83 944 fell into my lap.....with one problem

In reply to 16vCorey:

You can of course buy the 10mm diameter thrust bearings on Amazon for about $5 and add them to your own repaired shifter (replace pin with 10mm bolt, nut and washers), Only944's throw is slightly shorter than stock (moved the pin location upward about 1/2").

I built my own shifter handle because I wanted to use an aftermarket knob (nice weighted ball) and I used thrust bearings and relocated the pin from stock. Worked pretty well.

I added the Only944 short shifter linkage and crossover brace to finish out the shifting improvements (along with fresh swepco oil in the 016 transaxle).

There are Polyurethane steering rack bushings available now, which will give the 944 back the feeling that the 924's had with their solid mounted manual racks. Without the nonsense "cold flow" that delrin can be known for.

Aluminum front control arms are teh suxxorz because they aren't lighter, balljoints are uber expensive and they are prone to crack if abused. The steel arms use cheap MK1 rabbit joints and bushings, bend when abused (saving your chassis) and can be "boxed" in using some scrap steel and a welder. If you want to go to late offset, save your money for some aftermarket arms instead and lose weight while you're at it (some have adapted RX-7 arms to the 944 for example).

There's tuneable DME's available now as well as MegaSquirt PNP solutions. This is good since the 944's engine really needs a little help in the ignition curve department to wake it up at higher RPM's. Otherwise, outside of going to ITB's, crazy cams, more displacement, etc. there isn't too much left to get out of the venerable 2.5L without forcing the air in the cylinders.

An interesting thing that I see a lot Is that the later cars have the DME in the passenger side foot well and they get wet much easier and they really don't like that. The early cars have them up under the dash by the steering column. Much better place. I don't understand why Porsche changed that.

Relocate the battery and fix the battery tray and that problem goes away.

One of the issues with the 924/944 which apparently carried over from the design of the 914 was stoopid battery tray designs.

turboswede wrote: Relocate the battery and fix the battery tray and that problem goes away. One of the issues with the 924/944 which apparently carried over from the design of the 914 was stoopid battery tray designs.

I just fixed mine. The problem is that it appears that three or four pieces of sheet metal come together. It is the perfect storm for rust to form.

Also make sure you clean the drain holes. There are three of them. If you don't you will get water in the air intake but even worse than that is that you will submerge the wiper motor and it does not take well to that.

turboswede wrote: In reply to 16vCorey: There's tuneable DME's available now as well as MegaSquirt PNP solutions. This is good since the 944's engine really needs a little help in the ignition curve department to wake it up at higher RPM's. Otherwise, outside of going to ITB's, crazy cams, more displacement, etc. there isn't too much left to get out of the venerable 2.5L without forcing the air in the cylinders.

I don't think they have a P&P for the early cars yet. Could be wrong on that but I don't think they have got around the stock speed and reference sensors. The later cars have P&P

In reply to dean1484:

Yes, but in the context of "updating" that was discussed earlier, move the car to the later DME and AFM, enjoy a tuned chip for a while then move to PNP when you're ready.

dean1484 wrote: An interesting thing that I see a lot Is that the later cars have the DME in the passenger side foot well and they get wet much easier and they really don't like that. The early cars have them up under the dash by the steering column. Much better place. I don't understand why Porsche changed that.

Agreed. That was a terrible, TERRIBLE idea of theirs. Sure, keeping the drains cleaned and keeping an eye on the battery try should keep the DME dry, but as much as the sunroofs and hatches leak, it's still mounted a little low for my liking in the later cars.

dean1484 wrote: The real answer is to convert to a MAF setup.

Agreed. I've heard good things about the Rogue MAF conversion, but you need the late DME with a 28 pin prom to use it. I'm seriously considering going that route.

And I was unaware of any Megasquirt PNPs yet. I thought that the speed/reference sensors were a problem with that on the early and late cars. I'll have to look into that if that's an option now.

OK, I just checked and it looks like there is still no PNP for the base 944, early or late. The only one available is for the 944S, which makes sense since the DOHC engine has a standard crank sensor and not the speed and reference sensor set up.

I seemed to have opened a bit of 944 discussion....if I had a decent budget I would start into it-but I dont

So I am gonna clean clean clean; bring the fluids up to date; and drive it! Need to check into some front wheel bearings, little more play than I would like noticed when putting on tires. Found some paint on rubber trim; passenger floor still gets soaked when washing; have some details to sort.

But it drives nice. Going to take it easy on it for the first week (15 mile commute) but shows no scary signs yet. Good power, mushy suspension-front struts mostly-came with a new pair of Monroe crap inserts; might have to use those until I can get some funds together for Konis.

It puts a smile on my face! A good friend of mine told me with cars, I go looking for the librarian and come home with the stripper. With herpes.

So true

Gratuitous fresh out of the shower pic

appreciate all the guidance and feedback!

Nice! Just drive it and enjoy it for as long as you can! But when the mod bug bites, there's plenty of good info here to send you down the right path.

Let me know if you need any parts, as I've parted out a couple of them out. I don't have a lot left, but you never know.

Lucky you, you've got a rotted battery box. Have fun with that. POR15, fiberglass and bedliner should patch it up well enough to get by.

Parking it nose down helps the area drain properly as well, since the drains are mostly along the firewall and most of the water from the windshield drains into the tray (like I said before, hugely stupid idea on their part).

For the leak in the battery tray. Make sure you clean all the sealant at the seams out first and inspect things really well. Get a wire brush that goes on the end of a small drill and go to town in there. I fixed mine with sheet metal set in moisture cured urethane construction adhesive designed for metal. Then painted it up and you can not tell I made a repair. Took a bit of old fashion metal forming with a mallet and a been bag but it came out really nice.

Also the front bearing tension is a service item. Read the shop manual for how to properly adjust them. They are a lot looser than you think they should be. Also if you re pack them stay away from modern synthetic grease. It does not "melt" at operating temp like standard grease does. I learned the hard way on this one. Went back to good old fashion bearing grease made for European cars and I have not had any more issues with bearings.