so i bought a porsche.......
 

ive been looking for a project car for a while. it had to be small, light and rwd, and i wanted something you dont see everywhere. i had been through the datsun 510s, 70s celicas and corollas, almost bought a cortina, i ended up with an idea for something different and ran with it.

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its a 1985.5 porsche 944 non turbo. i looked at a few of these cars and this was the best fit, clean car, drove nice and priced right. its a hell of a good handling car, just way underpowered for what it is.

so whats my plan? well, itll get some wheels, might do a flares, drop it a bit, oh and this
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i built that engine in 2008 for a friends sunbird. well years later, and not that many miles the car has changed hands and is getting parted out, and im getting the engine back. its a 2.2l ecotec, wiseco pistons, eagle rods, ported head, balance shaft delete, and a bunch of other goodies. it ran off a megasquirt 2 ecm. i built it based off the gm build book for 400hp. the engine never really was pushed, the car couldnt take it at 10psi.

should be a heck of a fun car with 400hp.

Good luck, to be honest though it's almost a shame you got such a clean car to cut up. I love the factory wheels, any aftermarket replicas that are better sized?

looks like a good project and a very clean car. there are a few of those around here but non are that clean.

That car is going to move out with the new powertrain.
What are you going to use for a trans?
IIRC the 944 have the trans in the rear...

T56? Or solstice trans?

Haha my brother in law has the same exact car. He says it will blow the doors of an LNF.

Well it's a nice color

It wouldnt even be able to keep up with my LSJ let alone the LNF

I love it! Congrats!

once i read small and light i knew it would be a 944 :D :D Sweet project dude!

Its really clean for it being as old as me :lol:

Yes the trans is mounted in the rear of the car. I'll be using the stock trans and torque tube and making an adapter to bolt a solatice bellhousing up to the torque tube
It's sort of a shame to cut up, although I'm over it. Last night I had a huge fireball from underneath the car, lost oil pressure and had to coast off the road. The front of the motor is soaked in oil and I have no idea where it's coming from as of yet

I imagine you meant Sunfire, but the thought of that motor going in a Sunbird is just flippin sweet :lol:

I used to want one of these when I was a youngster. But now I'd rather a 911 turbo. Looks great though. Good luck with the swap.

ill take a 914/6 or a 944 over a 911 anyday...

I see too many 911s in Austin as it is. I'd rather see somebody's idea of a hot rodded 944, WITHOUT AN LS SWAP, any day.

no i meant a sunbird

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it started life as a 90 sunbird turbo convertable, it got an 87 z24 cavalier front end and 92 cavalier tail lights. the main reason we built it was because everyone said its impossible to put an ecotec in a 1st or 2nd gen j-body. it was actually quite simple, however nobody has been able to replicate it.

That looks like an epic car I'd like to see more vids of it! But this ecotec powered Porsche should be crazy as hell can't wait to see how this turns out!

That is sweet!!!

the car was kinda cool in its day. its been neglected through the years and is in pretty rough shape.

Nice looking car... love the 944.

Some guy runs one of those with an LS engine in it at Putnam Park.

ls swaps in the 944 is actually quite common. quicktimes makes a bellhousing to bolt it direct to the torque tube, spec makes the clutch setup, and several companies make mount kits. kooks even makes a set of ls swap headers. about the only thing thats not so easy about it is there is no direct swap wiring harness as of yet. with an aluminum ls it doesnt change the weight of the front very much, the stock 4 cyl is 450lbs, almost the same as an ls.

that being said, im going to need to lighten the back of mine to keep the weight balance, the ecotec is significantly lighter.

you should swapp than autocross it ;)

thats the plan

yey

So what broke?

turns out the oil filter was loose enough and it managed to blow the seal out, however it didnt leak a drop till that point. i was taking the engine out when i discovered it, managed to get it together enough to fire it to find out the old engine is still ok. just means i can sell it as a running engine.

Good to here.

