944 N/A chip info?

[Weldin]

Anyone know of good chips for an early 85?

[BRose]

I do not believe you can chip a 1985 (not the phase II) that easily without DME box modification. Its expensive to modify because the box has to be pulled and reworked. Their is no special way to get amazing performance out a non-turbo 944 except to add: throttle repsonse unit
billet fuel regulator
Bursch flow thru exhaust
K&N filter (maybe?)
93 octane

Good luck
BR
1985.5

[RealRideRacing]

Indeed that's true. The early 944's require that you ship the entire DME to the chip manufacturer. If you're mechanically inclined, you can attempt to solder the chip in yourself, I've had a friend do so in his car successfully, but make sure you know what you're doing or else you're looking at a new DME.
As far as performance of the chips is concerned, my own experience has shown that they don't seem to offer any Performance gains (on stock na944's that is). I once read an article in Excellence where they compared chips on na944's and found that the most gain they achieved was about 2-3hp at the Top End only, not very useuable nor significant. If I remember correctly, they even found some of the chips to actually detract from the performance. When you think about it, it's particularly difficult with a normally aspirated car to gain much more power with a chip. The Porsche Motronic system is an excellent design, in fact it was designed to be Full Proof, meaning, you really can't tamper with it. Perhaps if you add a different cam and various other aftermarket products it may help.
Now on the Turbo's, a chip will make a difference, mainly because the need for more fuel and air is more sensitive to a Turbo motor.
This isn't to say that ALL chips for na944's are bad, only the ones that I've had experience with. I know that Grassroots Magazine installed a chip in their na944 and found a "Seat of the Pants" gain. We've E-Mailed back and forth and he admits that he hasn't taken it to a dyno yet, "it just FEELS quicker" he says.
One of the cars in my Race Team is a 944NA, and it's actually one of my favorite cars to race. In the hands of an experienced driver, this car is very fast. In our last Clubrace, we finished 9th overall and won our Class. Finishing directly behind us were: A Nissan Skyline GTR (inexperienced driver), Saleen Mustang ex-Speedvision World Challenge car (again, less experienced driver), an SCCA A/S Camaro, BMW M3 1st Gen, and a whole pack of SCCA ITS and ITA cars.
Though the car has gone through extensive modifications, it's still putting out less power than a 944Turbo. We've installed a $10,000 Raetech engine (SCCA ITS legal) with all kinds of trick parts and we're still under 200HP. I seriously doubt that a chip alone will make a significant difference. Where we gain the most time is in the corners. The 944na can outhandle just about anything on the track, we use that to our advantage. We're carrying much more speed through the corners than our competitors. By the time we're exiting the corners, we're already 10-15mph faster than them and halfway down the straightaway before they're able to apply the throttle. That is the trick to the 944na. Don't try to drag race anybody, you'll lose everytime.
If you really want to make your 944na go faster, spend the money on Driver Education. No, I don't mean putting a Student Driver sign on the back of your car and practice 3 point turns. I mean, go to a Porsche Club Driver's Education event. These events are held at your local Race Tracks. They will assign you an instructor, then you'll go out onto the track and really learn to drive your car to it's potential. My first Driving instructor took me out in his stock Porsche 914 1.7L and I swore up and down that he'd stuffed a V8 in the thing. The beauty of DE is that you're not racing against anybody. You're learning at your own pace, almost everybody out there is as well and they're all more than happy to offer advice. Many Racers like myself will occassionally run DE events and end up instructing.
Also, the other trick to making a 944na faster is to make it Lighter and Handle even better. Remove anything that is unnecessary and get good tires and suspension. At 2,700Lbs, the 944 can certainly afford to go on a diet. Don't fall for the fashionable trend of running large diameter wheels (unless the overall diameter of wheel and tire are smaller), they only slow your acceleration. Think of the wheel as a gear, a larger wheel/tire combo means you're now running a taller Ring & Pinion, good for Top end but horrible for acceleration.
Hope all this info helps. Feel free to E-Mail me if you have questions or you can also visit our Website's Discussion Board for Performance related issues.
David
RealRide Racing www.RealRide.com/racing

