Techno Duck's LS1 conversion

There's a guy here who just got his car through Cali emissions and he didn't do the eRod swap. You won't have to swap out your motor. I think his username is prombg or something. Look up his thread about it on the board here. I'm sure he can tell you what you need to swap over...

Ive read all of pormgb's thread and have done a alot of reading on CA legal engine swaps aswell. Many aspects of my car would have to be redone in order to make it pass and i think its more trouble than its worth. Also doing all this just to be able to drive the car to the track seems sort of nuts also. Just looking at things...

-Obtain all f-body engine and emissions related parts
-Replace engine harness
-Redo the entire exhaust; getting the headers to fit does not sound fun
-Modify steering shaft to fit around headers; i am not too crazy about the extensive modifications that will be needed to the steering shaft to clear the headers, especially considering the car will be mostly track.
-Redo the intake
-Revert to stock fuel rail and fuel pressure regulator setup
-Hook up of air pump, fuel vapor purge / evap...etc

Also im not sure if the cam i have will pass a sniffer test.

With all of the above in mind, i figured the crate motor would be a much easier solution especially with the EO sticker it comes with that 'should' make the initial smog certification a little easier. I figured selling the complete LS1 and all the other associated bits i cant use anymore would likely go a long way toward funding the $8k e-rod crate engine.

I am pretty burnt out with this car and dont think have it in me to take on another engine swap or attempting to make it CA smog legal. I was looking forward to just routine oil changes!

Another thing i could do is just keep the NY plates and registration on the car. I'd throw a cat on the car also to play it safe. But with how profile the car is already, it will stick out even more with NY plates on it. I feel like this is really asking for trouble. This is a somewhat short term solution also because if the NYS inspection lapse is over 1-year from expiration i wont be able to renew my registration.

I figure i have atleast another year before ill no longer have a NY address to keep the car registered, so ive got some time to figure out what to do.

Not an official for sale yet; but if anyone has any interest in buying this car let me know. Well sorted, runs really well and hauls ass!

I can already sense the collective face palms from everyone that has followed this build from start to finish; but i think its time to move on! Plans for this year have changed quite a bit and the more i think about it, its just not feasible to keep as a track car over the next few years. Ive been thinking about keeping the car in storage but i also dont want to take a break from the track.

The cheapest and best track car is the one you already own. Makes no sense to sell a sorted track car to just buy another one of unknown providence.

Perhaps you mean provenance, no providence...

Getting excited for some fun with the car in mid June. Will be doing two back to back auto-x's followed by two days at NJMP June 18-19 with the Schattenbaum region PCA. Ill probably be the only LS swapped car there, just look for #848 on the windows if anyone else is going. Looking forward to getting some miles in, haven't driven the car since January.

Still undecided what i will do with the car, but i am sort of leaning towards putting it into storage. I have posted it for sale and to my surprise have some interest in it, just not sure i am ready to sell.. I picked up another 'toy', an '88 911 3.2L so this will likely be my new focus atleast for now. The 951 is pretty much just get in and drive at this point now anyway!

Cool, let the good times roll. Still interested in that spare tranny, some interest in the car but the tranny is financially doable....

Glad to hear you have some interest in the car.

I've been toying with selling mine and have been wondering how easily and what it would sell for...

Finished up the double header auto-x today. Day one was brutal hot and humid, day two slightly cooler but with some really intense sun. Cooling on the car was adequate to get me through the day but i still found myself opening the hood between runs to try and shed as much heat as possible. This was probably worst case scenario running hard for 45-50 seconds then sitting in staging for 4-5 minutes..repeat that 6 times in a row with it being 90+ degrees and humid as hell. Needless to say it was a damn sauna in the car also! I think adding a vent to the hood, just after the radiator would be helpful to give some place for all the hot air coming off the radiator a place to go. Definitely something i will look into doing in the future.

Anyhow the car performed great. I have finally started getting used to having the limited slip; the amount of grip through turns is impressive to say the least, i am still learning the limits of the car but i found i was able to get on the throttle much earlier than i thought possible to help accelerate myself through the turns. The torque is also just awesome with the 944 chassis. Predictable, instant and plenty of it make for simple throttle steering. It also amazes me how quickly the car can change direction even with that big lump of American push-rod V8 up front. I know the weight difference is marginal between the two engines but it still amazes me.

