944- kicking the tires -need opinions

Looking at buying a 1989 944. Car has 150,000 but is still very solid. No rust and very straight body but paint (black) is fairly faded. Interior- again faded, but decent. Some cheap seat covers and a dash mat would take care of it. Car drives well, no odd noises, steering and brakes great, clutch feels fine. No leaks that I can see around the motor, dry underneath. A/C even works.

I know these things are pricey to fix, but I've got a line on parts and service.

The bad...hit the gas and its a total dog. Its a base car, no turbo or twin cams. I'm sure its running right, its just a slow car. Also its an open diff, not an LSD. Any ideas on how to get some more guts out of this thing? Its going to be a daily driver, so reliability is important, so is gas milage (both within reason). I'm thinking advance the cam a bit?

I can get it for $2000

Put an LS1 in it.

The 944 n/a was never quick, but they are long-legged and the highway is where they will shine more. 0-60 was 7.5 seconds when new, something to compare it to now.

One thing I actually didn't like was the gear ratio spread, its just far in between. The dash and interior controls don't age too well either, and seem cheap and brittle sometimes.

I love the 944 though and almost bought one several times but repair costs scared me away. If you have a line on parts and so on, it could be fun. At 2K or less, maybe it would be a good deal. There's at least one person with a nice 944 on the Reader's Rides, I'm sure he knows more than both of us put together, but for what its worth.

When I bought me 924S (esentially a 944) I was told and it it rang true, "there is notheing as expensive as a cheap Prosche"

my old 72 911 was the same way.. cheap to buy, expensive to fix.

Maintenance records are a must. Without them you should / will have to change the timing belt. At 150K I doubt that it is the original clutch. The R&P can be a week point if the PO has been dropping the clutch or even spinning the tires on sand and then having them catch on pavement can pop the R&P. The bearings in the torquetube will need service/replacement if they have not been done. There really is no way to get more HP out of the NA cars. I is best to put your $$$$ into a set of adjustable Konis, Iboc springs weltmeister stabilizer bars. You then can think about either swapping out the rear torque bars (like springs but different) and at the same time you can adjust the rear suspension to match up with the front springs as the ibok's lower the front about an 1 1/4. If you dont adjust the rear you will get a loose condition. For track purposes you will want to do something about the oiling as they are susceptible to oilstavation on long sweeping left handers due to the motor being layed over in the car. With the car cold you should have 5 bar oil pressure. With the car warm you like to see 3-4 bar below that and you have some ware. Less than 1 bar oil pressure at hot idle and you need to change the rod bearings (it can be done with the motor in the car) I hate to say it but this is regular maintenance in cars that are tracked. Other fun things are the speed and reference sensors seem to get buggered up. There your car will have a DME relay that will fail (keep a spare or a jumper in the glove box) Re soldering of the DME is a must. I have done this on several cars and it has cured a host of little problems. Grounds need to be maintained. The front harness seems to be the bigger problem. The older cars have direct wired headlights. It is best to put relays in the stock wiring and use them to control the relays that have a separately fused heavy gauge power supply. Ohya add some Halk pads. Even the bottom end brakes of the early cars will be great with just a pad upgrade.

This is what comes to mind at the moment. I have been driving my 924s as my dd for 3 years now and it is just a matter of keeping ahead of the maintenance curve. If you do this the car will treat you very well. One other note these cars like to be driven. They are galvanized steel body's so they dont rust.

They are great cars that are terrifically rewarding to drive on the track. Where they shine is handling and braking. They are becoming outdated in the motor department as we are now getting 100hp/L in everyday street cars so the 170HP or so 2.5L that most of the na cars have is underpowered for its size and the cars are heavy. 2800 lbs or so is normal. There are 2.7 and 3.0 variants and there are the S cars with 2 cams that are a bit better but they are still underpowered for there motor size. Even the 951's in stock are a bit anemic at around 250Hp but these can be hoped up to 350 quite easily 400 hp is just a matter of $$$ with a 951.

If the price is ok and the mechanics are up to snuff they make great DD's There are parts all over eBay for these and there are several excellent boards out there that deal with only these cars.

For that much money I'd buy a E30 which is faster, easier to fix, cheaper parts and just as much fun to drive.

OK, I'll chime in here as I have an '89 944. First, it is a 2.7 car not a 2.5. The 2.7s and 3 liters (a crank change is what keeps it from a 3 liter) do not suffer as badly as the 2.5 in the spun bearing department on track. Something about a pressure zone created under the piston, or something like that. A Porsche engineer explained it to me once, but its been a while.

You can get more hp out of it. They make a chip for it which gives you a bit, something like 10hp if you believe the hype, and then there's the header and exhaust route which can also open it up a bit. If you do it all, it should be giving close to 180 to 190hp at the crank, up from 168 stock for the 2.7.

The best mod by far though is to simply replace the throttle cam. I can't begin to tell you what a difference this makes. The stock cam puts most of the movement at the bottom end of the throttle pedal, where the new cams give it a very linear movement. The difference is night and day. It's absolutely the best $25 I've ever spent on a car bar none. It turns the car into one you want to drive everyday from simply an OK car.

Expense wise, you do have to change the timing belt and assorted other front end hardware every 30k miles, and clutches are expensive. Other stuff is surprisingly cheap, especially brake hardware. Shocks and struts are also very reasonable.

I don't disagree with ddavidv very often, but I am on this one. I've owned both E30s and 944s, and I like the 944s much better. The '89's are faster than all the E30s except for the M3, and its not much off that one. Mid range is vastly superior, and its far more relaxed for everyday cruising. It sounds better, and the seats are much better.

Now for the bad, if its abused, simply turn and run away. You can spend a ton of money repairing the damage done by other owners. They've cheap for a long time, and they are not cheap to keep. The math doesn't add up for someone with no money or a Honda mentality for car maintenance. The same can be said for the BMW too, but moreso with the Porsche. It's much cheaper to buy one that's been well cared for in the long run, no matter how tempting the price. The '89's are by far though the best of the breed, be it a turbo or non-turbo.

I paid very little for mine, but it had a stack of dealer records, and a blown clutch helped bring the figure down even more. Previously though, I went through dollar spending hell on a turbo model. In the end it was nice, but it took a LOT of money to get it there.

that mileage is not a bad thing. means it never sat for long, and probably already had a clutch.

my .02 $

This may help, too: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/porsche-944-profile/

racerdave, I think I may have said E30s are faster than 944s. They are not. They are, however, very competitive on the track in lap times. I do feel the E30 with the M20 feels faster than the 944S I forgettably drove.

ddavidv wrote: racerdave, I think I may have said E30s are faster than 944s. They are not. They are, however, very competitive on the track in lap times. I do feel the E30 with the M20 feels faster than the 944S I forgettably drove.

I certainly wasn't slamming E30's, as they some of the best BMWs ever in my opinion.