Living with a Porsche 944

A trip to the Ace Cafe is always a welcome excursion and being the first time I drove TheHoff for anything further than the recent trip to the MOT station down the road. First things first though - some Vpower... All in all I did 150 miles there and back and it was a thrill - I even managed to miss all the M25 crashes and tail backs...I'm very happy to say that my 944 drove like a dream, sounds fantastic on the open road, sits just right and is all I hoped it would perform like after being off the road for 4 years almost to the day. STOKED. The conundrum now is how much more do I do to TheHoff - I had some more mods planned to make this 944 a lighter weight "Club Sport" but after driving a good distance and considering how immaculate the interior is, I'm having some major reservations about stripping stuff out like the carpets. I'm going to have to think of a compromise because I've got the hankering to build...

Fixed another one of those little things - the glove compartment light. As it turns out the bulb is not something your local motor factors or Halfords carry - it's 29mm x 7mm 12v 3w Festoon bulb that eBay offered up thankfully. One moment later...  The final part to fit was the anti-roll bar and assorted clamps - many moons ago now I had a lot of the old parts powder coated in accordance with a strict policy that reflected "eighties excess". It makes me chuckle thinking that on the outside this 944 looks stock but under the skin it's all a little crazy and fun. Anyway back to the ARB bits...   The problem was that the middle clamps had become distorted - not sure when but I'm pretty certain I wouldn't have sent them to powder like that. So I got some new ones from my OPC with a set of OEM rubber bushes as you can see on the right.   The trick to fitting the sway bar end mount bushes is - freshly boiled hot water to soften the rubber and ...

Quite a satisfying afternoon today! Fitted a replacement LCD to my "never worked while I've had it" digital dash clock. Was a bit fiddly taking the unit apart and placing the new screen. At first there was no life after connecting it to the wire behind the dash, but the fuse had gone...replaced that and hey presto! Working digital dash clock at long last! Now to finish off the anti-roll bar!

What a momentous moment an MOT can be! At 203,757 miles my Porsche 944 is now road legal again. The last MOT test was November 2010 - that's a fair amount of water under the bridge, and an enormous amount of joy and frustrations along the way to get TheHoff to this point where I can cruise the tarmac again. After the MOT was completed the wheel geometry was checked and all alignments done. I have got to say that the 944 got a lot of looks and everyone in the workshop come over at some point to give TheHoff a looking over - especially when they saw the colourful goings on underneath, all the new suspension components and, heard the rumble and burble from the exhaust. Lots of appreciative comments and a reassuring "She's totally solid mate"! This is the first time I've had the pleasure of driving this Porsche 944 on the road in more than 3 years - the sense of satisfaction and pure driving enjoyment has made the journey worth it...

After sorting the S2 intake bits it was time to find and fit a new air filter. The original air filter position on the S is underneath the front badge panel - a rather awkward place when it comes to replacement. I'd therefore elected to fit mine behind the NS headlight and after some careful measuring found an ideal candidate in a foam filter from RAMAIR. Positioned where it is should ensure it gets some cold air from the large hole in the side panel. I plan to make a heat shield of some sort to enclose it too.

Now that I'm passed the "I want to take a sledgehammer to it" stage of this project and have driven the car up and down the driveway loosening up the callipers - it looks like I could do an MOT once I've solved the induction & air filter position and then refitted the bonnet. I bought another set of green top injectors off eBay - but only one of them worked properly but thankfully I only needed one to get the engine running smoothly again. I'll send the spare set of for cleaning at some point in the coming months ready for springtime installation. I knew for sure that the #4 cylinder was firing because the exhaust wrap started to steam and bake on! The other three headers had baked on ages ago - I didn't notice at the time that fourth one wasn't heating up and steaming. I've started to fit the intake pieces now so I can find the best and most convenient place for the intake filter - remember I have installed an 3.0 S2 intake on an 2.5 S motor...

After an enormously frustrating time trying resolve why the engine wouldn't rev above 1600rpm - the problem is now sorted! After testing just about everything I could test this weekend has proven to be a breakthrough one. Some suggestions from forum members on tipec helped chase the problem down to something to do with the throttle position sensor. Along the way I tested the fuel pressure which turned out to be good, as did various other sensors. Although multimeter tests on the TPS proved it was healthy, the same readings were not being translated through to the DME connector end of the wiring loom. I realised that much earlier in the project cycle I had to extend the length of the wiring for the TPS in order to fit the S2 intake and throttle body. Pulling the loom out from under the intake I could check the wiring and it was clear that it was a little more elastic than it should've been - and sure enough the connectors had come adrift essentially isolati...