ecotec swap

been a while since i had an update. the car has been put away for a couple months now, had a great summer of driving it and im now in winter mod mode. i did end up getting my swaybars installed over the summer, they made a massive difference in the car. i decided against my better judgement to take the car to the dragstrip in september, and promised myself id just drive it off the line. made 2 easy passes doing just that, ran 13.8s at 118 mph with terrible 2.7 60' times, thanks to the turbo 3.38 final drive. i decided on my last pass that id try to leave with a little rpm and just kinda slide the clutch out and feed it throttle. great idea in theory, left around 3000 rpm and as soon as the engine saw some load it came alive as it hit 15 psi nearly instantly (my data log graph showed the boost as a near vertical line). car squatted real hard, it got about 60' and broke the passenger side axle cage. the failure points to the axle breaking from too much angle, ill be fixing that with a set of rear bump stops, and will likely be building a set of axles for it over winter. im sure had it not broken it would have been the low 12 i thought it would run, but thats just bench racing at its best.

so right now ive got the trans out and am about 3/4 of the way through a gear swap. i picked up a 3.875 final drive from an AOS/AOT s2 transaxle. im also swapping 5th gear to the tall n/a gearset. the n/a transaxle was always better suited gearing wise to my engine combo, when i put the turbo transaxle in it kinda felt like i neutered the car, despite having 100 more hp.

another big change im making is im changing my engine management. ive had nothing but issues with the microtech system (admitted some self inflicted), and after it took 6 months to come back from service and then the idle circuit was dead, im done with it. in its place i decided to build a megasquirt ms3x system. ive done several megasquirt projects myself in the past, albeit quite a number of years ago, but they have always worked out well. i think the biggest draw at this point for me is if something goes wrong i can troubleshoot and repair it myself.

the ms3x will give me full sequential fuel and ignition, gm 4 wire idle control, 4 bar map sensor, real time barometric correction, and a bunch of other stuff. some of the optional things ive decided to do is adding fuel pressure and oil pressure sensors, an oil temp sensor, and a gearbox temp sensor. ill be able to control cooling fans on my trans cooler with it, i can control the accusump directly from the ecm. a vss input will allow me to run simple traction control as well as boost control by gear. if i wanted to (and i may in the future) i can directly control the water/methanol system. after running such an antiquated system with such basic control im really looking forward to getting this built and in the car.

This is a phenomenal thread on an incredible swap. You have some serious skills; you should consider writing a book, or a step-by-step instruction manual, to fill in the blanks you understandably weren't able to cover in this thread. If I ever do a swap with my 968, it would be something like this, a Mitsubishi 4B11T, or any of a number of stout modern 4-cylinder turbos. Just not a V8 guy, although I respect V8 swaps as well.

A couple of questions: Any idea of the weight of the Ecoboost engine, including the turbo and all associated hardware, vs. the stock 944 engine? And did you consider a dry sump, vs. fabricating your own oil pan?

Thanks again for sharing your amazing journey.

i did consider going dry sump, a couple things turned me off of that. i dont like a belt drive oil pump on a street car, and it just wasnt in the budget. it would have alleviated some problems, but caused even more, and i still would have had to build my own pan (the available ecotec drysump pans still wont fit the 944 chassis).

the 944 n/a engine is between 370 and 400lbs (according to the internet), the 2.3l ecoboost is around 340lbs complete. my ecotec is around the same weight.

thanks for the kind words. ive been kind of lacking on my updates in the last while, i think im just not finding my swap quite as cool as i did when i was building it. i work for a hot rod shop, i get to build all sorts of cool cars for people, my little 944 is what i can afford for myself, and i do really enjoy it. right now im working on a 65 impala thats powered by a maserati 4.2l dry sump engine. we developed a way to mate the engine to a tremec t56 magnum, its got a single borg warner efr turbo on it. this past year we took our little mazda r100 to the sema show and ended up in the battle of the builders top 4, winning the sport compact class. if you wanna check them out, go in instagram and look up hotrodsrestos.

i spent new years working on the ecm, im pretty well done now. 

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the main board near complete. 
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an additional temp sensor input circuit

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all the jumpers on the bottom of the board, and the upgraded 4 bar map sensor (max of 44 psi). it also has a barometric pressure sensor for real time altitude correction

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the white board is the processor daughterboard, the little green board on top of it (under the ribbon cable) is the knock module, this allows inputs for 2 broadband knock sensors. the green board to the right is the ms3x expansion board, this where all the extra inputs and outputs are. 

