82/924 Performance Upgrades
 

After months of mostly pleasant work and more money than I ever imagined the 924 is running pretty well and being driven daily. Sure learned a lot.

Anyway, as the disease progresses you find yourself talking about performance upgrades. We are thinking of a few simple changes to get a little more power. Specifically, better ignition, exhaust headers and Obin's legendary throttle body replacement (already have the part-$10.00). I have a spare motor that has only 76,000 miles and had a valve job just before the previous owner gave up on the project. My thinking is to go thru this motor, do whatever else necessary, and drop it into the car this winter along with the mods listed above.

Any advice you guys could provide would be appreciated. I'm a reasonably good mechanic but my experience is limited to repairing things, not modifying for performance. Are the Bursch headers any good? I recall a post from a ways back that mentioned that they were hard to fit up. Who makes a good ignition upgrade? Do they have a 12 step program for people like us?

Thanks,

Jon Aborn

My God, you poor man. I have worshiping my little 924 for 5 1/2 years now and know just how you feel. The little engines can use some power, and if you read the looking for 924/944 post, the Pocket Rocket upgrades are listed there. I am curious what the "throttle body upgrade is?"

Tom Swift...throttle body upgrade = the
easiest is replacement by an Audi5000S unit. I'm looking for one now(for '79 924).

Bursch headers get a lot of 'good press'.

G' luck.

like this one??

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=596738274

If so I'm very interested!!

Jon,

There is a lot of wear in the cam & lifters of these old motors. When you see it during a valve adjustment, go ahead & get a bigger cam. Then injection, ignition, & exhaust mods will pay off.

You can try the old USA tricks back in the distributor days, light advance springs, fixing vacuum advance plate for no advance, and add a modern MSD box. One thing about the MSD box, if you're already burning all of the gas what does adding one help? If you modify the injection it might help.

Injection? Increase fuel pressure by playing with the shims in the mixture thing with the flapper, keep forgetting what to call it but all of the injection lines come from it.

drew1

I have a full Bursch exhaust system installed on my '79 924. It works great! One or two of the mounting holes had to be enlarged a bit, but other than that there were no problems assembling the system. Just make sure to weld everything together instead of using the inferior clamps.

I have also installed the Jacobs Omni Magnum Ignition Package. This system is really nice as well. I pulled one of the spark plugs a bit ago (number 1 cylinder) and inspected it. It looked like it had only been run for a couple miles, no deposits of any kind, very clean. I've put over 2000 miles on this rebuilt head as well as using the ignition system.

i got my bursch headers from performance products for 275.00, and they came with the test pipe to delete the cat.you can feel the differance,and the sound is nice.they don't advertise them you have to ask for them.i did not have any fit problems.also i use the msd6a, its very easy to hook up. good luck..

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MSD 6A,JACOBS WIRES,BOSCH 15V COIL,+4'S,THROTTLE RESPONCE CAM,CUSTOM COLD AIR INTAKE,K&N FILTER,BURSCHE HEADERS,2 1/4 PIPING,HIGH FLOW CAT,FLOWMASTER 3 CHAMBER, TURBO FRONT END,MOMO STEERING WHEEL,STRUT BRACE,KYB'S,MOROSO BATT. BOX AND CUT OFF SWITCH,KENWOOD CD,AUTOMETER TACH AND OIL PRESS GAUGE,SUMMIT DATA RECALL SYSTEM,FALKEN TIRES,EPSILON TWO PIECE RIMS.

Tom, the throttle body came from an old 5 cylinder Audi. The local junkyard had a whole row of them and we just removed the cleanest looking one. I havn't installed yet but it looks like a very easy fit-up. It cost me $10.00.

And this (5000s) can bolt in to my 80 924FI easily? Just what is the real benefit, HP wise, for this mod? Thanx!
The Pocket Rocket 80 924

Tom, the throttle body will bolt right up to your manifold and the rubber boot will fit over the other end, no trouble. What will require a little work is getting the microswitches and the throttle cable to work. I have not done this swap yet but it looks like the shafts for the butterflies can be interchanged and all the original linkage and switch set-up can go onto the new throttle body. Obin did a post about this a while back. You may be able to find it.
I am in the process of replacing the head on the 924 with my spare that was rebuilt before I got it. I am also adding Bursch headers along with the throttle body. I will let you know how much performance all this adds. I'm guessing that there will not be a significant improvement, I'll be happy with anything noticeable......
Jon