Is The Porsche 944 Really A Money Pit? How to Own/Maintain/Modify A 944

[@mcgoo721]

I cant tell you the last time i saw one of these in person. And the last couple i saw were ragged out. Its good to see theres still some clean ones out here. Maybe i didnt completely miss my window for one.

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@mcgoo721 definitely not there’s been a resurgence of love for these cars and prices have actually come back down. You can get a very clean example with under 100k miles for an NA model for less than $20,000

[@MyBinaryLife]

When i got my first one, it was $1400. it ran but needed about 5k of work to be a good daily driver. Theyre 10x more expensive now. I now have the money that its not an issue, but if I still made 60k a year I wouldn't be able to afford it.

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@ I’m sorry but I have to disagree. Maybe if you’re talking about the turbo charged cars with super low miles and pristine condition then yes you’ll be paying $60,000. The naturally aspirated models at least in the United States while having gone up in price are not 10x what they used to be. Your $1400 car in its condition would probably be worth $3,000 now and only if it was running. $6,000 for a car let alone a Porsche in this day and age is a miracle. You can routinely find moderately clean examples of 944s for about $10,000 and for an extremely clean healthy driver you can expect to pay $20,000. Maintenance items for these cars have not changed in prices as far as I can tell over the last 10 years. Ie prices for parts and accessories. What has increased is labor rates at shops. There is no such thing as a cheap Porsche, but if you do the work yourself, protect the maintenance schedule of the car, and are budget conscious, it won’t be cheap, but it can be affordable. $60,000 will get you a 981 or a 991. And maybe 3-5 944s.

[@eduardorodriguez3262]

Damn....How old are you? Cause your knowledge and explanation on your car is like years beyond a lifetime . I wish I can come across a person such as yourself in my lifetime It's good to know that with people like you the car Hobby is in good hands for the future🎉🎉

[@TakeFlightGarage]

I appreciate you. I’m relatively young still, but I bought my first 944 at this point coming up on 10 years ago, so it’s wild to say I’ve got about 10 years experience with these cars now. That’s close to half my life 😂

[@rtking]

Good video, and good advice to change one thing at a time during diagnosis. Nice upgrades to the vehicle - MAF and Ftech9 DME and solid state fuel pump relays are great upgrades. Staying with Fuchs is important - light weight magnesium wheels are hard to beat.

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@rtking Thank you for your comment and for watching!

[@evanduncan25]

Mine is absolutely a money pit. Got it for 8k and spent 6k getting it barely running. And now I need a new clutch so that’s fun.

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@evanduncan25 I feel you but once your car is cleaned up and all ready to go and if it’s actually in decent condition then it’ll still be worth more than you have in it. Also Jesus 6 grand to get it running? Did you rebuild the entire engine? 6 grand is like a full Lindsey racing head build with solid lifters a cam exhaust and engine reseal worth of parts.

[@evanduncan25]

@@TakeFlightGarage it’s actually in pretty good condition with no rust at all other than on the muffler. It’s just having starting issues but other than that it’s good.

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@evanduncan25 I’ve been seeing a lot of people asking questions about no starts, as well as rough starts, rough running etc so I’ll try to put together a quick guide for diagnosing all that stuff soon when I get a chance

[@evanduncan25]

@@TakeFlightGarage sweet I appreciate all the helpful videos.

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@evanduncan25 No problem man thanks for watching!

[@Workerbee-zy5nx]

I might do that sillycone tubin on my 951, your ride looks better than newm

[@OhYeahAboutThat]

Boy, am I glad I dumped mine when I had the chance! LOL. Kidding....I miss this car!

[@TakeFlightGarage]

Next time you’re in town I’d LOVE to take you out for a drive in it, just not in 113 degree weather hahahaha.

[@ireiaand]

Perhaps… but so is life! Who knows we might die tomorrow! These cars are awesome and well worth it!

[@billm83army]

No old car is a money pit if you love it. Things need to be changed out, they have OLD parts. If you love the car and like improving it, then its a win. No one else matters

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@billm83army Exactly!

[@davidtrevi2914]

I found a 1988 944 that has starting issues; runs when using starting fluid. Sat for 10 years. Theoretically speaking, what would it need to get it running? Also, what shop manual do you recommend?

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@davidtrevi2914 I have a no start trouble shooting guide on the playlist section of my channel. If the car turns and fires on starting fluid and won’t run otherwise then it sounds like a fuel delivery issue. Expect to replace the pump filter injectors and DME relay at a minimum. The Porsche shop manuals are king, but Clark’s garage is a free online resource that breaks down and guides step by step every single diagnosing/ troubleshooting/ disassembly/ reassembly procedure for the 944

[@davidtrevi2914]

@@TakeFlightGarage Thank you for the quick response. Your advice is golden!

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@ No problem man good luck and glad to help 👍🏻

[@westvillage1904]

how much boost do you think you could put in the NA version of the car?

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@westvillage1904 none, it’s an aluminum block with cast internals running at 9:1 compression. That’s why everyone always says “just buy a turbo” because by the time you add a turbo, ECU, forged internals, an intercooler etc etc etc you’re well into just buying a turbo charged car from the get go, where you can spend an extra grand for an exhaust+ tune and push 400whp reliably. I think the key to an NA, is upping the torque. You can get an 8v car pretty close to S2 times if not faster with cams, head work, headers, and a MAF. It all really depends. If you have a daily driver that you just need some more umpfh that’s the route I recommend. If you want straight line speed then picking up a turbo charged car is the way to go

[@TwoDollarGararge]

It doesn't have to be you can buy smart and get a really good car I have $10,000 in my 944 worth $4,000 before the motor exploded at 85mph because I saw the overpriced 300,000 mile 16 owner rust belt 944 that was weirdly optioned and decided I want it 20 years of abuse and all. Do I regret any of the purchases no I would do it again the car is fun to drive I took something that should have been a parts car and put it back on the road and i'm proud of it in a way.