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so aside from the usual inputs (crank sensor, coolant, tps, manifold temp, and wideband o2) ive got it set up to run a cam sensor (that will allow full sequential fuel and spark), flex fuel sensor, vehicle speed sensor (allows it to use engine states for more accurate fueling, along with boost by gear and simple traction control), oil pressure sensor, fuel pressure sensor, engine oil temp sensor, gearbox temp sensor and a clutch switch input. after some fiddling around ive been able to get it to control my trans cooler fans, my accusump oil accumulator, and a shift light (that can be programmed for different rpm in each gear). ive still got a 3 digital inputs and at least 10 outputs i can use if i can dream up more things to monitor and control. and if thats not enough i can add in 32 channels through can bus (considering the 4 channel egt module). 

the cam sensor is something i have yet to sort out, seeing my engine is an early (02-06) l61, with no provisions for a cam sensor. i have a threaded body cam sensor on order, im thinking of drilling the front of the head and using the front of the cam gear as a trigger wheel. ill have to add something to act as a tooth, im hoping i can thread one of the holes and using a bolt, but im still unsure of the best route to go.

been a while again, had so much going on in the past few months and i hadnt gotten much done. i had a pretty big setback with the transmission when swapping the final drive gearset. i got everything disassembled, set up and reassembled, but i ended up with a slight noise in 3rd gear on the drive side only when rotating by hand. after disassembling and going through with a fine tooth comb i found nothing, reassembled it and still had a slight noise. i convinced myself it had to be there before taking it apart and that it wasnt that bad, and ended up sticking it in the car anyways. after 5 seconds of running the car in 3rd gear on jackstands i promptly took the trans back out and all apart again. nothing was visibly wrong, i ended up getting another 3rd driven gear (the one on the pinion shaft) as thats all i touched involving 3rd gear. i paid a lot more attention to the heating process while pressing the gear on and the end result is a quiet and smooth transmission. all i can guess is that i somehow overheated the gear the first time causing the issue, despite the fact i did it with a heat gun. live and learn.

seeing as it was april when i got that debacle sorted out, i was fully prepared to do a couple more of the little things on my list and get the car out as we were having great weather for early spring. i got my bump stops put in the back, hopefully that will keep the car from squatting so hard and breaking axle cages. i havent done anything with the axles as of yet, maybe later in the summer ill look at that again. i decided to forgo baffling the oil pan, the accumulator seemed to work out well and i doubt ill get it on a track this year so it will be alright. i had wanted to pull the turbo manifold off and ceramic coat it, but thats going to wait till next winter. all was good on this plan till i went to start the car after putting the trans back in, and i remembering to turn the high idle switch on, and the car running pig rich at idle (and if you lean it out one step it turns dead lean), at that point i decided i was ripping the microtech out and going ahead with the big project of installing the megasquirt.

the good news is ive had a good chunk of time this month to be able to work on the car, and im nearing completion of the megasquirt install. the biggest task is building a wiring harness from essentially scratch (well, a flying lead harness, meaning the ecm connectors with 8' of wire attached), and after a couple hours of figuring out wire lengths and how to route everything i was able to take it home and work at my desk to create a one off wiring harness. i forgot to take pics along the way, i have some during looming and some finished pics.

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almost all the connectors are brand new. i built the harness so everything is terminated to connectors so it can come out of the car with no cutting, like a factory harness would. i know ill end up needing to make changes to the harness in the future and this way i should be able to unhook everything in about 10 minutes and pull it all out and make changes on the bench. this will ensure the harness always stays neat and clean, and most importantly working correctly.

i had to sort out a cam sensor solution as this engine was never equipped from factory with one. what i ended up doing is threading one of the holes in the cam gear and making a piece that threaded into it, and the front is shaped as a single tooth for the sensor to pick up. dont worry, the piece threaded into the gear has red loctite and the back side is peened over, so its not coming out of there. i ended up getting a threaded body hall effect sensor and drilled and tapped the valve cover to hold the sensor. simple and effective way to do it, im just hoping everything works ok with it.

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not too much else to show aside from my flex fuel sensor mounted on the intake manifold. wasnt my first choice for mounting locations, but after a friend whipped up a quick billet bracket itll do just fine.

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im getting pretty close to finishing it off. as of right now i have a few things to finish wiring that arent part of the main harness (fan and accusump wiring) and have to make the fuel lines to and from the flex fuel sensor and it will be ready for its first fire up. i still have to put the new head unit in, but thats a bit of a debacle in itself. the only way to put a double din deck in a 944 is to cage mount it, and the deck didnt come with a cage. i ordered a universal double din cage kit but i have no clue if that will even work.

