I just saw some nice seats on an 850 and was wondering if the skins would fit on 940 wagon seat frames and cushions?

 

not even close.

 

I guess my eyes deceived me. Because they look very similar to 960 seats(especially the post '95 960's) and I know 960 and 940 seats will exchange?

 

the 940/960 seats are considerably broader than the more bucket-like 850. I had both cars at one point (got rid of the 850).

740/760/940/960 seats are interchangeable at the bolt-to-the-floor point, however, the skins don't interchange between 7 and 9 because 7 had a longer base. also, different years of 7-9 have different power connections for seat heaters, seat belts, motor power (however power connectors can be swapped with a bit of tinkering). also some cars have different seat belt arrangements, these too can be swapped between the seat frames.

 

Good to know. Thanks

 

Sorry Pierce, it's been a while but I wanted to ask if there's any difference between pre-1995 960's and post-1995 960's, as far as the seats. I know the later models had a body and suspension redesign that was similar to the 850's that followed, but are the seats similar? I found some great seats off a '97 960 that I'd like to put in my '93 940.

 

that I can't say. my wife had a 96 S90 but it was like new, and I never did more than oil changes.

pretty easy to take a tape measure, and measure the distance between the rails, and from the front to rear bolts

 

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. BTW, did you have the classic problems with your S90(960)?

 

her S90 ran fine, until one day she was tooling down the freeway near here shuttling one or another of our kids, and blam, engine shutdown, crankcrankcrank, wouldn't start. towed to shop, broken timing belt, was still 25K miles from next scheduled replacement, go figger. the car was still in real nice shape, so rather than risk a $$$$$ bill on bent valves and cracked pistons, we flipped it to the mechanic at the garage for a reasonable price. she put a new belt on it, and got a low mileage head off a wreck and the pistons were fine. last I heard, her daughter was still driving it.

before that, my wife had a 93 960 wagon, it also was a great runner, no problems to speak of but was bent in a tail end crash and towed to the great junkyard in the sky.

the 96 had its gearing and shifting better sorted, I think... the 93's normal vs sport mode didn't quite nail it.

we owned both of those cars when they were just a few years old, kept them about 5 or so years til their untimely ends

 

I've heard the broken timing belt story and the overheating, blown head gasket story many times and that's a shame. Otherwise, I think, they we're great cars - the ultimate refinement of the rwd series. Too bad Porsche didn't do a better job on that engine.

 

all alloy inline 6's seem to be prone to head gasket issues. any trace of overheating greatly stresses said head gasket.

the whiteblock motors are built like a sandwich. the valve cover *is* the cam journals, the block itself is two pieces that split at the crankshaft. so they are a sandwich of oil pan, lower block/crankcase, main block, head, valve cover, all alloy. the cylinders are cast in place.

my understanding was that Porsche's involvement was limited to the head design, optimizing the ports, valves.

this is the 5 cyl version, the 4's and 6s were virtually the same just +/- a cylinder....







(actually the 1996 850 T5 version, 2.3L, B2534FT)

 

Since those cars had so many Japanese parts already, they should have put a Toyota v6 in there. Lotus does it now.

 

ah, but i5 and i6 engines are so much smoother than a v6. only thing smoother than a I6 is a V12

 

Granted. But it's a shame no one can build a reliable one. I see so many 850's and 960's at the junkyards that it's pathetic. I did own a Lexus with a v6 for a while and it was a pretty smooth motor.