944 turbo guru so cal

[951N911]

I recently purchased a 86 turbo highly modified with a 3 liter built by 944 Enhancement back east (I think Chris white?) It was done 11 years ago or so but only has approx 3000 miles since (due to owner move to west coast, kids, not able to register due to smog)

I believe it is running rich (AFR gauge is non op) plus may have a leaking head gasket (temp. fluctuations) and need to find someone that is knowledgeable with turbos for one and is hopefully skilled with modified ones so I can get this repaired and set up correctly maybe on a dyno.

PS i have already replaced the belts and O2 sensor my self but don't have time of desire to do head gasket

Thanks Todd

[Larry C]

Hi Todd,
Thanks for joining Carpokes and posting a question. We have a bunch of 944 folks on Carpokes so you should be getting some responses. Paging @Tom
Best,
Larry

[Tom]

I recently purchased a 86 turbo highly modified with a 3 liter built by 944 Enhancement back east (I think Chris white?) It was done 11 years ago or so but only has approx 3000 miles since (due to owner move to west coast, kids, not able to register due to smog)

I believe it is running rich (AFR gauge is non op) plus may have a leaking head gasket (temp. fluctuations) and need to find someone that is knowledgeable with turbos for one and is hopefully skilled with modified ones so I can get this repaired and set up correctly maybe on a dyno.

PS i have already replaced the belts and O2 sensor my self but don't have time of desire to do head gasket

Thanks Todd

We have a guy here who might know a little about your motor.... @chris white

Temp fluctuations could be as simple as air in the system. Have you tried venting it? Is there a mocha-colored goo in your oil filler cap and/or does the car spit up coolant after a hard drive?

[951N911]

Thanks for the replies, I have not tried venting it, no mocha and does not spit coolant. However when I remove the cap I think I see it bubbling a little and slight smoke, not 100 percent

[chris white]

who was the original owner? That way I can look up the specs to see what was done to it.

[chris white]

the bubbling you see may be the turbo coolant pump doing its thing, it recirculates coolant from the expansion tank to the turbo and back. its electric and runs for a little while after you stop the engine.
Probably not smoke - if the thread gasket were bad enough to get smoke into the expansion tank it would be puking out lots of coolant too. As Tom said - it may just need to be bled correctly (which is a bit of a pain in the ass). Its worth getting a radiator pressure testing tool so that you can pressure bleed the system from the expansion tank.

[951N911]

Hi Chris,

Thank you for the reply, the OG previous owner was Huga Ma. the paperwork I have says rebuilt in 2011 and from receipts and amazingly very low miles since (odometer does work and no signs of lapse) I have a binder of documentation.

I have only driven the car 250 miles mostly freeway here in so cal. and temps were 190-200 cruising with A/C on and would go up to 210 after a few hard pulls. However last week I drove to work in traffic and in the afternoon in bumper to bumper saw 215-220 (it was 90 degrees here) and this scared me plus it seems to go up and down pretty regularly depending on driving style etc.

[chris white]

OK, I remember Hugh's project. that one had the combined radiator/oil cooler from Wizzard Cooling. his car always ran a little on the hot side. I had that issues on a small percentage of those radiators (including my own 968 turbo!). I eventually swapped out that radiator on my car and is ran perfect with a stock radiator. I did a ton of testing on mine and never found the 'smoking gun' for the higher temps. The Wizzard radiator is way bigger than stock and should do the job and on 80% of the installs it worked great. Its easy enough to swap out the radiator but you will have to add an oil cooler.

[951N911]

Wow, thank you so much for the information! I will start looking into a new radiator and cooler. Is it ok if it hits 215-220 occasionally? (ie should I drive it anymore before replacing the radiator?) Also do you happen to know approx what kind of power this set up made? Hugh was very vague and just said a lot. lol

I am trying to get a lap top set up to work with older system so it can be tuned as it does seem to be running on the rich side.

[chris white]

Your engine is a 3 liter with Darton MID sleeves, Wossner custom pistons, lightened crank, Aluminum flywheel, Windage Tray, haltech Sport 1000, bigger injectors, Prosport gauges, eboost 2 boost controller. Looks like a Spec clutch. Way back then it also had Evans Coolant - which can run very high temps and not fail - but it also tends to run hotter. That may not be in there any more, it was a long time ago!
220 is not really bad, it would be nice to be cooler but that wont do any damage. If the hoses were 30 years old that might be an issues but all the hoses were replaced during the build.