Build thread?

this is it

well i havent wasted any time getting it torn apart. old engines out, engine bay is all cleaned up and stripped of all the unneeded crap (which surprisingly isnt that much). i also pulled the ecotec out of its old home today and got it to the shop, ill get it washed and then its ready for the fun to begin.

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ive been looking at some options forgetting the engine in and it looks like itll be more difficult than i first though. difficult, but not impossible. my first big hurdle is getting the engine bolted to the torque tube. i was planning to use the solstice bellhousing, however its a deep bellhousing, looks like its 1 1/2" too deep. there are several aftermarket bellhousings available for the ecotec, quicktimes makes one to mate the ecotec to a t56, it looks like thats going to be the right depth with an adapter plate to go from the t56 pattern to the porsche torque tube. i might also look into a custom bellhousing, i have the contacts through my shop or the guy who makes the bellhousings for quicktimes. next hurdle will be the oil pan, the sump is going to occupy the same area as the cradle. i know there are a couple aftermarket wet sump pans out there, however i may just modify the stock pan myself.

This car is going to be sick.

Signing up for dibs when you sell it lol

So much win

so i got it hanging in place tonight

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ive got a lot of work ahead of me to get it mounted. the solstice mount brackets i ordered are not going to work, so ill have to fab those from scratch. im debating weather to cut the stock oil pan up or get a flange cut and start from scratch. if i use the stock pan ill have to cut the sump in half, then extend the rear of the sump to get the volume. the oil filter housing hits the firewall, although i think thats just going to take some hammer modding to clear. this motor has the egr manifold piece on the back of the head, im considering cutting it off as its just about touching the firewall. it also looks like im going to have to go with manual brakes, the booster is very close to the head and there looks to be no room for the intake manifold. i did count on making my own intake manifold anyways, it just looks like itll be a little more complex.

for some good news, i figured out a solution for the bellhousing. the quicktime ecotec to ls1 t56 bellhousing is the right depth to make a 1/2" thick adapter plate. so thats one issue sorted out.

yeay

got the motor were it needs to be in the car. cut off part of the egr crossover, had to cut the power steering pump mounting location down, and had to do some grinding on the oil filter housing to get it to clear. now that i have it where it needs to be i can start looking at other things.

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i decided to ditch the a/c. i wanted to keep it, however the steering rack seems to be taking every bit of room that the a/c compressor would occupy. im also having to go with manual brakes. its actually a fairly common thing to have to do with the v8 swaps, and with a proper master cylinder its not really an issue. at this point im thinking ill just forget power steering as well. pushing the car around the steering was pretty light with the old engine in, the front end should be 100lbs lighter with the ecotec, so i dont think itll be an issue.

as you can see in the one pic, the intake manifold is still going to be interesting. using the plastic one for mock up, i can see the saab turbo manifold isnt going to work very easy. one of the aftermarket style manifolds (ttr, hahn, etc) isnt going to clear things either. i need to research what it takes to put an lnf intake on an l61, having the throttle body on the bottom might just be the answer.

biggest thing is i need to get some parts on order. gotta have a bellhousing and build the adapter before i can build engine mounts. once its bolted in i can start fabbing an oil pan, turbo manifold, and all the other fun goodies.

This is becoming my favorite swap with a quickness.

nice work so far

thanks.

havent gotten much picture worthy in the last couple days. little stuff, like moving all the wiring off the firewall, getting a firewall plate started for the brake master cylinder, stuff like that. ive got some parts drawn up that im going to cut on my friends cnc mill tomorrow. i was going to pull the steering rack apart and de-power it, however i cant decide what colors im going to powdercoat everything in the engine bay so thats not going to happen till i decide (figure the rack will be apart, may as well powder coat it).

waiting for parts sucks.

got some machining done this weekend. made a set of subframe spacers and a master cylinder reservoir mount

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tonight i ordered up a solid trans mount. the transmission is hung from above in these cars, and as a result when the mount wears out it can swing side to side. im going to use the solid mount to help get the engine mounted (it will hold the trans exactly were it should be) then modify it to put some small bushings in later.

This is awesome build and a really clean 944.

YES!! I love the 944's! Always wanted one. Good luck!!