majormojo's LY6 swap

Woo! Got the engine in for a first test fit today! Finally, this feels like something is really happening. I know there's lots of work left, but this is a nice milestone. I'd set myself the goal of having the engine in by the end of the year and I made it with a day to spare.  
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Started the day with the engine still on the stand and used an old shoelace to confirm the length of the serp belt needed for this routing. The belt I ended up getting is too long by 4.5 in, so I think something got mixed up, I'll change it tomorrow.
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I first tried this setup with a creeper but it wasn't level or low enough to get in through the fender well at max extension of my jack lifting the car.
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This worked, although the old creeper I was using wasn't very happy about it. I used the 2x6 under the jack to get a bit more lift on the car and we had plenty of room to roll the engine in through the fender well. Left the lift chains hooked up so we could pick it up and pull it into position.
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It took a lot of fiddling and pushing and shoving to get the bell housing mated up properly and then a bunch more to get the front subframe re-connected. I don't know how this will work next time when I have the flywheel, clutch, pressure plate and pilot bearing installed. Lining up that pilot is going to be a pain. It would be nice to have some kind of jig to hold the engine at the correct angle. The bell housing / torque tube was hanging down too low as well, so we used a small bottle jack under that to line it up properly.
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A few photos showing the various clearances, or lack thereof.
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Next up, do a test fit of the wiring harness and look for any other opportunities to improve the fit of the engine. Right now, I can't imagine how the steering rod is going to clear the header, will have to work on that too. I'll also measure for the pilot bearing/adaptor positioning and the coolant lines.

Did a few little jobs over the past couple days. After 3 trips to the parts store I think I've found a combination of serp belt and idler pulleys that fit. The belt is still really close to this alt mounting bolt and I'm not comfortable with that. I moved down to a 76mm idler from the 90mm to give it some clearance, but it's still too close for comfort I think. The bolt I'm using has a 19mm head, where the OEM bolts have 17mm head with a flange which would probably give some more room. I'm thinking that even better would be to find an allen head bolt if I can.
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Looking good, keep it up.

I'd decided to go with manual steering and convert the PS rack. So I did the conversion and took the opportunity to disassemble and clean the rack.
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I could not find any plugs to replace the banjo bolts and the only bolts I could find were still too long. A couple minutes with the cutoff wheel and cleaning the threads with a die fixed that.
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The tie rod boots were both cracked and since I don't know the history at all, I ordered two new tie rod assemblies and a set of delrin rack bushings for good measure. When those get in, I'll reassemble everything.

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I didn't have anything suitable to replace the "turret" plugs on the compensator line, so I just filled them both with silicone sealant. That should be sufficient to keep dirt out.

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Now I just have this dumb problem to deal with. Got some tires installed on ye olde phone dials and one is leaking at the rim.

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Oh, and these arrived in the mail. When I cleaned out the engine bay, I removed all of those hard to find screw-on zip ties, so I ordered a bunch from Mouser.

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following ur thread doing a LQ4 944 NA 1986 during this winter and im in montreal canada my self here !

Back from the nearly-dead... After a year+ hiatus, I'm back to working on this. Last night I re-assembled the de-powered steering rack with new inner/outer tie rods and delrin bushings. Then I hit this snag:


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The oil pan (TPC unit) sits right on the crossmember where the steering rack attaches. The pinion housing on the steering rack interferes with the oil pan such that the bolts and clamps for the rack can't fit back on.

I thought maybe I had the spacers installed wrong, but I can't see how that's possible. Seems to me like either the spacers should be thicker, or the pan shallower, or both. Ideas?

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Grind down the contact areas;

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I had to grind a few places of the cross member for clearance. Thicker spacers won't help as they're not between the engine and cross member, they create space engine to body.

As for the rack, here's what I did:
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p.s. Welcome back!

Thanks guys. Guess I'm glad I'm not the first to encounter this, but I expected that the pan was designed to not interfere. Also I noticed that the engine is not quite centered in the cross member - its a few mm closer to the driver side right now which further interferes with the steering rack there. I'll check that more carefully when I re-install it.

Only 999 more little issues to solve...

Question about vacuum connections. I have deleted the evap purge system and I'm using manual brakes. So I'm thinking that the only vacuum connection I will need is for the heater valve and I can pull that off the back of the intake (LS3) from the smaller vacuum barb next to the larger power brake connector. The one that is not capped in the pic below. And then cap off all other vacuum ports. Sound right? Am I missing anything?

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Massive progress, doing what seems to be the most common activity for this project, ordering stuff on the internet. Actually I've had this for a while, and just tonight found where I'd put it.

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Task for today was to do a test fit of the ECU and harness as well as mounting the new fuse panel and measuring for the connections between them.

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I'm using a standalone fuse/relay module for all the engine electronics, so I'm not relying on any of the old wiring, fuses or relays to run the engine. The only required connections to body electrics are for the 12v switched and start signals from the ignition switch. And it turns out that the wires to my ignition have been badly hacked up with extra wires spliced in and crimp-on connectors attached and generally left a mess. The car has been a victim of bad stereo and alarm systems, probably more than once...

I used some aluminum rivnuts to provide attachment points for the fuse panel on outer side of the passenger footwell. They look crooked in this photo, but they are actually straight, I think it's just the angle.

