I am new to this forum and would like opinions for modifying my 944 Turbo. The car is 1986 model, European delivery bone stock with all maintenance up to speed. Would like to modify in the Wolf in Sheep's Clothing mode, nothing drastic on the exterior. Goal is dual purpose street/track machine. Any suggesstions would be most appreciated.

 

What are your hp goals with the car? As far as turbo and tuning goes, talk to John at Vitesse Racing. I think it is vitesseracing.com. He can give you anything from a mild chip, to over 400whp with one of his kits. If you want to upgrade the turbo, you will want injectors, a Maf, and the appropriate tuning. John sells everything together ready to bolt on.

As far as suspension goes, there are a bunch of options there, it just depends on where you want to take the car. Upgrade to 968 M030 sway bars front and rear is a nice upgrade for the street with occasional DE use.

Lots of different options, just need to figure out how you want to use the car.

 

Thanks Doc.
My goal is 300 + or - HP with no visible changes except exhaust, I am leaning towards the 3 inch Fabspeed. I have made a few upgrades over the past 6 months. Autothority Stage II chip, Weltmeister sway bars front and rear, 28mm & 22mm, Yellow Koni's F&R. Going to work on the braking system next and go to larger Fuchs, 8's in front and 9's rear with Michelins. Any idea what I could expect by adding the Fabspeed exhaust to these modifications?
Is your car strictly race or is it dual purpose?

 

The big gain in going to a bigger exhaust is deletion of the catalytic converter. Hopefully you live in a state where you can do that Otherwise, you will need to use a high flow cat. I would expect about 20-25hp from the exhaust, I run the fabspeed system, and it is very high quality.

My car is driven on nice days when I can see what I am driving over, but mostly it is a track car now. The suspension is pretty rough for the street anymore, 500lb springs in the front, and 650's in the rear with welts 28 and 22's like you, and solid bushings. As long as I can see the big cracks in the road and potholes in good weather, I can avoid them, lol.

 

i'm w/ doc on the basic upgrades-- yet one other item i like to change out is the stock diverter valve. they fail just to often for my liking. forge valves seem to hold up well. if you stay w/ a stock valve, try to get the valve from a later porsche turbo. they have metal valves as opposed to plastic ones.

 

Yea, good call. Definitely upgrade to a billet unit. The later Porsche units fail just as much as the previous version did.

 

Thanks for the advice. Please forgive my ignorance, I have been modifying and tracking my 911, the Turbo is new to me. What is the valve you are talkng about and where can I buy it? Is it a tough install? I have ordered stainless brake lines, Zimmerman cros drilled rotors, PFC pads and ATE blue, pretty basic stuff but nice upgrades. How loud is the Fabspeed exhaust?

 

the valve doc and i speak of is located right before the turbo inlet on the driver's side of the car. it is in the rubber intake boot that goes from the mass air flow meter to turbo inlet. it is held on w/ 2 hose clamps(flat head or 7mm) , and have a vacuum line going to the top. It will take a whole 5 minutes to change, but will make a world of difference if it is indeed bad.

An easy way to check it is to remove it from the car. push in on the valve w/ your finger or a screw driver (this will be the opposite end of the vacuum line side). while you push in on the valve, put a finger on the vacuum nipple. your finger on the nipple should hold the valve open. if it closes shut w/ your finger on the valve, diaphragm is ripped.

here is what the valve looks like--


you can purchase the baileys diverter valve from any shop really. i'd recommend a.w.e. tuning. Mike @ awe has always been more than helpful on anything i have ordered. besides, you can eat the lollipop they pack in the order in the time it takes you to change the part.

i have heard one fabspeed exhaust in person. it sounded good. However, I am a fan of the biggest sized pipe that i can possibly fit from the turbo back sans any muffler or cat. granted, this is not feasable/applicable everywhere due to emissions. thankfully on my cars i have ways around it. nothing beats the sound of an open dump wastegate or the whirl sound of the compressor wheel spooling up through the exhaust.

you deffinitely picked a nice car for dual duty. i think you will end up enjoying it more than your 911. The car is hard to beat for the money, and truely can be driven daily. This is possibly the best kept secret in porsche.

 

Thanks for the photo and description. Any advantage to replacing the airbox with an open filter? I think I will be content after the brake work, Fabspeed exhaust and will then focus on reliability issues. Iwill look for dyno time to confirm what I think is 275 HP after the Autothority chip and exhaust. What other "tricks" are out there for reliability issues for 1986 Turbo's?
Thanks again.

 

too many to list

 

These cars are so much fun to tune and are timeless.

 

i'd tackle reliability issues first. i lump maintenance in with reliability. im a stickler for building a car that does not break down. granted, when you run a car hard--you are bound to have something go wrong eventually. however, i want that to be the exception, not the rule. so any oil leaks, or loose suspension pieces as well as t-belt water pump are 1st on my list.

now once you start upping the ante and going for more power, you will have bearing issues. im sure this is documented online somewhere about the failures at higher hp levels. to me, this is a blessing in disguise. as im looking forward to building a 968/944 hybrid engine.

believe it or not, i'd keep the oem air box w/ a k&n drop in. 2 reasons why. 1) i find alot of tire "worms" in the stock airbox after track days. this tells me that the filter/box is doing its job--keeping debris out of the engine. 2) im not a fan of haviing any type of cone filter underhood due to heat soak. only exception to this rule i have is my drag cars--which use no protection b/c they go 1/4 mile at a time.

 

Also, if you just pull the vacuum line off the top of the valve, you can just suck on the port. If you can suck through it, the valve is shot, and you probably aren't seeing your full boost. If you suck on it, and it holds vacuum, then it is still good. I run the EvoMS unit in my car, and forge makes a good unit as well.

Cone filter aren't good, as they suck in hot air from the engine bay, so any gains by using the high flow filter, are lost because you are sucking in hot air. The stock airbox pulls cold air from the fender, so it is a pretty good design. Now a MAF kit gets rid of the ancient stock AFM meter, and uses a MAF meter with a cone filter behind the headlight bucket. The gains from upgrading to the MAF outshadow the deficit of sucking in hot air, so in the end, you still make power. I have the bottom of the headlight bucket removed, and m MAF filter is stuck down there at 90 degrees, so it gets cold air from the front grill. On a stock car you won't be able to do this as the AC drier and horns are in the way.

 

Thanks for the help. I have included pictures of my car.

 

Thanks again, pretty stock, but clean.