Bringing the 944 turbo into the 21st century

[Tom]

What do you do for lifter these days Chris?

[chris white]

if the old ones worked I reuse them. the new ones are a crap shoot.
I have a ton of old ones around that I can clean up a recondition.
I still have 16 brand new factory lifters I bought just before the price went insane....nicely stored in oil waiting for the right project.

[Tom]

Last I checked, the INA-branded ones were NLA, so you can't even play craps with them anymore. (They've been going strong on my 3L for 30k miles.) The last time I checked, Porsche still has some of theirs, but they cost more than a good set of pistons!

[chris white]

I was quoting a project the other day and the customer asked for all new lifters….I told him that would be over $1k just for the lifters!

[cda951]

This has been an interesting discussion, but it has devolved into some of the typical bickering that has long plagued the 951 forum community (I started reading Rennlist when I was in high school in the early 2000s, it was way worse back then!).

But, to keep this on track with the "21st century" stuff, I would definitely encourage those on the fence about engine management to take the plunge and go full standalone. Do your research. HP Academy is a great place to start. There are a lot of great options out there. Oftentimes the best approach is to go for who will give you the best local support, and for that @chris white is a great option.

Because my own 951's wiring harness is/was a known good entity, I went with the VEMS "plug and play" route, and it worked out great, but that is because I did a lot of research about standalone engine management and tuning beforehand, and being a professional Porsche diagnostic tech also helps . I have had decent support from Peep when I have questions, but I went into it knowing that might not be perfect given his one man band status and the time zone differences.

No matter which engine management system you choose, the 944 Turbo is an ideal platform for adding such a system, because unlike with modern cars, there are no other factory electronic control modules to interface with, stock instrument cluster will be fully functional, plus things like radiator fan control and cruise control are external from the factory DME, so those items do not need to be wired in or reconfigured. A bump up in idle for A/C compressor clutch activation is a one-wire job!

We can also start a separate thread on this page for anyone having setup or tuning issues----sure, each engine management system has different software and the like, but an 8V 944 engine is among the easier platforms to set up (no E-throttle or variable camshaft timing systems, etc to set up), so a lot of the potential issues are relevant to most.

[Tom]

I was quoting a project the other day and the customer asked for all new lifters….I told him that would be over $1k just for the lifters!

Check recent dealer pricing. It's close to $2k for a set of 8 these days!

[Tom]

This has been an interesting discussion, but it has devolved into some of the typical bickering that has long plagued the 951 forum community (I started reading Rennlist when I was in high school in the early 2000s, it was way worse back then!).

But, to keep this on track with the "21st century" stuff, I would definitely encourage those on the fence about engine management to take the plunge and go full standalone. Do your research. HP Academy is a great place to start. There are a lot of great options out there. Oftentimes the best approach is to go for who will give you the best local support, and for that @chris white is a great option.

Because my own 951's wiring harness is/was a known good entity, I went with the VEMS "plug and play" route, and it worked out great, but that is because I did a lot of research about standalone engine management and tuning beforehand, and being a professional Porsche diagnostic tech also helps . I have had decent support from Peep when I have questions, but I went into it knowing that might not be perfect given his one man band status and the time zone differences.

No matter which engine management system you choose, the 944 Turbo is an ideal platform for adding such a system, because unlike with modern cars, there are no other factory electronic control modules to interface with, stock instrument cluster will be fully functional, plus things like radiator fan control and cruise control are external from the factory DME, so those items do not need to be wired in or reconfigured. A bump up in idle for A/C compressor clutch activation is a one-wire job!

We can also start a separate thread on this page for anyone having setup or tuning issues----sure, each engine management system has different software and the like, but an 8V 944 engine is among the easier platforms to set up (no E-throttle or variable camshaft timing systems, etc to set up), so a lot of the potential issues are relevant to most.

Are you able to drive the factory boost gauge with the VEMS? I'm going to make a new batch of SpeedoBoosters fairly soon if not.

[chris white]

I can drive the factory boost gauge with the link system, I usually program it so that 1 bar on the gauge is 1 bar of boost. Easy enough to configure how ever you want.

[cda951]

Are you able to drive the factory boost gauge with the VEMS? I'm going to make a new batch of SpeedoBoosters fairly soon if not.

I can drive the factory boost gauge with the link system, I usually program it so that 1 bar on the gauge is 1 bar of boost. Easy enough to configure how ever you want.

Interestingly, after I installed the VEMS system (KLR boost line is plugged straight into the VEMS ECU, has built-in MAP sensor), the factory gauge would read as @chris white describes, by showing gauge pressure instead of absolute pressure. This was actually OK with me, so I have never bothered to look into why this is.

But, it is nice to read engine vacuum as well . . . . . . what's the deal with the SpeedoBooster again?

[Tom]

See the video here:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=68&p=377&hilit=speedobooster#p377