Porsche 944: Actually there is a substitute

[sparkydog]

I started prepping the spring shackles to morph into motor mounts. The shape of the paper template was a little awkward but I quickly used it to cut the side angle on the shackles and then got rid of it before anyone asked any questions...

I also spent some time on the new gas tank. After I folded the seam over it fit nice and snug up against the spare tire cavity and the "floor" of the trunk. Hopefully this choice of tank shape/size will give me the room I need for panhard/watts/shocks. Time will tell.

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by AnotherWs6

Why the decision to go with a v6 car rather than an LS? Just curious. Is it because of emissions somehow?

Budget. I have the last of 3 kids starting college. #2 was still in college when I started this project. I also like being abnormal. And if I ever get it running and if it turns out I like driving it - then I'll use it to commute several days a week and could use the slightly better gas mileage of the V6.

[sparkydog]

I fabbed up the motor side of the motor mounts this morning. I have new bushings coming in a few days and then I can work on the K member side of the mounts.

[sparkydog]

Motor lift tool 3.0.

My previous version wasn't getting the job done. This one is overkill. The other one did not allow me to be able to slide the motor left/right. And partly because of that - and partly because the allthread was just too small - I kept stripping the threads on my leveling nuts. So on 3.0 I went with big ass long nuts and a hollow/slotted style to the design of the beam so I can more easily position the motor accurately left/right.

It also has a taller clearance over the motor and adjustable height legs!!!

[sparkydog]

And the front motor mounts are bead blasted, primed and also some seam sealer back in the crannies. I have the new bushings but will be using some machined mockup bushings for the time being while I get the K member side of the brackets designed and fabbed.

[sparkydog]

Dang! What a long day without much to show in terms of pics. I started the day with a little leveling of the car and squaring up the K member. So two rounds of plumb bob, dots on the floor, tape measure blah blah.

Then double checking motor level, square, yaw, pitch, blah blah.

Then paper doll cutouts with the forward K member side of the motor mounts.

Then fab, tack, of each forward half. Then paper dolls of the rear half. Then fab.

Then tack in. Somewhere in that I switched from the machined mock-up bushings to the real bushings. Which mean squirting welds with water so I wouldn't melt them. Bottom line is about 12 hours later I have motor mounts!!


And next up.... drop the K member, clean up the welds. Shave more of the old Mustang motor mounts off it. Fill in the A/C cutout. Over-compensate for the cutout with extra stiffeners.

And then... the trans mount, the firewall, and so on.

[Zoomin]

I admire your tenacity! Keep after it.

[Palf70Step]

[sparkydog]

The transmission cross member is coming along. Now I have to rip open the floor pan. The tubes will be "buried" into the floor halfway.

[sparkydog]

Well...
It doesn't look like much but man what a lot of work for such unspectacular results. Burying the cross member down into the floor of the 944 required mucho prep work. Shaving the urethane underbody coating off the bottom. And same same for the tar on the interior side of the floor.

Then cutting into the floor, different widths for the 4 different levels of floor from the factory stamping. Die grinder to relieve the transitions.

Long story short - I created a lot of extra work for myself (just like the other places on the car). But now I can see the light at the end of this tunnel. The cross brace is stitched in and now I can begin to design/fab the trans mount bracket. Whew!

[sparkydog]

Since my last update I have been designing, fabbing, starting over, yada yada on the transmission mount brackets. They are finally the way I want them and I will post pics after I get them painted and installed. But once I finally had them finished I decided to jump over to something "fun" like the clutch & brake pedal assembly.

I had a basic choice: use the 944 pedal assembly as the basis for my car or use the Camaro pedal assembly. In the picture you can see that they are significantly different. The 944 pedal guts are straddling the steering column while the Camaro guts are set off to the left side of the column. After a lot of gawking at them I ultimately decided I would use the Camaro guts. So I shaved off the gas pedal branch of the bracket and also the clutch master cylinder bracket so that what remained of the guts would be the portion I had to locate up inside the 944 firewall.

It's hard to describe how many variables are involved with trying to decide where to locate the pedal assy in 3D space but (at least for me) it was a real brain strain. I eventually picked my location on the firewall and drilled the mounting holes. It was almost a home run. But there were a couple of minor clearance issues - the biggest was that the brake master cylinder was just barely above the surface of the hood.

[sparkydog]

So next I cut that small area where the pedal assy mounts to the firewall and then hung the booster/MC on some wires and was able to get the whole thing pointed such that it cleared what it needed to clear and still position the pedals approximately where I need them. Then I re-welded the plate into the firewall.

