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944 Turbo S - Project Time


eldavo69
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Well, as my 1988 944 2.7 died a death the replacement arrived last Friday, a 1988 944 Turbo S.

The Turbo S had the lighter weight of the earlier 220bhp Turbo but came with medium black Brembo brakes, M030 suspension and 250bhp. This one has KW Clubsport suspension, 968 M030 roll bars front and rear, a boost enhancer, no interior and Michelin Pilot Cup tyres.

There is an enormous folder of receipts right back to the original invoice for £42k and the car has been used as a trackday car but with no expense spared. The receipt from last year for £400 at Ninemeister for corner weighting and geometry tells you that!

However, my plan is to convert it to a fast road spec rather than all out track weapon. I'll be putting a little bit of weight back in (and no I don't mean me) but will tweak the power to compensate too.

Here she is in the advert:

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And sat on my drive next to the 2.7:

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The 2.7 is lowered but this is really low:

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The first job was to remove the fixed bucket seat as it needed moving backwards for me anyway:

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You can see a bit of the sound deadening glue remains. The sound deadening weighs about 25-30 kilos and is a nightmare to remove so I'm quite happy someone else has done the hard work. The carpets weigh very little in comparison so they'll be going back in to provide some noise reduction and also look a bit better:

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Seat and mounts removed, now to get this stucco aluminium plate out too:

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Oh joy of joys, it's stuck down with Tiger Seal, a job for Mr Crowbar, Mr Chisel and Mr BFH:

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Yay, out and scraping the Tiger Seal off:

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Just needs a Hoover and a degrease:

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Meanwhile, the guy that bought my 2.7 gave me a set of carpets in good nick but they were Burgundy:

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First spray coat of black carpet dye done, it'll need another to be passable:

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Now to attack the windows. The electric window mechanisms had been swapped out for manual ones. I've got the electric ones but they weigh a ton so I'll stick with the very lightweight manual ones. Plexi-glass windows had also been fitted but they were too narrow for the window channels and were flexible so if open when moving they popped out a bit and wouldn't go back in properly. There are also 2 positions to mount the window winder, one allows the window to go all the way down but fouls the dashboard with the door shut. The other position clears the dashboard but the window stays sticking up an inch when "fully" open. They were in the first position and I figured I'd rather them stick up an inch than have to open the door every time I wanted to open the window!

The door cards had been removed and black ABS plastic cut to shape. I have plans here for fibreglass or carbon door cards so watch this space. Anyway here is the driver's door with plexi-glass window:

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Door card removed:

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2 positions for the winder mechanism, needs to be in the lower bolt holes:

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Removed the mechanism and the window, swapped the runner back onto the proper glass window and put it all back together. Just need to do the other side and get some lightweight door cards.

Here is the 2.7 being towed away to its new home ready for an engine swap:

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Finally, removed the footrest and accelerator to test fit the carpets. Just need to pick up some spray glue and start to get them refitted once each section has been dyed:

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I do have a set of 7mm spacers to go on front and rear actually. Can't go any wider or the tyres will scrub.

Currently levitating as the wheels are being refurbed in Gloss Black. I then have black stone chip guards to go on along with replacing the "Turbo" wing decal that is on the original invoice as an extra for £29.

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Was looking at brake cooling but the car already has the ducts fitted in the bumper:

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So I'll remove the air deflection plates from the struts and give them a coat of paint just because:

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Somewhere down the line I'll get the Calipers powder coated and any plate lift issues seen to, but for now they're ok:

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Dyed half the next piece of carpet too, once this is done I can refit the driver's side carpets and put the seat back in. Will probably change the driver's harness for a 6 point one in the not too distant future so will mark up the crotch-strap points for welding in the plates:

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Decided to fit my Magnecor KV85 HT leads too:

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There's a slight oil leak from the front of the cam tower gasket but I've got a MLS replacement so when I do that I'll get the intake manifold aqua blasted and paint/powder coat the cam tower - am thinking black this time. Also need to replace the old vacuum hard lines with new silicone ones, will probably use red then they're easier to see if they come off under boost.

Area for the washer bottle needs a clean and degrease. The massive original reservoir with 2 x pumps (windscreen and headlights) has gone as I've ordered a 1.2l racing one from a 964 with a lightweight 996 pump to go in here:

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Needed to remove the centre console to be able to start fitting the carpet so decided to sort out the gauges, etc.

Pulled the console and clusters out to reveal a viper's nest of wires:

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A real mess with the gauge wires all over the place and held together by insulation tape:

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Cracked out the screw-down connectors and twisted the wires together:

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The gauges are a boost gauge and an oil pressure gauge. The boost gauge will stay as its much more accurate than the one on the dash but the oil pressure gauge is a bit superfluous.

I've ordered a 2mm thick Carbon Fibre plate to mount the boost gauge in, it'll also give me the flexibility to add other things as necessary such as AFR, TPMS and a manual boost control.

Spent quite a while zip tying unused wire bundles together neatly too. Tempted to cut them out but I want there to always be the option of putting the electric mirrors, windows and rear wiper back in if anyone every wanted to at any time in the future.

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Yes. Oil pressure gauge was added last year apparently as the dash one had stopped working. The guy then fixed the dash one so the aftermarket gauge just sits there with the warning light on as the feed wire is back in the dash.

Dashboard oil pressure gauge is reasonably accurate in bar. Dashboard boost gauge is in atmospheres and very inaccurate, aftermarket one is in psi and much more useful.

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More headway with the interior and some bits in the post too.

The Bosch recirculating dump valve is plastic and leaks over time allowing boost to tail off prematurely:

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I picked up a used Bailey DV30 as often used in the VAG 1.8T engines off eBay at the weekend and dropped it in:

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I'm going to replace all the hard vacuum lines too.

While I was "in there" with the airbox open I saw that a K&N filter has been fitted already - nice:

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"Turbo" wing decal arrived too, will fit it properly when the car is back on its wheels and has been machine polished:

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I collected some bits from Porsche today too, small racing washer bottle and pump, rear "turbo" badge and a replacement armrest hinge, £15 plus p&p from eBay or under a tenner direct from Porsche:

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Just need to wait for my armrest lid to turn up now!

Part of the dash trim was looking a bit dull:

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Will pull all the dash trim off and paint it as I did in the old car, so a hit of primer:

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And then gloss black (still wet in the picture) will wait til it's dry and lacquer it too:

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Hoovered out the interior:

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And started to glue in the carpets:

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I really shouldn't be reading this - all it does is remind me of how much I want a 944 cabrio.

When I was 17, my boss had a deep blue 944 cab, it was the first proper sports car I ever drove, loved it, she'd bought it second hand, off a gay bodybuilder, the and registration read 'HUNK'.

As much as I enjoyed driving it, I still don't think the cab looks right though.

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