GTSilver944

Post a WTB here. Also try 944 ecology for a used head.

Luis de Prat

Not to put salt in the wound but since the car has records, my inquiring mind is curious as to whether the tensioner or top pad were ever replaced in its 115K mile history?

And yes, I agree you should bite the bullet and fix it regardless of whether you're keeping the car. It's too nice an example to part out and should sell with relative ease. Good luck with it!

m73m95

Nothing really to do with this situation, but I hate it when "price to own/fix vs what the car is worth" ratio gets brought up.

If that's all people looked at when looking at 944's, no one would own one.

If your daughter loves that car as much as we all love our cars, then close your eyes and swipe the credit card . Fix it, and drive it again.

Of course its not worth it from a business standpoint, but its totally worth it from a "smiles per mile" standpoint.

Tom R.

unfortunately reality and dreams seldom are the same. the reality is no matter how wonderful 944s are, and no matter how much more wonderful a fabulous fantastic 944S2 is, a 944S2 is not worth much at all if it doesnt have a LSD or M030. even with those options it isnt worth much.

i had three S2s. One of them was an uber rare guards red 1990 of which so few were made. The phenomenal increase in value because of rarity is somewhere between zilch and bubkus.

last year i got 8k for my very clean 72k mile, all records, new clutch, belts wp, etc. mint interiror no rips, blah blah blah with two sets of rims and near new tires.

unless you can get a head, i suggest selling it for what you can get, which as a roller is probably about 3k on a good day to a nutswinger that thinks it is the holy grail and move on.

BTW, there are threads somewhere in this forum with pictures of someone that had the head repaired when the tensioner mount was snapped.

67King

Just to play devil's advocate, the S2 is the car to have in E-class racing. S2's typically bring a higher premium than turbo's, which, IMHO, has a lot to do with why.

I would have preferred to have found a mechanically ill S2 to the cosmetically ill Turbo I got. Had a chance to buy an S2 in almost identical condition to my turbo, but I wasnt' able to agree to terms on it, which was about 30% higher than my Turbo.

1pcarnut

Thanks for all the feedback guys, very helpful. Still on the fence here. As much as we love this car, we have to be practical and cannot just pour money in to it. sdstimson may have a lead on a head for me so I'm hoping this might work out after all and we can put the car back on the road without breaking the bank.

pjburges

In my opinion this is going to cost big money no matter how you approach it. If you do it yourself, I speak from experience trying to rebuild a 16V head with no special tools for the first time in your life is going to result in the car getting a lot of downtime (month). A trained P-tech can do it quickly but its going to cost even more than the 600 or so you will spend in parts. (The labor). Also try www.car-part.com as it will search the majority of salvage yards in the US for the part.

Are you a good mechanic? (REALLY GOOD?) If you arent, I might suggest swapping for a turbo motor at this point as its more achievable under the shade tree than is rebuilding this and will cost about the same.

ArcticSteve

The plastic tensioner failed this week and took out the head on our 1990 S2. , 115k

I seems to be a combo of age and mileage. In my 1990 S2 those plastic guides let go at 160k miles, but 5 years ago.

J Berk

Suggest you also try this place for a used head:

http://www.20car.com/

20h Street Auto is a rennlist sponsor in Arizona. I bought a dash cluster for my S2 from them...they had about 6 S2's in stock at that time and I was able to pick the car I wanted the part from !

They were also very good to deal with and their price, shipped to NJ was cheaper than I could buy and pickup the part from the local Porsche wrecker...by far !

jonnybgood

Sorry about the pad failure.

You need to get the cam cover off and verify that all the broken camshaft teeth are present and accounted for and have not gone down the oil returns into the pan. Another lister here is dealing with this problem in another thread. Usually when the tensioner fails the sudden stop of the cam chain removes some of the sprocket teeth from the camshaft. They are then loose and capable of doing further damage if they get into the pan. Until all teeth are accounted for, depending on your choice, you may want to go into the bottom of the engine.

Because of this problem any candidate head should be purchased with cams. Until you get the head off you cannot be sure about possible piston damage as well, though that is less likely.

You initially asked about what you could get for the car in its current state. IMHO only an uniformed buyer would give you more than $2k. You have good help up there with sdstimson.

FRporscheman

Yes.

No... The variocam adds 3-4 hp. The big power boost in the 968 comes from the dual resonance intake. The S2 has single resonance.

Eric_Oz_S2

No - the 968 uses different cam timing - that accounts for a significant portion of the power gain. Variocam is disengaged at peak power - it is used to moderate the more aggressive cams at middling revs.

Tom R.

instead of playing devils advocate, tell me how much money you are talking about. is a non running S2 worth 30% more than zilch, or 30% more than bubkus?

I know what a running good condition S2 was worth less than a year ago. I know i got a lot less than the nutswingers here thought it was worth. i also know none of the nutswingers here were willing to pony up what they said it was worth, and were not willing to pony up what it went for.

so whats it worth with a busted up head?

Jfrahm

I would post it FS on the V8 hybrid board. While the S2 trans is not ideal for a V8 swap the S2 box is worth more than a 951 trans so that can easily be swapped. I do not know the condition, if it is average it's worth maybe $2500. If it's rough, considerably less. It might be a good tub for a racer with a S2 or 968 driveline also, or a winter project for someone with a head or motor squirreled away.

The heads can be repaired, cam teeth repaired, so it might also be a good project for a DIY'er. The cams at least have to be 'rebuilt' for (IIRC) $400 a stick? A used head that is complete might be a better value.

I used to have a spare S2 motor I think I sold for $2250 or so, just to give you a data point. Salvage yards are great and offer guarantees but the cost of their parts reflects that.

As for the 968's extra power it comes from exhaust, compression, cams, valves, head, intake, MAF, and engine management. The variocam makes it more streetable.

-Joel

67King

I don't know what you mean by "dual resonance intake," but unless it has switching runners, any kind of dual plenum or otherwise will pale in comparison to what the combination of variable cam timing and the 2mm larger intake valves provide. Dual mode plenums actually give you a bump in the middle of the torque curve, rather than peak power.