924Board.org

[Tervuren]

I've had a 1980 924 Turbo come to my attention last weekend. I'm a 1986 944 owner, and love the front engined Porsches.

I don't have a lot to go on about the car yet, what would be things to ask the owner about? I'm willing to spend about $2K after buying it to take care of what it needs. The front spoiler is beat in - and I'd like to replace that.

I have a picture of the engine bay, the owners son let me go over the car, but doesn't know too much about it.


When the clutch is moved, the area in green moves as well. Is something loose that should be tightened before a test drive? Both the clutch and brakes use the same fluid system on the 931 like the 944? Would not be fun if something loose there caused it to lose fluid while driving.

The car has a four bolt wheel pattern - I assume this mean its uses the regular 924 brake system? I'm not 100% sure on that, I thought 931's used five bolt, and had vented disk all round? Or is it related to the fact that all my books that cover the 931 - are European/British, and they didn't think American's needed the extra brakes?

I've read the 924Faq, the first time buyers guide is mainly directed towards the regular 924, is there anything I should check for when I go to see the car again this week when the owner is there?

One thing that surprised me, is how good the weatherproofing seals are on the car for its age. You can feel that the car is airtight as you close the door - as the open slot has lots of air escaping before its closed, where as my 944 which isn't perfect - it has other escape routes. I've only been around one other 944 with the same affect - and its the original owner's baby - picked it from the factory himself.

The dash is cracked, the rear hatch carpet is faded. The seats are excelent, as are the interior carpets. Could not find anything wrong in the interior to speak of that I could see. I expect a cracked dash, and hatch carpet fade isn't unacceptable.
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I tend to think differently.

[Paul]

Welcome to the board!

A location always helps us help you.

I'd make sure the following are in good shape:

the turbo, winds up by 3000 rpms, no smoke out the exhaust, no oil in the intake tract.

the tranny, parts are very expensive and are becoming almost impossbile to find.

the exhaust system

the steering shaft U joints

the clutch (has an inspection hole, see procedure in the Haynes manual) (same as your 944)

the heater core (no smell of antifreeze when you first turn on the heater)

the shifter (has two rods with bushings that are difficult to replace)
_________________
White 87 924S "Ghost"
Silver 98 986 3.6l 320 HP "Frank N Stein"
White 01 986 "Christine"
Polar Silver 02 996TT. "Turbo"
Owned and repaired 924s since 1977
Porsche: It's not driving, it's therapy.

[Peter_in_AU]

that the movement it's got when pressing the clutch might possibly be a crack in the firewall. I've never had to but they sound like a real pain to fix.
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1979 924 (Gone to a better place)
1974 Lotus 7 S4 "Big Valve" Twin-cam (waiting)
1982 924 (As featured on Wikipedia)

Learn to love your multimeter and may the search be with you

[924RACR]

The preventative medicine for the clutch is to disassemble and properly lube the clutch pivot; they dry out, clutch effort gets high, and eventually they will tear. Just make sure the sheetmetal isn't torn; you'll probably have to go underneath the dash and peel back the carpet to check.

Does look pretty nice and clean under there.

Yes, the brake and clutch use the same fluid reservoir, but a leaking clutch hydraulic system won't completely empty the brake reservoir.

1980 931's only had disc/disc as an option; otherwise they were the 4-bolt disc/drum as seen on the car you're looking at. You could upgrade to the 5-lug setup later, if desired.
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Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

[Tervuren]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'll give the guy a call today now that he is in, and get more information about the car.

its either about 60K miles, or 160K with a reset - I don't know that yet. my '85 944 had 215,000 miles when it was smacked by a pickup.

If I get the car, I plan on using it for my drives that are over 30 minutes one way. I beleive the Turbo is not as happy for short trips?
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I tend to think differently.

[Tervuren]

Alright, I've driven the car, and talked to the owner for a bit.

The car had not been started in weeks, and didn't initialy fire up. There was a bit of smoke at initial startup, but did not last long. The car died when I let off the gas to stop before turning off the driveway, and after that, it was trouble free.

When the Turbo kicks in full throttle at 3,000RPM - the sound and pull is a great experience. Its not kicking much harder then my 944 when it comes in at 4,000RPM, but its a fun experience.

I was fine with the shift pattern, although I'm used to my car where the shifter pattern leans to the right, whereas in this one I needed to be more to the left, and kept going into 4th instead of 2nd. That would go away with time.

Steering is tight, no play. Clutch engagemetn was later then I was thinking it would be, which gave me a little trouble at first. AC works - I did not check the heat - forgot.

The owner gave me a price of $3,000 for it. I think that might be negotiable - don't know for sure.

He said the synchro in 2nd was worn - but I never noticed when driving it. I tend to shift very softly, and double clutching large RPM differences is natural, so I never noticed anything wrong there.

The odometer has not been working since he got the car. Mileage is unknown. Could be anwhere over 90,000 miles.

