Question-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
I know that your expertise is in the 356,but i was wondering if a new exhaust on my 1984, 944 would increase the performance? If so what kind of exhaust would you recomend? What other upgrades would increase the performance economically? And are there any body kits avaible for the 944?
Thanks
Answer -
Hi Chris.
It would be helpful to know if your car is registered in a highly smog controlled state or not. Assuming California's out of control state legislature is a 12 on a scale of 1 to 10, how does your state rank?
And are you planning to replace the catalytic converter at the same time...if that change could improve performance.
Waiting to hear from you.
Dave
I live in PA and they are now just beging to have an inspection on emissions. I am not competely sure what the exact standardds are.
Thanks
Chris
AnswerChris,
Thanks for the update on your smog situation. Here's what I'd suggest. Since there are so many options when it comes to exhaust systems, and for the 944 I have not explored any, what I'm going to do is pretend I was you and owned this cool 944 that needed a new exhaust system. Here's where I'd start my research:
1. Recent performance auto/truck magazines.
I just read an article in my son's April 2004 issue of Chevy High Performance. (chevyhiperformance.com). The article dyno tested four different sized and different styled headers for a small block Chevy. Now some Porsche guys hate anything to do with Chevys, but here's what I want to do. Understand how the size of the header tubes and the length of the tubes matters when it comes to torque vs. horsepower. From that decide which type of performance upgrade I'm looking for... since there isn't a perfect world, I can't have equal performance gains in both torque and horsepower, I have to choose which bias I'd prefer. But what's the difference between torque and horsepower? I remember this same magazine a couple months ago ran an article that defined the two and described how they affected street cars and race cars. If I check other magazines oriented to performance, I'll bet they have also done articles on headers, or at least cat-back systems recently.
2. Three auto parts catalogs...hard copy...:
Performance Products
Summit Racing
Jeg's
All three are online, but their catalogs are nice to have laying around when thinking of new ideas for the car.
The first is a Porsche parts retailer, and sure enough, they have headers and exhaust systems for the 944. Knowing about header tubes sizes as I now do, (not the specific tube sizes for 350 cubic inch Chevy engines, their relative sizes), I'll think how a 1/4" inch smaller or larger tube size, longer or shorter tube length (compared first to stock and then to other aftermarket products of the same type) affect my performance. I'll probably have to ask the makers of several different headers what sizes their tubes are...most likely they will not bother to say in their ads.
For both Summit and Jeg's, I'll lay these out together and read how high performance headers and exhaust systems are described to street racers and other hot rod types. Maybe when I'm done with my research I'll go to my local Midas muffler shop and have them build a custom system with pieces from different manufacturers. That sounds like fun.
As for body kits, I quickly checked the Google.com search engine for "aero porsche" and found:
http://www.fiberwerks.com/Fiberwerks_944.htm
I'm sure there are more.
When I'm done with my research and I get my Masters Degree in Auto Exhaust I'll be hjappy to share my knowledge with anyone who asks!
Have Fun!
Dave
