Performance Upgrades or wasted $$?
 

I have an '87 NA and an FR Wilk chip. I am thinking of a larger throttle body and higher pressure fuel regulator, and then possibly a lighter flywheel. Are these upgrades going to add performance I can notice or are they a waste of $$?

Except for the lighter flywheel, which will allow it to rev a bit more freely, pretty much wasted money.

Some here swear by the FRWilk chip. The larger throttle body in itself won't help. Should eliminate the AFM, and switch to a MAF, but that's damn pricey.
Higher fuel pressure regulator would be worthless unless you are running a lot of boost (which you're not =).
Lighter flywheel may make it a little quicker, but you'll lose some streetability.

He already stated he has the FR chip. I am also one of those who swear by that chip.

I would go with a nice ignition upgrade, lighter/underdrive pullies and a Throttle response cam. All will help you out more than what you listed. Other than that, you can look at buying a catback exhaust but they are like 800-1000. Heres a link to the thread i started a while ago about modding and fast924s put together a nice response for me. Take a look, and you will get a good idea of what to do to meet what you want.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=187877&highlight=944+mo dding+question

I was considering lightweight flywheel, but it seems pretty impraticle for every day use. Makes shifting harder, and just all around seems to be more trouble then its worth on a daily driver.

interesting post. it always makes the little gears in my head turn just a little.
after spending time/money, getting my car all figured out, and being quite pleased with the results, i sometimes think about possible upgrades{as opposed to the regular money drain/maintenance}.
i kinda like my early model, and have no wish to part company with it, now i have it sorted.
i have looked at various sites offering supercharging, but what a cost! seems you can buy one for a mustang for half the cost{yes i know, common car}. i may experiment in the near future, with a compressor from a merc 4 cylinder. i can make the right size pulley, for somewhere around 4/5psi, which i believe is fairly safe. a unit from e-bay should be around $200 upwards, and making up a custom bracket etc will not be a problem. i'm not so "aux fait", when it comes to the tricky bits, but recognise having to find a suitable bov at 5psi, may be tricky. not sure what units are available for ignition retard/anti-knock, but will prob have to sit down and study this aspect of it thouroughly, b4 i make a start. whats the worst that could happen?? my rubber band is still going strong, and i have a fresh pair of socks too!
with the FR WILK chip in my car, i love the low end torque, and the relentless rush to the 7k red line. just a small amount of boost would be the iceing on the cake for this early model. i dont do hard launches, but on occasion, i do like to bury the needle way deep into revs.
maybe someone well versed with mild supercharging could give his/her impressions.

ya i just put my Wilks chip in, and I like it. Driven only about 10 miles if that on it.

seabolt... you put a wilk's chip in an auto? if so, howd that work out

I've put about 10 miles on the car, seems to be working out fine. Was pulling the trans out of the parts car for my Auto - Manual swap, which is why I didnt drive much. Overall I was impressed with the much smoother acceleration, and more readily ava. power in the lower RPMs. Did a rolling start, floored it. Stopped and floored it. I was off and moving. Needle almost Immediatly hammered its way up to 3k RPMs and beyond. I would say, everything I have heard about the Wilks chip from the Manuals applies to what I experianced today.

The 944 is very solid in stock form. Too see any noteworthy gains, youll have to do internal modifications, particularly in the head.

How is an 800 dollar cat back any better than a $50 flowmaster welded on? Getting bigger tubing for an n/a exhaust will actually hurt the performance overall due to the drastic decrease of low end power and not enough backpressure.

To be honest, I think a test pipe (which you can make out a stock cat with a little welding experience) and a FR wilk chip are the only cost worthy power upgrades.

Not completly true. Im willing to bet you could probably get upwards of 10-15 HP out of a -set- of under drive Pullies. Couple that with a Throttle Response cam, and you can will feel the difference.

I'd like to see 10-15 HP improvement just by installing underdrive pullies.....
The throttle response cam does make the car "feel" better but doesn't change the power.

Considering that the total draw from the pulleys is probably on the order of 10 HP with the A/C _running_, I rather doubt that. You'll gain more actual power by turning the A/C off than you would from under-drive pulleys. Despite popular belief, the A/C compressor only takes about 2 HP to run when it's on.

Aaron

You already have the chip, Drop in a cam, header, and a throttle response cam, and bet you will be happy with the resolts.

There are tons of stuff you can do, its all a matter of what you want to spend. So say its all a waste of money, but then agian whats money for? I dont think I will every sell my 87 924S I have alreayd rebuilt it once and done some mods here is a link
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/723719/1

This winter I have started taking her apart agian, for some maintence and some heavy mods including a 75hp shot of nitrous. Its my project car so I have all the time in the world. And a extra engine if neeeded HEHEHE

If you have any questions just drop me a PM and I will see if I can help you out.

As for the AC on or off, are P-cars use a less efficient A/C compressor then the new cars, When my a/c is on its a big difference, Im think max of 5hp gone when the A/C is on. From underdrive pullies I bet you would see about a 5-6hp gain. You need to remeber that besides a Supercharger,nitrous, or turbo, none of the bold on mobs are going to give you tons more HP, But when you start to add all the little bits of HP gains together from small mods then it starts to count.

Its all a matter of what you want to do. ME I cant leave anything stock, I gotta add my little tatse to it.

I personally don't like the idea of a lightened flywheel on anything other than a race car. You'll drop RPMs too quickly and the engine will have more stress on it than before (the purpose of the flywheel is to dampen out small irregularities and the inherent "bang, bang, bang" the pistons firing places on the system and smooth everything out). I dunno. Some people like them but I think the idea is a death sentence for your engine long-term on a street car.