[lm6y]

If it's one of the early cars, there is a switch you can turn to get a LTTLE more timing and fuel from the DME. It was put ther to adapt to different world markets. the switch is an 8 position rotary switch. Different postions are used for different fuel and timing curves, for different markets throughout the world. They did it because some countries have bad gas, and some countries have good gas, and it would keep warranty claims down from melted pistons since the early cars don't have a knock sensor, in countries with terrible octane ratings on thier fuel. I have mine set on the third position, that gives it 6% more fuel, and doesn't retard the timing. If you do this you MUST run 93 octane or higher gas. You can find more info at: http://www.connactivity.com/~kgross/944faq12.html

[hoff944]

I read in Panorama that running 93 octane in a 944 with DME is a waste of money since the computer already compensates if you run 87.

[Weldin]

Hey Im6y - Thanks for the info! I'm getting a k&N soon, and think I'll try the #2 position first. BTW where is the DME on these? Glovebox?

[hoff944]

Its right above your feet under the dash on the drivers side.

[lm6y]

Hey Hoff, that's only on the later cars with a knock sensor. The DME on the early cars is "dumb", it only goes by the parameters stored in the memory, and can't adjust anything but the timing and fuel curves stored in the memory map. (Does that make sense?)

[stray15]

lm6y, what can you feel different about your car since you changed the setting on the DME? Is it really worth it?

------------------
Porsche, Through and through
Tim
'83 944

[lm6y]

To be honest with you, I did the 2.5 inch Flowmaster exhaust WITHOUT a catalytic converter, K&N cone fliter, plug wires, cap & rotor, plugs, and the DME switch trick in the same day. Drove it in, did all that stuff, and drove it out. So I can't really pinpoint one modification that helped more than another. I figured it would breathe easier with the filter and the exhaust change, so why not throw more fuel to it? Collectively though, it made a VERY noticible difference. I wish I would have put it on a Dyno before and after, but only "bench racers" around here even know what one is, let alone have one!

[Cliff_944]

Originally posted by Weldin:
Anyone know of good chips for an early 85?

If you REALLY want to chip an early '85, get a DME and an AFM from an '86. I got an '86 DME w/AutoAuthority chip and an '86 AFM last summer for about $250.00. This is without a doubt the best mod for the money that I have ever made to my '84. The only other change I had to make was modifying the early DME harness to support an Idle Stabilizer, which consited of adding 3 wires, connecting those to the DME (can't remember the pins, but seem to recall 35, 36, and 37.), and wiring in a 3 pin connector for the stabilizer. The stabilizer takes the place of the Auxiliary Air Regulator, so you have to pull the intake manifold to make the swap.

As you may already know, the early cars often suffer from hesitation under hard acceleration and a stumble returning to idle (Idle drops below 600 and the engine shudders coming back to 950). Mr. F.R. Wilk (mailto:944@technologist.com) recently developed a modification kit/plans for the early DME's. He also has binaries for fixing the shudder issue, as well as binaries for the Euro DME chips. (The Euro version does not use an O2 sensor input, and there are some differences in the fuel and ignition maps.) Drop him a line and tell him that Cliff Hipsher from Microsoft sent you.

Regards,

Cliff
'84 944 Sobel Metallic
RennList #000229-1772
PCA #2000030917

[BASS944]

I read the new Grassroots Motorsports article on the 944 project car. They talked about how the car increased hp with the chip they installed. DONT BELIEVE THE HYPE. I installed the same chip they did a couple of years ago, and I swear I lost power. Not sure how much on the low end, but serious loss on the top end. I drove it like this for about a year, then swapped back to the factory chip. Felt a lot better with the factory chip all around. Have not heard of any signifigant, or positive things about chipping a 944na, but if I was going to install any aftermarket chip, it would be an Autothority chip.
But back to the project car in GRM....SWEET. The wheels look great, and the Borla exhaust is waht I am thinking about now. Need more info on that system befor I spend the $$$, but Borla makes good stuff.