My Porsche 944 S2 – Project Log

[Wizardskills]

About a month ago I purchased a 944 S2 mainly as a weekend toy to use alongside my GT6 but also as a car that I could use everyday when I wanted a change from my Abarth. It took months of searching (4 to be exact) to find this car. I wasn't set on an S2 when I started my search as I was open to any of the models. I “test drove” a '86 turbo for 500m and then the gearbox gave up and saw some others but they were all in quite bad condition despite the pictures looking good on the adverts (there is a lot of rubbish out there). After travelling over most of the south of England most weekends over 4 months this one came up for sale 5 miles down the road from where I live (bloody typical). I snapped it up straight away as one this good, for the price I paid for it, doesn't stay around long.

The car is a standard 944 S2 with a couple of options (Extended cloth seats, upgraded stereo which has been taken out I think) and 127k on the clock. It also still has its original tool kit, tyre compressor and spare wheel which are quite hard to come by.

It is even has a tape deck

Needless to say as with most 23 year old cars there are a couple of things that need sorting on it but it is a very, very good base from which to start from. The car is solid with no rust on the sills and all of the paint looks original (apart from the sunroof which has been repainted). There are 23 years worth of chips on it but it cleans up well.

The car does seem to have a hot start issue. I'll drive the car for 30 mins and stop off somewhere, come back to it 2 hours later and it wont start first time. I have changed the DME relay but this had no effect so I suspect it may be some sort of thermostat issue as it was running a little hot today (first nice day of the year). So this is something I'll have to look into. I have also purchased a box of goodies which includes:

• A new accelerator cable clip
• Rear boot hatch seal
• Rear lock seal
• A book of specs (threads and tourques of certain bolts nuts etc...)
• Touch up paint
• Some new front bulbs

I'll try and keep this thread up to date with the latest work on the car and hopefully it will make an appearance at the rolling road day in two weeks time

 

[Wizardskills]

That looks superb for the age, what kind of spec/engine is it?

Be good to see it at the RR.

Cheers. It has a 3 litre, 16v, 4 pot in it. 208 bhp @ 5800 rpm, 207 lb/ft @ 4100 rpm and 6400 rpm red line. Not sure it still has that power now but it certainly isn't slow. I'd guess 60 would come up in around 6.5/7 seconds ish. Weight is around 1300kg dry. Its quite a lazy engine and gives more of a surging pull up to about 4k and after that it becomes a bit more alive .

I love 944s and that looks really nice, congrats. Gas that Porsche were still able to get away with those seats into the 90s though!

Haha yeah, I love the seats, the pin strip is so 80's . Surprisingly they are the same shape as the seats in my dads Cayman. I would have thought Porsche would have changed their seat design over the last 20 odd years!

 

[Wizardskills]

2 hours after running wouldn't really class that as a warm start issue, but it may affect it when warm as it sounds like the heat is causing a vapour lock in the fuel line accounting for the warm start. Might be that it is running hot and heat soak post run causing it?

Change the plus and clean the injectors then go from there I would suggest.

Nice car, great to get one in such good condition, easier to fix mechanical issues rather than interior and bodywork imho.

Yes that could also be the issue as an engine running lean also tends to run a little warm. Fuel pressure regulators do sometimes fail on 944s so I'll have to look into that as well. Taking a look at the plugs though should tell if it is running lean.

 

[Wizardskills]

Great car, driven a friends a few times...impressively torquey for a 4 pot!

Have you worked out how to reset the milometer yet? Took us forever to work it out!

Haha no. I have wondered where that is as it isn't on the instrument cluster. I'll have a better look in a bit .

 

[Wizardskills]

Time for a thread update I think

I've had the 944 for around 10 months now and covered about 3200 miles in it. It's running really well and it is feeling like it is getting better the more I use it, probably because it is actually being used on a regular basis. I have been really surprised at just how usable the car is day to day. Its ride is fantastic for a sport car and the balance it has round corners really makes it an enjoyable drive when pushing on. While I not really concerned about the fuel consumption it has been returning me a solid 28 mpg which I was quite happy about considering how old the car was. However, filling up can be painful on the wallet as it has a 85 liter fuel tank .

I managed to find out what the “hot start” issue was. Turns out it is nothing mechanical or to with the engine. Its the old alarm/immobiliser system. I think there is some kind of earth on in the drivers side door as the car will start without fail if the drivers side door is left open. I'll get it looked into at some point as it would be nice to keep the original alarm system on it. But for the time being it's not too much of a hassle to leave the door open when starting the car.

Replacing the rear seal on the glass hatch has stopped the squeaks coming from that area. I've also had the sides and rear of the car resprayed as there was some small areas of rust forming in sill end of the arches (This can be seen in the last picture in the OP). This also had the bonus of clearing up 23 years of car park chips down each side of the car so it looks awesome now. All in the repaint cost £900 from a local body shop which I thought wasn't too bad.

The next job on the car is to get some new tyres for it and get a full suspension geometry done. While it handles great now, this will hopefully sharpen everything up so it is as good as it can be. The other thing that I have been meaning to do is to fix the digital clock in the dash. These always break on the 944 and 968 but they cost £300 new from Porsche. Needles to say I wasn't paying that so I've got a kit from eBay to fix it for £40. Hopefully it wont be a fiddly job .

One of the other things that was bothering about having an older car was the lack of Bluetooth in it. I didn't really want the replace the stereo as it looks quite cool so I managed to find a Bluetooth cassette adapter. This allows me to take phone call hands free and also stream music from my phone through the car speakers.

However, to get the full 80's experience I also had to purchase some old cassettes

Here is how the car is looking now:

 

[Wizardskills]

Love it, 3 litre 4 pot is pretty rare (as in not many use it) isn't it? 750cc per cylinder is pretty big

Yeah large 4 cylinders engines are quite rare in car. I think this engine porsche used was the largest mass produced car 4 cylinder. Nearly all other large 4 cylinder engines are used for agriculture and marine applications where smoothness are not high on the priority list.

Is that little brickhill?

Well spotted

 

[Wizardskills]

Love it. I almost bought one this year but my indecision lost a 3 owner white almost immaculate 944S2 for around £5k. I may look again next year.

Keep looking, the right one will come up at some point .