Now I could cut the clearance hole in the roof of the cowl so that I could mount the clutch and brake pedals.

[sparkydog]

Then I was able to bolt up the Camaro pedal assembly for the first time and see if all the measuring, thinking and tinkering had positioned them where I wanted them.

Success! They are almost perfect and where I was aiming for. I will probably modify the arms a bit so that the pedals are 1" more forward but considering all the variables I had to deal with I am very happy about where the whole system ended up.

[Palf70Step]

Been wondering what has been going on with this. Looking good.

[sparkydog]

Merry Christmas everyone!

I've had these transmission mount brackets fabbed for some time now but was waiting for the primer, seam sealer and color coat to cure. Today I bolted them up. These are only the 2nd things in the whole project to have final paint on them.

[sparkydog]

I have also been working on finishing up the clutch/brake pedal surgery. First up was the dog house in the cowl to cover up the pedal assembly but also juuuuusst missing the wiper motor. Next was the location and orientation of the Camaro clutch master.

Getting the right position and compound angle for the clutch master cylinder proved to be difficult for me. But after hacking into and around the mustang frame graft - I finally figured it all out and then reversed my hack with fresh metal that had the required clearances for the brake and clutch master cylinders.

[sparkydog]

And some brushed on primer to clean things up a little. Also the clutch cylinder assy mocked up.

[sparkydog]

Pedal assy back in the 944 for what I thought was the last time - but the clutch master cyl is leaking so it will be back out again sometime soon.

Now I am moving on to the mods to the gas tank.

[sparkydog]

I putzed around trying to use the fuel pump module out of the Camaro in my 944 custom tank but it just wasn't working out. So I picked up this module out of a 99 Astro and the wrecking yard. At $23 I'll use it for mockup and maybe even run it for real because it looks to be in pretty good shape.

Then I started hackifying stuff. First was the level sensing arm (you'll see why in a moment.)

Then I put in my version of a factory baffle (I mimicked the baffle out of the Camaro tank.) There are two mouse holes at the rear side of the baffle and then on the exterior of the baffle there's a mini-me baffle with a divider between the mouse holes. This was the way the factory Camaro tank was setup and I figure they probably knew why this would work well.

[sparkydog]

The Astro fuel pump module is perfect for this height tank. Fully extended the springs put the locking ring a little high so they will be compressed about 1/2" lower when I get the ring welded in. And some shots of the base of the fuel module sitting in my baffle thing. The float arm was modded so that it would clear the top of the baffle wall and also extend the overall length so that the tank has to be truly full for the float/sensor to be at the max of it's range.

[TexasLS1]

Nice work!! How did you know the Astro van module would work out so well? Just a lucky try or did you have to check out a few from several vehicles? I really like the modifications to make it all come together.

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by TexasLS1

Nice work!! How did you know the Astro van module would work out so well? Just a lucky try or did you have to check out a few from several vehicles? I really like the modifications to make it all come together.

Thanks! I went into the yard looking for just the locking ring portion to cut off a donor tank. I was prepared to buy a new pump module from something else after I had a locking ring. I was targeting either an S10 or C1500 because I wanted to get their style of pump module. I also thought I'd have a better chance of finding a pickup with the tank already dropped so I wouldn't have to work as hard. And I knew a truck tank would normally be taller than a car tank.

But while I was walking around I realized an Astro might work too and would have at least a 4.3L sized fuel pump. Once I got under one to look I knew the tank height was going to be about right. The rest was luck. When I opened up the tank and saw how good of shape it was in I decided to buy the pump too and use it for at least mockup.

[sparkydog]

My hydraulic clutch rig looks like the stuff in the upper picture. My slave cylinder is the puck style with the short pipe and the female connector. The 944 trans tunnel hugs the transmission real tight and therefore the access to the coupling and the routing of the flex hose from the master cylinder is wrong. You can see in the lower pic where I have slit open my tunnel for a temp fix.

Does anyone know if I can replace the short little pipe (see my arrow) with a flex line between the puck and the female connector? This would move the whole thing down and away from the side of the transmission.

[demian5]

Being you are in Fallbrook, California, how are you going to smog this thing?

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by demian5

Being you are in Fallbrook, California, how are you going to smog this thing?

Get the CARB/BAR inspection for the 96 Camaro L36 to 86 944 engine swap, then the sticker, then go to a smog station and get it sniffed to 96 standards.