Important technical items that need to be taken care of when rebuilding any older 944, these include:

1. Replacement of the timing belt, the balance shaft belt, and the alternator belt (the Haynes repair manual illustrates this well). If the timing belt fails or slips expensive engine damage will occur as the valves come into contact with the pistons.

2. Install new wheel bearings and seals on all four hubs. Keep in mind that the stub axles are only about an inch in diameter and any scoring and cracking here can cause major trouble. It's a good idea to Magna Flux these axles.

3. Brakes. Pads should be replaced with new units. Machine or replace the rotors if required. For peace of mind I rebuilt the calipers. Caliper rebuild kits are available and don't cost much. Bleed the brakes with DOT 4 brake fluid.

4. A Major Tune Up was required on my 944 and this will likely be required on most of the older 944's. I replaced; the distributor cap with a Porsche original part, the ignition wires (don't pay big bucks for factory wires! get an Accel or Mallory 8 or 8.8mm wire kit and cut and fabricate your own set. Retain the rubber grommets that the original wires use to seal the top of the spark plug hole (at the top of the cylinder head) and reuse these on your new wire set), the rotor (Bosch), all four spark plugs (I used Bosch Platinum's), the ignition coil (I used an Accel Super Coil, this works great and saves $$$), the filters (oil, fuel, air), I also retimed the cam and re- indexed the balance shafts (Haynes Repair Manual shows this quite well).

5. Ensure that a compression test is accomplished to better understand wear and tear on the engine.
Also, make sure you read the old spark plugs before you toss them.

A leak down test is best. Supply 80 PSI of compressed air to the cylinder (with the piston at TDC of the power stroke) via the spark plug hole and measure the pressure in PSI that the cylinder will actually hold. A 10-PSI loss is acceptable. Over a 10-PSI loss means your engine is getting tired. If you find a poor cylinder remove the oil filler cap, while the compressed air is being applied, if you hear air rushing through the block your rings are worn. If you hear compressed air escaping through the exhaust the exhaust valve is burnt. If you remove the intake plenum and hear air rushing out through the intake manifold the intake valve is worn. This is an excellent check to have done before you spend big money on purchasing your Porsche.

6. Wheels and Tires: I'm running new Michelin XGT Radials, P205 60R15 at the front and P215 60R15 at the rear on stock ATS alloy wheels.

New tires and a good tire balance with new gas shocks will almost completely restore the factory ride and the legendary Porsche handling. Good front wheel balancing will eliminate that unwanted steering wheel shimmy (make sure they remove the old weights before balancing).