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@TwoDollarGararge EXACTLY! I’ve been loving your videos man keep them coming!

[@ireiaand]

Another question, did you dye the carpets? Mine are pretty much brown at this point and im wondering if I can bring them back!

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@ireiaand Nope! Thankfully I haven’t had to mess with these carpets, but I did however dye the dash cover. If you go back and watch some earlier videos you can see just how horribly faded it was from the sun out here, there actually should be a dedicated video I made on restoring it that you should be able to apply to your carpets!

[@ireiaand]

@@TakeFlightGarage hmmm okay I’ll have a look for that! Not sure if I should use the liquid dye for clothing sorta things or like some automotive spray on dye, I’ve heard the spray on can make it sorta rough. What did you use?

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@ireiaand I used one of the duplicolor spray dyes and it did harden up the fibers but I think for something like the carpets you would never ever notice the change in texture

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@ireiaand kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKe6mIiHoZiKnrssi=RypWBJlkdErx11wK

[@ireiaand]

@@TakeFlightGarage hmmm okay maybe I’ll use that! It’s just for the formats anyways… they’re pretty rough currently haha

[@xoxo_dumbgirl2198]

I've been in need of a new car and I've been interested and doing casual research on the 944 the past year or 2 on em and just found a turbo for about 7.5k on fb marketplace it runs and has 120xxx miles on it but it definitely looks like its been stored in a barn for a while but seems to be in pretty decent condition I don't really have much experience on working on cars but I'd like to be able to have a car thats manageable and fun do you think this is a good beginner car? Or even possible to have it be a daily?

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@xoxo_dumbgirl2198 it’ll be a lot of work to get any 944 especially a turbo up and running, but once you catch them up on maintenance they can be extremely great and fun cars to daily. A turbo for that price if it’s not got any rust is definitely a car worth at least going to look at, but it will be a little more difficult/ expensive to bring back to life, but it is certainly doable. If you’re really new to cars and just want something to wrench on specifically to just dive in and learn, I recommend getting started with an 8 valve NA car. It won’t be fast but it will be a great way to get your feet wet with with learning how to wrench and because the NA isn’t as desirable as a turbo, for that same 7.5k you could probably get a really solid condition car depending on what area you’re in! If you want to see what a lot of the work is like I recommend you check out Edredas and nc944er here on KZbin, they both make excellent videos on showing what it’s like to work on these cars. Now if you are gonna start with a car and go ground up on it anyways and want something boosted then turbo all the way ;)

[@TakeFlightGarage]

One other thing to mention though, if this is a car you want to go crazy with modifying, the turbo will give you waaaaay more opportunity to modify and make faster, where the NA is much more difficult to bump the performance on in which case if you’re gonna spend that amount you might as well go for the turbo to begin with. It all really depends on how you want to own the car, what you want to do with it, and most importantly how you intend to drive it

[@xoxo_dumbgirl2198]

@TakeFlightGarage honestly, I mostly want to restore it, and have it be reliable if I wanna upgrade/boost performance somewhere along the way it'd be pretty nice to be able to do that down the road depending on the condition the one I'm currently eyeing is in of course 😅

[@xoxo_dumbgirl2198]

@TakeFlightGarage I also appreciate how quickly and thoughtful your responses were btw very grateful to have come across this on my KZbin feed 🙏

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@xoxo_dumbgirl2198 turbos always complicate things because they add so much more heat to the equation snd that’s really what you have to deal with degraded plastics rubber hoses sensors all that kind of stuff gets added to the list of things to stay ontop of belts and clutch and ofc turbo. It just all boils down to what you can afford and how much time you have. I’d still go look at the turbo just so you can see one up close and maybe ask the owner some questions etc. as long as your up front about your intentions ususally 944 owners will be cool with helping out like that

[@donaldclary846]

How much did it cost to have the windows tinted?

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@donaldclary846 I paid $1,000

[@donaldclary846]

@TakeFlightGarage Damn. I'm in Tucson and I am wanting to have the windows tinted on my 1987 Porsche 944. I can't find anyone here that will even attempt the rear hatch.

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@donaldclary846 That was the EXACT problem I had. Been searching for 8 years before finally coming across these guys and they did a great job. It may be worth the drive but that’s up to you. If you do decide to contact them tell them Jake with the Red 944 recommended them! They will be able to answer any questions you might have

[@nicholas.granda]

Yes, yes it is.

[@nicholas.granda]

Still gonna spend money on mine tho ;)

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@nicholas.granda 😂😂😂😂😂😂 naaaahhh it isn’t if you spend the money in all the right places 😈

[@Oncewaslostbutnowimsaved]

I own 2. The answer is always YES, YES THEY ARE A MONEY BLACK HOLE

[@TakeFlightGarage]

Lol

[@kermita11]

20 minute video, 30 seconds of information.

[@TakeFlightGarage]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZW9k4Z_Z5xpiacsi=IJLtCQlVWLq6MISl Better video for you, enjoy!

[@BWTECH0521]

Make a better video and share it with us!

[@drswigermd]

Everything is reversible. Please get rid of the blue spark plug wires and hoses. Looks ridiculous on a 80s Porsche

[@TakeFlightGarage]

@@drswigermd I’ll always appreciate open and honest feedback and you certainly don’t have to like it. However, last I checked my name is on the title of this particular car, and not yours so I think I’ll spec my car to my taste. If you don’t own one already I highly encourage you to pick one up and restore it however you see fit.