The car was a big hit as usual also with the other drivers .

I am supposed to do NJMP thursday and friday but i think that i may cancel. The weather thursday is looking iffy with rain and friday looks like its going to be another hot one. Probably not worth the traffic i will inevitably get stuck in one the way home.

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I'm hitting the track this Saturday for the first time this season. I'm curious to see how my hood vents work.

I do have a carbon fiber hood scoop I was going to put just behind the radiator but decided not to use it. It's the one Road Race sells, let me know if you want it.

Car is currently in storage at my friends shop, havent made much progress on deciding whether to sell it or not yet. When i get back home in a few weeks i am going to shop around for indoor storage. There are a few options with San Diego having such a high military population. I am considering just sitting on the car for a year or two and seeing what happens.

Here are a few recent pictures

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Sweet machine, Man! Love the wheels! I told a friend here in Seattle about it but I think he's going to get a GT3.

Rich

Thanks Rich. Ill be in Seattle for 5 days 27-31st. Shoot me a PM if you want to grab a beer.

2 month update! The 951 will be making its way to SoCal in about 6-8 weeks. Ive been tasked with being a caretaker of my friends Ram 3500 while he is on assignment in Japan for the next few years so ill have one bad-assed tow vehicle at my disposal . This worked out pretty well in my favor; looking forward to hitting the west coast tracks, Laguna Seca has long been a dream!

I am not going to make any changes to the car like adding a cat or swapping the cam in an attempt to register the car in NV and pass emissions with it. Ill just be turning it into a trailer queen. I will however likely retune it for 91 octane as its setup for 93 right now. Dont want to be bothered having to dump in octane booster or finding race fuel.

Excellent, enjoy those tracks.

Excellent opportunity. New tracks are always fun!

The 951 has officially retired to SoCal and can soak up the warm weather. Intercity delivered the car after just 7-days in transit coast to coast. They were great work with, would definitely use them again.

I put about 200 miles on it, took a ride hugging the coast and just cruised up I-5 with it. I also took it to one of the larger Cars and Coffee's.

I am going to try and make an auto-x at the end of the month but i have some sound restrictions to deal with now. 93db limit which i dont think my current exhaust will pass. Single 4" all the way back out through a Magnaflow muffler. I am thinking of installing a 2nd race muffler before the Magnaflow like this one from Vibrant; part # 1797. Anyone have any experience with how well mufflers like this actually work? I am wondering if i may need to go with a larger canister style muffler to quiet it down enough. Other than the auto-x venue the only other sound restrictions are at Laguna Seca which i absolutely want to attend so quieting the exhaust down is inevitable i suppose.

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Being able to compare the 951 and 911 now back to back it amazes me how different the cars are even though both are 1988 model years. Despite the suspension work and the brute power of the 951 now the 911 still feels completely archaic in driving dynamics. The 951 i always thought had good steering feel but the 911 makes it feel numb in comparison with the manual rack. The interior of the 911 is incredibly dated also compared to the 951. The 911 is easy to work on due to how simple a car it is, but one thing i really dislike is the car is a combination of old and new style electrical. Sort of a mix between the early 944's that used spade terminals all over the place instead of connectors and the later 944's with molex connectors on everything. Still i found the 951 completely exhausting to drive after 2+ hours behind the wheel. Between the noise and the shifting its draining. I need to dig into it some but the 951 just does not shift very smoothly, not sure if its trans fluid, linkage or possibly clutch disengagement. Its mostly just very difficult to get into first gear sometimes, i'm not sure what gear oil the shop used so that is a good starting point. Also the clutch is feeling a little iffy right now, i believe the master cylinder might be leaking by as the push rod boot appears like it might be wet when i peaked under the dash. Ive noticed the pedal engagement has changed also. I think i will need to look at a better master cylinder solution.

