Porsche 944: Actually there is a substitute

[sparkydog]

I didn't like how thin the sheet metal was that holds the 4 link arm bolts so I added some heat treated washers 8 places. Then spent a couple hours cleaning and scuffing all the nooks and crannies of the chunk of Mustang. Saturday morning was calm so I rattle canned epoxy primer everywhere I could. No pics but I also have the C notches in the 944 fitted with new filler metal and ready.

[Mil-Spec]

Good work Sparky. Look forward to the updates.

Any further thoughts on your 3800 debacle? To get the engine further back and preserve your HVAC system, had you considered creating a new piece of ducting to relocate your throttle body and gain some clearance?

Also what plans do you have for the 3800, performance wise, or do you plan to run it stock?

Thanks

[sparkydog]

If I didn't live in California I could almost do any logical thing I wanted to the L67 motor and get it to work. But I have to (and I want to) try and live within the spirit of the engine swap regs here. So I am leaning toward putting an L36 (Camaro/Firebird V6) into the 944, get it legal and back on the road, see how much I do/don't enjoy the car and then go from there. There will be less issues if I use the RWD version of the 3800 1st. I need a lot of the parts off this anyway - headers, accessories, fuel tank, etc.

[sparkydog]

I'm just back from a 1 week long biz trip. The epoxy primer from last weekend had plenty of time to cure and the 1st thing I did was go over to it and sniff the fresh paintedness. Before I left last Sunday I managed to get a teensy bit of work done to the C notches. I have some of the patch sections welded in. The last shot shows the Mustang subframe back up under the 944. When it is time to weld it in I want to have as much of the structural welding be horizontal fillets as possible. The last pic shows that at least in this area I will have an easy time laying down a big juicy fillet.

[sparkydog]

Finally the 944 is equipped with the triangulated 4-link geometry of a late 90's Mustang. Friday afternoon I lined it all up for the last time and tack welded the subframe in. Today I burned all the big welds and additional gussets.

And yet there is still a long way to go.

[sparkydog]

I did a few more welds to continue to tie the chunk-o-Mustang and 944 together and then added 2 stabilizer brackets to the forward cross tube of the overkill exoskeleton. This will allow me to continue to use that remnant of the exoskeleton to support the car on my work stands for a while longer. Then I cut out the remaining 3 sections of the exoskeleton. This cleared out the way for the Mustang rear axle to snuggle up into the location jig for the last time. Then I fabbed two brackets that will position the axle at my intended ride height. Once they were done I could cut out the final remains of all that conduit I once had. And once I did that... I could mount some wheels on the axle and get the 944 down on the ground.

[sparkydog]

And looking a bit like an awkward newborn moose standing all askew - there she is - back on the ground after 4.5 months. The last pic shows the potential room I have to put a wider tire on the back.

[sparkydog]

I was trying to save this portion of the trans tunnel because it had the anchor bolts for the rear seat belts. But it was going to be a challenge to slice it up and blend it properly so today I cut it out and got started on some new sheet metal. (Donor for this section of sheet metal was the roof of the Mustang.)

[sparkydog]

The tunnel is patched up and now the somewhat smaller holes are starting to get filled in.

[Palf70Step]

Late getting a view of this one, but I am enjoying the heck out of it like with Sparkydog. Nice work!!

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Late getting a view of this one, but I am enjoying the heck out of it like with Sparkydog. Nice work!!

Thanks Palf! I'm glad you followed me onto the next build.

Well I'm still plugging away at plugging up all the holes. The first picture is just to help me self-motivate - a reminder of how much I have done in a couple of months. There is a lot going on in the area where the yellow is. Very Frankensteinish in here. The latest thing was I decided (yet again) to shave some more stuff off the chunk-o-mustang and smooth out the area near the upper spring perches. The second picture is a close up of that area. I like my little cones/boobies!!

Third pic is the wheel well side of the upper spring perch - cone/booby theme on that side too.

And yet I still have dozens of smaller factory holes to fill. Not to mention others drilled by the PO that I have been spotting as I crawl around the back end.

[sparkydog]

...and 6 months later there's the chunk-o-mustang fully grafted and with primer. Now for some seam sealer on all the white areas both front and rear.

And then it will be time to start on fun things like motor, trans, fuel system and so on.

[FarmerSid]

Wow! What a build.

[Palf70Step]

Waiting to see more!!

[sparkydog]

Sealer Fest!

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by FarmerSid

Wow! What a build.

Right back at ya, FarmerSid! I just read yours.

[sparkydog]

I made these two cover plates last weekend and tonight I seam-sealed them into place. I didn't want to weld them in case I ever need to gain access into the area they cover.

And the 3rd pic is just showing that I have started sealing the engine bay stuff that I welded in last year.

[sparkydog]

I decided to go ahead and fab up the 944's lower steering shaft bearing mount. I may have to mod this later but wth - I was feeling reckless today.

First up was finding the little bearing guy and stripping it down to bare essentials. This was a shot as I started drilling out the spot welds that used to hold the sleeve onto the OG 944 firewall. But now the firewall is about 4.5" farther back. So guess what looks to be a great diameter for a buck to bend a new bearing tube??? A made in the USA galvanized fence post!

So I bent up a little section of metal to enclose the part of the 944 steering shaft that is hanging out in the mostly Mustang engine bay and started tacking it into position.

[sparkydog]

The 944 is basically hibernating while I scrape up cash to start buying parts for it. But I have two small, somewhat pathetic updates. First - a 944 washed up in the local JY and it had a rear wiper delete plug on it that somehow made it home in my pocket. It's head was shaped like a large carriage bolt which I then personalized by shaving the top off on a lathe and then blending on my drill/lathe with the flapper disk. After bead blasting at work and a coat of satin black - here's the only thing I've added since the last post.

[sparkydog]

Second pathetic thing was that I discovered that my 2000 DD Grand Prix has the same lug pattern as a Mustang so I got to wondering what my GPrix wheels and tire would look like on the 944. So today I farted away an hour and slapped the wheel on the 944. As you can see in the pic - and I swear it was intentional - when I grafted the Mustang front end into the 944 I put it about 1/2" further forward from a stock 944. I wanted to "help" whatever clearance issues I will have with whatever motor I put in. I knew it was a gamble as to whether I could mount up a wheel/tire combo that would clear the fender.

Once I got the GPrix wheel on I fished the front lower valence of the 944 down from the attic of the garage and stuck it on the 944...

FWIW these pics lead me to believe that I will probably have some fender lip/flare mods someday in my future. The rears won't even mount so I couldn't take a pic of them.

[sparkydog]

Schwing!!! I have good news ladies! I was able to sell Halfbreed and am now able to fund further progress on the 944.

For over a year now I have been window shopping on Craigslist for a donor V6 Firebird or Camaro with a manual transmission, California original car (for CA smog rules when transplanting motors), reasonably low miles, running, capable of passing smog, etc etc.

Yesterday I pulled the trigger on a donor. Here it is as of today after doing a little in-patient probing. The car was reasonably well taken care of. It's a 96 Camaro so it has the world-class version T5 with the hydraulic clutch. It had a bad boo-boo on the front and rear passenger side corners. The rear owie was enough to bend the axle - as I discovered when I tried towing it home on the dolly.

Picture of Rrear wheel - if you look closely you can see that the bead lock is basically torn off for a section of the rim. I ended up putting on the spare, then later taking it off and yanking out the brake shoes so the wheel would rub less and then ultimately towing it at 35mph on backroads for 50 miles so that the tire rubber wouldn't get so hot it blew. Made it home but Gilligan's Island style - my 3hr trip took 6 hours.

[sparkydog]

My basic plan is to make sure it is in running condition before I harvest all the stuff off of it. I want to make sure that I know what it was doing before I remove the motor and brains so that I've got a baseline to go off of when it's in the 944 and maybe fights me as I try to bring it to life. Towards that end I got it running today. The only thing I am fighting is an aftermarket car alarm system that is piggy-backed onto the GM anti-theft stuff. I have cut the wires off the aftermarket siren so I don't drive myself and the neighbors batsh**. I can get in the car, disable the aftermarket system with it's fob, start the car and make it go vroom vroom OK. But when I turn off the motor and shut the door the GM BCM starts going nutty making all kinds of clicking noises. I think it's trying to tell me something but I can't figure it out. There's a relay inside it that is sort of buzzing/doorbelling fast. I can make it go away about 50% of the time by re-inserting the key in the ignition and starting the car, then turn it off again.

I'd really like to reverse out the aftermarket wiring and get the car to behave like it did stock before I yank all the stuff out. But maybe I'm just wasting my time because I will need to disable VATS anyway once it's in the 944. Thoughts anyone?

[sparkydog]

For the record the Camaro is going to donate:
Motor
Transmission
Bellhousing/clutch/starter
Clutch/brake/throttle pedal assembly
ECU and possible BCM
All engine accessories and brackets (because the Camaro has the low-profile nose so all the accessories are mount low-profile.)
Headers and exhaust back to the CAT & oxy sensors in stock config (CARB requirement).
Fuel tank, filler, Fume evac canister (more CARB requirement).
Air intake system (more CARB stuff).
Gage cluster (just in case I want to use/graft with 944)

So because of all that ^^^ I'm glad I was able to find a running but wounded donor so that I did not have to piecemeal it all together and then wonder why it didn't work together.

Besides which I sort of have a thing for doing car builds made from 3 cars at a time.

[TexasLS1]

Nice update!!

I don't have any real suggestions in regards to the security system, it sounds like someone wired in a rat's nest! I did have a 2001 Camaro SS prior to my current '72 C10 (man I miss that car :/ ), and I was having an issue similar to yours -- turn the key on and lights/dash/relays would flash and go berserk, but it would not start. I thought for sure it was the VATS or a bad key or the factory security system bugging out. I figured out it was actually a bad battery connection. The terminals were tight and appeared clean, but the side-post battery had actually leaked acid into the battery cable, so I could not see the severe corrosion inside until I actually cut away the cable's jacket/insulation. I actually got the car home by pouring water onto and into the positive cable, which helped create continuity I guess?

Sorry for the long story, but you might check the battery cables for internal corrosion, although yours sounds more like it has something to do with allllll that glorious wiring spliced in

[TexasLS1]

There used to be a user on LS1.com that was a whiz when it came to the computers in the F-Body cars - his username was Frost, Tunes by Frost was the name of his business or website or whatever; he'd be a good resource for removing the VATS. There may be a write-up somewhere about removing it, I'll try to do a search to find something. I think I agree with you though - I'd prefer to remove the aftermarket alarm and fix everything back to stock to do the transplant