Hows it going,
My name is jeff. im new to this forum. Ive very interrested in buying a 86-89 944 turbo, I dont know a whole hell of alot about them.. ive just been doing some research on them and what not.
I got a few questions about them if someone could kindaly answer them for me.
What are the most common problems with them and are they hard to fix.?
How much boost can the stock motor hold, and whats the turbos max boost safley?
Is it really involved to do basic bolt ons w/o running into serious problems? What basic bolt-ons should i do?
I heard the headgaskets really suck and blow out alot is this true?
.... Also what kinda mileage is decent for these cars to run on, with bolt-ons?
and whats the normal going price for a decent 944 turbo..

Ive built a sr20det s13, e36 bimmer, and hand full of hondas..
I love the 944 turbos, i can work on cars very well, im not stupid.. :].. Id really like to get in to one soon.. Just looking at what im getting myself into..
Thx
Jeff

 

Jeff, I've had 2, an '89 'S' and and my current one, an '88 non-'S'. The most common problems usually aren't with the drive train, but ancillaries like sunroof gears, power steering pump leaks, lower a-arms (ball joint) and hatch glass rattling/needing resealing. None of these are hard to fix, they're all well known and they will happen. The problems that do occur with the drive train are frequently caused by inept or lack of maintenance and 'upgrades'. If you buy a car with it's original clutch, plan on replacing it, soon. Also plan on replacing the timing and balance shaft belts, unless they were just done. You don't want to be on borrowed time with those.
The professional mechanics I deal with in Houston all agree the motor can safely handle 1 to 1.2 bar boost without any problems, any more than that and you do run a chance of blowing the head gasket. The head gaskets don't necessarily suck, but many have been subjected to abuse, hence their reputation.
There's a whole world of aftermarket upgrades which allegedley bolt-on. Check out turbo944.com > turbotechbase > 16 top upgrades. I just installed the Lindsey Racing 300rwhp kit on my '88. I did a dyno test before installation and will do the post-install dyno this week, I'll let you know the results. The kit included a 3bar fuel regulator, which seems to have quite an impact on mileage, I was getting 23mpg with the oem. I'll get the numbers on that as well.
I paid $13,500 for my turboS 8 years ago and sold it for $18,000 2 years later, but it was a mint low mileage garage queen. I paid $11,00 for my current one 3 years ago and have put about $3k into it. Buy the most expensive/best maintained one you can afford, unless you intend to tear it apart. I wouldn't touch a car that didn't have service records, preferably from Porsche specialists. There's a wide range of pricing out there, a good one should be between $8 and 12k. hope that helps and good luck. They're great cars.

 

Thx alot, you answered all my questions, i was gonna say i will have about 8k to play with, im hopingi can find a decent 944 for the money, also is there any year thats better then the other i kno the 89 1/2's? i think had a beter turbo made more power too and had a 28 pin chip from the 26 pin, is there any year with any other quirks that the other years didnt have? also most are open diff correct? and is there an afordable lsd rear available? Also do the rear subframes have any problems like the e36 bmws have i kno i tore mine out the 3rd day i had it... :[
Sorry for all the questions :]
-Jeff

 

The 1988 Turbo S and the 1989 Turbo (S designation dropped because they did not make the non-S that year) had a K26/8 turbo (versus the non S k26/6), which made about 247hp.

LSD was an option on all cars, but standard of the turbo S. Option code is 220 listed on the sticker, but with being 20 years old and parts getting swapped out, the only way to know for sure is to raise the rear end and spin the rear tires and see if they turn in the same direction.

Plan on a minimum of $1000 in parts per year to just keep the car on the road for the first couple of years. If you can do your own work, you can pretty much work through anything, but if you have to pay a shop, you will go broke in a heartbeat (ie, clutch is a 16-20 hour job depending on style of crossover pipe, waterpump/belts are 10 hours, headgasket 13, etc).

Typically guys will run 15-17psi safely with a fresh gasket. It isn't that the gaskets are bad, but if they haven't been replaced in 20 years and you crank the boost, it is the weak link that will fail. Put in a new gasket and you won't have to worry about it.