All in all - I don't know if this is what I'm looking for. I honestly don't know what running costs will be down the road - when I get a car - I want to own it until its either not financily possible, or its wrecked.

Getting a Turbocharged Porsche has seriously become something I want to do. The rush and sound is realy great, and it drives fairly ordinarily if you aren't stepping on it.





Gathering enough light nad keeping the picture clear is tough to do on the underside of a car in the evening.




I'll have to think of what my other options I'd do are. Any estiamtes on a new windsheild? The current one is cracked. Also the horn doesn't work.

One other thing - are these car's aluminum bodied?
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I tend to think differently.

[Paul]

These cars are galvinized steel.

Windshields from Safellite run about $200- $250.

Is that a dent on the hood?

Is the coolant tank empty?
_________________
White 87 924S "Ghost"
Silver 98 986 3.6l 320 HP "Frank N Stein"
White 01 986 "Christine"
Polar Silver 02 996TT. "Turbo"
Owned and repaired 924s since 1977
Porsche: It's not driving, it's therapy.

[Tervuren]

No dent on the hood that I saw. Not knowing where the coolant reservoir is on the 924, I couldn't tell you that.

One other note - the smoke was whiteish, not black. There was a lot, but after the first bit I never noticed anymore. Would that be a signal of the top end needing a rebuild in the near future?
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I tend to think differently.

[Paul]

Some of us think:

Black smoke: too rich
Blue smoke: burning oil
White smoke with a sweet smell: burning coolant.

Hard starting and white smoke at start up might indicate coolant in one or more cylinders.
_________________
White 87 924S "Ghost"
Silver 98 986 3.6l 320 HP "Frank N Stein"
White 01 986 "Christine"
Polar Silver 02 996TT. "Turbo"
Owned and repaired 924s since 1977
Porsche: It's not driving, it's therapy.

[924RACR]

Which (coolant) would be most likely sign of a blown headgasket. Which could be caused by inop wastegate - either stuck or torn diaphragm, fixable.

Later 931's have a more gradual boost ramp-in IIRC, but it does still come on stronger and later than more modern turbos. I like that.

Car does look nice; looks like Petrol Blue Metallic, same as my racecar when I picked it up (a blue-green metallic color, nice and pretty unique).

I would want to rebuild the gearbox and replace the synchros before there's any damage done to the dog teeth. Synchro rings are about $100, but dog teeth require replacement of the whole gear, and that's more like $1000. This gearbox (the snailshell) is very very similar to a 911 box, and could be rebuilt by a 911 guy with the right tools. Rebuild it before it gets worse, or it will be VERY expensive. One of the downsides with the '79 NA and the '80 931. Or you just convert it to the later Audi-style box, but it sounds like this one is still in good enough shape to just rebuild as-is, thanfully.

So it sounds like the biggest concern might be the blown headgasket; not a technically challenging job on an NA, but a little more involved in the 931 due to the packaging, all that extra stuff in there. It may be easiest to remove the whole engine, if you can deal with that, vs. getting in at the exhaust manifold and turbo while installed...
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Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

[Smoothie]

[Tervuren]

I did look at it - but don't remember the level. I'm inclined to say it would be low.

Right now - I don't have any space to work on the car(at least, anything involving going underneath). I don't want to go much over $4,000. Depending on the labor on what needs to be done - it looks like this one goes over that. I should probably wait for another Turbo. I'm in love with turbo's now. I don't think its an "if" I get a turbo, its a when.
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I tend to think differently.

[Stu2j]

Well, if you don't want it and it is in the "North" Carolinas... I would certainly be interested
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-Stu
924 owner since 1988
924S owner since 2002
Click here to view them:

[Tervuren]

Its in N.C, south of Charlotte N.C.. Only a mile or two from the NC border. I'm interested in the car, but not enouhg to have already bought and owned it this week. I'm new to the 931. I positively love the engine sound and feel. In stock form its not going to do what my 944 does, but that doesn't matter as much. I just need to figure out how running costs are going to work out on this car. The longer I wait - the more I could spend.

The car has not realy been driven recently, and is sitting outside. The owner doesn't realy have time to bother with it. He's not active about selling it either, i found out about it from his sons' freind who is my brother in law when he offered it to him.

If you are intersted - I can afford to wait for something else to come up though. Someone cleaned up the note paper I had the phone number on, so I'd have to get that again for you.

This is the road the car is off of. Its on Wyndham Oaks Dr, just look a little to the right nad you will see it.

http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=Providence+Road+West,+Charlotte,+NC



One more question - how hot do these cars run? The seconday fan did not take long to kick in, and was still on all the time I went over the car after a short run up and down 521.
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I tend to think differently.

[Stu2j]

Well, that's just about as "barely" NC as you can get and would put the car on the road for about 8 hours on a 16 hour round trip and no chance of having an inspection done.

Don't suppose the owner is planning a vacation up this way eh?

CRUD... why can't one of these things come up close.
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-Stu
924 owner since 1988
924S owner since 2002
Click here to view them: