dig into it and restore it and it looks like the bug finally bit me on the butt. Over the last year I took a buffer to the ailing paint and ordered a few things to see if I could get the engine to come to life. There is a ton of stuff that needs to be repaired or replaced but I want to start with getting the engine running in tip top shape. I have a 993 engine sitting on the side not doing nothing and I've been toying with the idea of snatching the head and cylinders to update the 964. Hopefully pull a few extra ponies out of it while I'm at it. Any suggestions or leads on what I can swap from motor A to Motor B? The 964 drops a good amount of oil after shut down. Pictures to follow.
I've thought of doing exactly that. Can anyone point me in the right direction as to what is needed for the swap? I'm in the process of collecting pictures.
Got the car to SC from NY. Car was put in a storage unit with most of the parts and tools. Trunk floor rust. I've got a line on a place to call to order a new one. I also had a front and rear set of metal wide body fenders but I've no idea where they walked off to. Passenger side door lock was messed up in Brooklyn, N.Y. need to order a new one so I can put the door back together. Checking the paint to see if it was worth cutting and buffing. For a 30 year old car that was left out side it came back pretty damn good. Still needs many many hours but It was nice to know I didn't have to immediately paint it after I get it running. Top of the engine is filthy. Pine needles, old oil, bug shells. Pretty nasty. Taking the intake off so I can start cleaning up the engine bay and get a better idea of what I'm looking at. I like polishing aluminum to look like chrome so I might do the intake for ****s and giggles. Intake is a "pain in the butt," to remove while in the car but not impossible. Time to pull out some jacks and lift this sucker up in the air. I've got to dig the Engine Manual out and start doing my homework. So far Its been a bunch of dirty deeds. Hopefully next time you guys see the intake it will be all polished up. "Yeah I know... But I learned how to polish like a pro and I bring out the shine every time I can to make a piece that much more my style. "
Awesome that you are bringing it back. Looks like water and battery corrosion did a number on the trunk. Is it rotted through or just surface rust. I had very good luck using Os Pho rust neutralizer on the surface rust I found on the floors of a 914 that has spent a long time sitting after I stripped off the sound deadening that they coated the floors with.
Awesome that you are bringing it back. Looks like water and battery corrosion did a number on the trunk. Is it rotted through or just surface rust. I had very good luck using Os Pho rust neutralizer on the surface rust I found on the floors of a 914 that has spent a long time sitting after I stripped off the sound deadening that they coated the floors with.
It started to eat through on the underside. Lucky me I can weld and paint.
The old black (And red) single stage paint is very high quality IMHO and as long as it’s not chipped, scratched or rusted it will come back with some polishing.
Random Porsche Parts I have in the shed. I've got a set of 993 brakes I would love to adapt to the 964 and I believe a new Clutch for the 993 sitting in a tattered box. 993 Engine 993 Intake Various 911 transmissions Couple sets of fenders, set of complete doors, quarter panels, and rear wide body panels I believe. Rear Spoilers, Not sure which one will fit the 964 but I would love to swap the stock one out if I add a turbo in the future
The old black (And red) single stage paint is very high quality IMHO and as long as it’s not chipped, scratched or rusted it will come back with some polishing.
Good luck with the restoration!
Thanks, I've been sitting on it for close to a year. Time to get it rolling.
Good luck with this project. I'm just a few steps ahead of you in my '90 Targa resto (also threading my progress here). I'd be really happy if my black paint shined up like yours. I haven't done any buffing yet. What products/process did you use?
Sorry for the loss but congrats on the car. Looks like your father collected a lot of valuable parts and was considering doing a wide body or slope nose conversion on this car. I can't tell from the pics what transmissions you have there. I am guessing a 915, a 3.2 G50/01 and possibly a G50 or G64. You could probably sell off a lot of the parts to finance the project. Whatever engine you don't use is worth money and I am always interested if you decide to sell one.
It is a 90 so it has the ringless engine and clearly needs work. Probably best to drop the engine as by now everything will need to be updated. Seals are probably all dried out and who knows what else. It adds up quickly as parts aren't cheap so i would focus on one and sell the other. It is just so much easier to work on out of the car on a stand. If the 993 is in good condition it is an early 94-95 engine non varioram. It is an OBDI engine vs the later vram engines which were OBDII. Do you have the ECU for it? It is an improved design over the 964 engine but has its own series of pros and cons. The 993 engine has hydraulic lifters which eliminate the frequent valve lash adjustments but loses some of the mechanical sound. The power gain is not all that significant over the 964 engine but has a far more simplified fueling system and different heads with 8mm vs 9mm valve stems and larger port sizes. But then you have the SAI valve issues which could probably be eliminated depending on emissions testing and since it is an early OBDI engine and I don't believe will show the CEL when clogged. Also the early 964's do not have CEL although there is a location for it, so these are the things you will need to address. Other things that will need to be addressed like getting the speedo to work that use a different pickup from the 964 to 993 but you have time on that. Also some of the 964 panel parts are NLA and you will end up with 993 parts. It isn't a big deal but if you want it to look correct than it will require cutting and salvaging some older bits.
I picked up a nearly identical car like this back in 2014 same condition. At the time it wasn't worth fixing so I turned it into a WB track car, today i would be salvaging this as you are. A great opportunity to customize the car to your liking. You will find these cars to be quite enjoyable to drive and although not fast like modern cars today offer an experience very few cars do.
One more thing is I would meter the paint as you go. These paints are nice but when you get down to 2.5mils you can start burning through and the primer will start showing through without warning.
I'll chime in with Cobalt on the engine discussion. If you decide to keep the car a numbers matching engine/chassis and want to update to the later style heads and cylinders - there's a "less" expensive option. On my car I bought a set of good condition used updated pistons and cylinders from a Singer donor car for $500 and had my original heads rebuilt and machined to match the updated cylinders. The cylinders, pistons, and heads all went to the machine shop together where everything was cleaned, machined, and matched for the rebuild. A set of new late version 3.6 liter cylinders and pistons for this car would have been about $5500.
05-20-2020, 01:35 PM
964 Project Car