Anyhow i plan to continue developing this car over the next year or so. On my list right now is to look into the shifting. I need to have the car retuned for 91 octane aswell. Also i would like to address the cooling, my initial thinking is to possibly cut out the radiator support so the radiator can be moved forward maybe 2-3 inches. Wwith this work, also install a larger oil cooler and properly duct everything. Moving the radiator forward will aid in cooling by allowing a larger radiator fan and also giving a place for the displaced air to go. Finally ill also vent the hood just behind the radiator. I think alot of my problem right now is the slimline fan i am running just isnt powerful enough to displace the air coming out of the radiator as its literally blowing right up against the engine. Ive noticed the car cools at idle significantly better without the engine undertray on. With the higher ambient temps around here i still have some concerns with cooling capacity, as of now it will barely only half a degree or so in temp with the fan running constantly in traffic so its barely adequate.

Anyhow i am still doing a mechanical restoration of my 911, so ill probably begin chipping away at the 951 hopefully before spring of next year.

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I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder

First gear ONLY in my car is stiff at times. What Ive noticed is shifting is good on cooler days and harder on hotter days. Shifting changes in fall temps by the day, if its cooler in the morning its good and hotter in the afternoon little harder. my spec stage 1 package is sure of one thing - likes the clutch dumped and the gas pounded,  real nice unless your in McDonald's 5 cars back.  I have 2- 944's and the good thing about that is one fast and slow. My shifting got better when I made adjustments on the the centering slot on the piece above the trans. I actually cut the adjustment rod  1/4 shorter ( the directions said no need to adjust but I don't follow directions well) on the short shifter (from only944)  to allow more movement of the centering bolt. I haven't done more adjusting because I'm not always working on car.  For cooling  I went with the Chinese  "winner racing" radiator from Ebay which is an all aluminum beefed up Porsche duplicate,  stock fans and a 160' thermostat, I never get over 195'. If I jump out on high way it will run 180' until I get back into stop and go traffic then back to 195' it actually will come down a little if the street speed is 40 or so higher for long runs. A friend has a supped 944T and even though his clutch is easy to push I still stall it also he has a 911 which is harder for me to drive I guess because the cable and after getting out of those two cars it takes me 3 stop lights to get back to the swing of things with my LS944. then when I get home and I drive my stock 944 it feels like I put the clutch threw the floor board and it takes two lights to learn that car again.

Retuned this morning for 91 octane with expected results. All we did was pull 2 degrees of timing to give some more safety margin. The result was a drop in about 20bhp. Currently putting down 363whp / 349ft-lbs. With 93oct it made 382whp / 348ft-lbs.

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I havent noticed the loss of 20bhp...

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Many more miles covered the past few weeks .

Local friend took great pictures at a Cars and Coffee meet yesterday, beats my usual iPhone posts.

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A few recent pictures from last weekend

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Comically large exhaust..

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Beautiful...almost as nice as your company's stock (SeaDrill Ltd) going up 123% today.!.!

Arrangements have been made to have a one take feature done on my car by Matt Farrah of The Smoking Tire. For those unfamiliar, he is an automotive journalist with a fairly popular YouTube channel, one of the things he does is reviews on user submitted cars; mostly unique and 'cool' cars. He recently did a 928 but has not yet done a 944 series car, let alone a swapped one. Looking forward to getting some feedback on the car from someone that has driven nearly everything under the sun. The reception on RL from the news made me roll my eyes. . As usual the haters gonna hate. I just figured it should be fun and a good way to give these cars some more notoriety; LS swapped or not.

Here's another picture from a few weeks back also

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Anyhow as far as future plans for this car, ive been talking about it for a while but ive been preparing to post it up for sale the last few weeks. Wrote out an advert and took a ton of pictures a few weeks back. A friend of mine from back in NY has expressed some interest in possibly buying the car, hopefully i can work something out with him. It will sting a little less knowing the car would goto someone that can appreciate all the work that went into it. I am trying to find time to get a track day in before hand, but i think by mid summer or fall ill put it back on the market. Almost all of my free time has been focusing on my 911, so not much attention has been given to the 951.

Awesome! Looking forward to the video.