I recently purchased a 1986 Porsche 944 and after a few days of driving I naturally started thinking, “Hey what can I do to perk this thing up?” The second thing that popped into my head was, “while spending little or no money.”
I quickly remembered back to one of my earlier 944 acquisitions that had a small fast acting throttle cam. While this obviously adds no horsepower to the car, it does open the throttle substantially quicker, translating to much better throttle response. Even though the car had a perfectly good throttle cam, it just opened the throttle too slowly. The problem is the “cam” takes up the first half of the pedal travel to open the throttle only 20%, giving a very slow, soft throttle response. The answer seemed simple, remove center cam section from the wheel and reposition the cable anchor to accommodate the new shorter pedal travel.
The decision was made; a new faster acting throttle cam was going to be the first performance upgrade for this car, and it wasn’t going to cost me any money!
Throttle cam modification-
(Note stock throttle cam configuration)
1- Remove the throttle cam from the car.
2- Drill and tap a 5mm hole at the farthest end of the solid section of the throttle cam.
3- Drill a .125-inch pilot hole 12mm counter clockwise and 3mm inboard of the original cable-anchoring hole. Then progressively re-drill the hole with larger drill bits until a .250-inch hole is achieved. This step drilling process is intended to decrease the risk of breakage, as the perimeter of the throttle cam is very delicate.
4- Clamp the throttle cam in a vise and remove the center of the cam material not part of the base circle. (A die grinder wheel works best for this but a hacksaw can be used in a pinch)
5- Clean and smooth out new center section as not to cause any abrasion to the throttle cable.
6- Install the newly modified throttle cam on the throttle plate shaft and check cable adjustment.
Dual profile feature:
After the new throttle cam is installed the cable can be moved to its original position and a 5mm screw installed at the hole made in step #2. This 30-second operation will return the throttle cam to its original configuration, if desired.
Good Luck
Appointments - Ask a Tech - BMW - Porsche - Detailing - Directions - Events - Feedback - History - Links - Main -
Message Board - Order Form - Parts - PCA - Products - Quotes - Staff - Subscriptions - Warranty