944 Suspension and Brake Upgrade

[IMSAracer944]

Hey, I have an 87 944 base that I’ve had for 18 years, many parts replaced and runs great, well most of the time. Thinking about an LS3 swap down the road but it runs to good now to do it, thinking about upgrading the suspension and brakes first to handle the extra power. Looking for a good setup but did not want to break the bank, maybe adjustable shocks and larger brakes, has anybody been down this road?

[walfreyydo]

Here is a good resource for upgrading to the 4 piston Turbo/S2 brembos. The thread mentions needing to run turbo/S2 hubs and front struts to match the hub, but since you are upgrading suspension anyways you may want to match the struts.
upgrade 944 na to turbo front brakes

A good budget suspension setup, that would allow for height adjustments, would be to go front coilovers with koni yellow struts, and rear koni yellow shocks plus a thicker rear torsion bar (a 30mm torsion will go well with #300 front springs). This will give you height adjustability and a stiffer more aggressive setup that is still somewhat street friendly. What people recommend for spring rates is very subjective but to me 300 front with a 30mm rear torsion is a good mix for street/autox, while still being budget friendly.

Re-indexing the torsion bar can be tricky and time consuming, so as an alternative you can go with rear coilovers. There are two versions of rear coilovers - ones that retain the rear torsion bar (defeats the purpose imo, as re-indexing is still needed) and ones that remove the rear tosion bar. If you go the rear torsion delete option, it is imperative you get a coilover kit designed for this. The lower shock bolt and lower shock mount need to be reinforced to carry the extra load that the rear torsion usually carries. Ground control and Paragon carry rear torsion delete coilover kits - but there may be others as well-just make sure they include the reinforced lower shock bolt (see: Racers Edge) and a solid heim joint lower shock mount.

The cheapest option will be to just go with a thicker rear torsion plus koni yellows, and for the front koni yellows plus coilover. This is still a great option! More expensive would be rear coilovers.

Personally I went with front and rear coilovers on koni yellows with torsion bar delete. I made sure to do a lot of research on the torsion bar delete and the exact kits which are compatible with it. There is a risk going with torsion bar delete in that your rear lower shock mount bolt can snap (hence the importance of getting the reinforced bolt). I am running #400 front springs and #650 rear.

Its pretty stiff for the street (probably the max I would want to go) but the car is mainly used for autox and hpde, and in those regards the car feels well balanced and neutral with about equal wheel spring rate front/rear.

[Stoneguy]

I agree with Walfreydo,
I recently did the upgrade on my 86NA. I found an 86 Turbo in the junkie and purchased the whole setup. Brembo 4 piston calipers, front struts and spindles. They were pretty ugly but with some work I rebuilt and powder coated the calipers, switched the spindles, added new rotors and pads and ground control coil overs in the rear ( Not torsion delete)
and koni inserts in front, it looks and feels great. Oh yeh, don't forget the proportioning valve. The NA didn't use one. I may have a pix or two I can post later.

[Stoneguy]

Here you go.

[v2rocket_aka944]

I have an unusual setup I would sell - 42mm twin-piston floating calipers that will bolt to the 944 NA front knuckle and fit over an 87+ turbo front rotor. It's all GM parts that I slightly modified to make work.

I have these parts currently on my early 944 (with a different 28mm thick rotor), but am looking at doing something else so these are available.

This way you don't need to change any of your other suspension stuff - just get a late 951 rotor and bolt my calipers on - might need to add a spacer between the caliper mount and knuckle but I don't know for sure how thick.

The 2x42mm pistons on a 299mm rotor give approximately the same brake torque as the famed Porsche "big red" calipers but this would be a fraction of that cost...PM me if interested and for more info.

[culture]

I upgraded my S2 front calipers to big reds (just because) and still have the stock ones. If you're interested in them, let me know.