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Next up is to attach some weatherpack connectors for the wires from ECU to fuse panel, and ECU to dash (each will be a separate 5 or 6 pin connection to keep them separate and logically organized, then to make the connections from the fuse/relay panel to the battery, ground and ignition.

Where did you get the 948 emblem? Thats slick

lsporsche wrote:Where did you get the 948 emblem?  Thats slick

They were originally produced by one of the members here, fliermike45. Then about 2 years ago another member P911P951 did a batch from the same manufacturer and I picked it up then. If you can't get ahold of P911P951 via the forum, PM me and I can send you the email I used to communicate with him and pay via paypal.

Cool! Thank you. Car looks great by the way. I converted my steering rack to manual as well and it works great

Some small progress items.

The fuel system is now complete. I finished the last hose from the Porsche hard line to the (reversed) LS3 fuel rail.
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Some idiot  : was so excited to start this project several years ago that he pulled out all the wiring without labelling anything. Well now I have a label maker and I'm not afraid to use it! All these old wire coverings are brittle and the rubber boots etc are toast. Not sure what to about it. They will probably work fine, but I'd really rather have it done RIGHT while I'm working on it. I'll be replacing most of the covering with new braided loom that I'm using on the new harness. Anyone know of a source for those little rubber boots?

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Working my way through the stuff I don't need: AC pressure switch, AC condensor switch, fan thermoswitch, etc.
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I printed out all the Porsche factory wiring diagrams, which has been really helpful. PRO-tip: The diagrams are in English, but the wire color codes are German. This can be confusing at first.

SW = Schwarz = Black
GE = Gelp = Yellow
RT = Rot = Red
GN = Grün = Green
GR = Grau = Grey
BL = Blau = Blue
WS = Weiss = White
BR = Braun = Brown (German cars use brown for almost all ground wires instead of black)

I've pretty much finished up the work on the engine harness and new power block. Just going to do one more double-check of the wire layout and then I will finish wrapping it.

Do ya have any pictures of yours fuse block setup and pcm under the glove boxe? It's looking nice and neat! I'm about to start my wiring on my 6L harness for stand alone

I don't have photos currently but I will take some. Anything in particular you want to see? Last night I went through and did a check for continuity and correct pins on every wire in the harness in prep for finishing it up and attaching the covering.

I'm looking for inspiration for my fuse block for the engine harness

majormojo wrote:I don't have photos currently but I will take some. Anything in particular you want to see? Last night I went through and did a check for continuity and correct pins on every wire in the harness in prep for finishing it up and attaching the covering.

OK, been pretty busy but not much visible to show for it. Mostly doing final checks and test fits before I pull the engine out to make the last adjustments, attach flywheel and clutch and re-install.

I completed a thorough check of the wiring harness and the new fuse/relay block I'm using. Checked every ECM and sensor wire in the engine harness for continuity and correctness. Good thing too, because I did find two errors in my previous work.

This is a check fit for the oil cooler, the hoses and adapter. Two zip ties sacrificed their lives for the sake of this test. I think those hoses might be too low, for final fit I may flip the cooler over.  
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This is my sophisticated method for measuring hood clearance for a strut bar.
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I called Ground Control today and ordered my suspension. I will send them these photos and measurements and they're going to build a strut bar to fit without clearance issues. Their spring rate recommendations for my application are 380lbs F and 250 lbs R (with oe torsion bars in place). I'm getting custom valved Koni single-adjustables that should handle the initial spring rate on the soft setting and still work with stiffer springs if/when I do a torsion bar delete later.

I got a couple small jobs done last Saturday.

Installed the new flywheel (Fidanza 13lb Aluminum). Having previously ordered the wrong flywheel, I had to re-order and wait for this one. Since I'm an #idiot, I did not think to check the pressure plate I had on hand and of course it's also the wrong one, so now I need to wait for that part before I can continue.
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Fed up with getting stuck on the engine, I decide to move to suspension. I installed the new rear dampers/coilovers from Ground Control.
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So long, old and crappy!
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Looking good! I would definitely flip the cooler so the fittings are upright. The AN fittings will be right in line to get torn off if you have an off or come across something in the road that cant be avoided. Are you going to run a thermostat for the cooler also? Mine is mounted on the side of the radiator frame, worked out pretty well as far as routing the hoses.

Thanks Jon, I'd already determined that was not a good mounting position, for the reasons you state. I will work out something else, probably after the main rad is in and I can see what I'm working with.

I hadn't planned to run a thermostat on it, but I suppose it's always an option to add one later.

I did some work this weekend making a new radiator mount. I have a Griffin rad, 24x16. My existing OE rad supports were damaged and one side was loose, so I removed them and made my own to accommodate the new rad. My concern is how low the bottom of the rad is going to be. Moving it up as high as possible without modifying or removing the upper brace and hood latch assembly, it looks to be really low to the ground. It's difficult to tell at the moment because a) the car is on wheel dollies and b) the front coilovers are set very low (and I can't raise for some reason, working with Ground Control on that issue).

Should I be concerned about the ground clearance of a 16" tall rad mounted in that location. Do I NEED remove or modify the upper brace to get more clearance?

thx

i could get you some mesurements on my stock NA lower support if you want im using stock NA rad atm with my stock LQ4