well good news is its alive. tuesday i went and finished the last bits of wiring (at least the stuff it needed to run), and started going through the typical stuff when doing a stand alone- putting the system in test mode and testing each individual output, checking the crank and cam sensors in the tooth logger, put a timing light on it and make sure its in the ballpark, etc. after all that i gave it a try, the full sync indicator came on (cam and crank sensors) and right after that it fired right up for a few seconds. couple slight changes to the warmup enrichment and the 2nd try it fired right up and stayed running right through warmup, allowing me to get the ve table a little sorted, verify ignition timing with the timing light (and it was bang on). i cant say ive ever had the first start up with a new efi system go this easy. there had to be one glitch though, and that was the fuel pressure sensor, it was dead out of the package. guess that will teach me for using cheap transducers (or not, already got another one from amazon).

still have a list of things to do. the new head unit still has to be put in, right now im waiting for a mounting cage for it. still gotta clean up a bit of wiring, hook up the clutch switch, got some reassembly to do. also gotta change the oil, im switching from the regular off the shelf synthetics (been running mobil 1) and gonna give amsoil signature series a shot. the oil in this thing always seems to have the consistency of water after a short time.

forgot it had been so long again since i did an update. ive had the car home for almost 2 weeks now. been taking care of some little issues, like the fuel pressure transducer i mentioned above. after putting a 2nd cheap amazon one on i had much the same issue, then all the sudden it started working perfectly for a while. unable to explain it i left it alone and i started having the same issue again. i decided to break down and order a real transducer, got a proper honeywell one and, well, same issue. long story short i tracked down that inside the ecm wiring harness computer side connector (the preassembled one i didnt touch) the wire got pinched on assembly, so it was shorting to ground. just proves you cant trust anything. oh well, at least i feel a little better now that i dont have a $20 pressure sensor on my fuel regulator.



ive been slowly working away at tuning. the megasquirt tuning software has come so far since i last tuned a megasquirt, its so much simpler to use. tuning the ve table with the ve analyser is so easy, take a log, hit analyse and load the tune back in, done. at this point, with about 150 km worth of tuning ive got most of it dialed in. today i worked out the closed loop idle control and now the idle is always bang on, and the ve table is dialed enough that i was able to turn on closed loop fueling. im still running on wastegate pressure, which is right at 13psi. interestingly enough gate pressure logged on my old ecm was a solid 10psi, seeing as it feels about the same im gonna guess the old ecm was inaccurate. next on the books is to start adding boost, and providing my data logs i took tonight look good that will be happening very soon. 



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started to slowly dial the boost up, im up to around 15psi now. slowly working it back up to where i ran it last year, although since the weather has all the sudden gotten quite hot (went from 70 to 90 from one day to the next) i need to spend some time setting up the intake air temp modifyers.



i decided to plug away at a bunch of little things that have been bugging me. things like the horn not working because of the quick release steering wheel, making the trim bezel for the head unit, fixing the peeling paint on the front of the engine, fixing the pull out cargo cover, stuff like that. its amazing how fixing all those little things make a big change overall. ill grab some new pics and post them in a couple days.



i started looking into the cv axle stuff again. as you may recall i was looking at the vw/sand buggy axle kits from empi. they sell all the individual parts and some kits that fit common vw builds, unfortunately they dont make a kit with the correct length axle shafts, so i was working the prices out of the individual components. i had it all sorted out and had decided id wait a while longer before i ordered stuff, at least till i found my local vw parts place (california imports) had a complete kit with the wrong length axles on sale cheap enough that the entire kit cost me less than buying just the cv joints and boots. so long story short...



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the cv joints have hardened inner and outer races and chromoly bearing cages. the boot flanges are a thick plate to prevent the bolts from distorting the outer cv race. the kit even came with new bolts and enough axle grease to keep it all happy. the axle shafts are the wrong length and i need to order those yet, but they will be the same 4340 chromoly 33 spline shafts, just 1 1/8" longer. ive also some proper axle boot clamps (seeing the kit comes with tie straps for that job) and some spirolox snap rings to hold the cv joints in place.

went to the track last night. nothing glorious, but the car is faster than last time. really my whole point of going to the track was to finish dialing the tune in. it was a pretty slow night at the track, being long weekend and having rain in the morning. thats a bonus, means lots of runs, although i was a little rushed in pulling and reviewing data logs, making changes and then getting back up for the next pass.

1st pass- 13.47 at 112mph. short shifted every shift, my best 60' at a 2.42 (sad to say that was my best of the night). it was rich in 3rd and 4th

2nd pass- 13.08 at 115mph. hit the shift points. 2.48 60'. i had turned up the 2 step a bit, felt better but slower 60'. still a bit rich and i noticed the boost was falling off about a pound up top

3rd pass- 13.16 at 115mph. 2.47 60'. hit every shift point, the tune was dialed, and corrections to the boost table fixed the sagging boost. overall fairly happy with it.

4th pass- 13.94 at 99mph. had turned the 2 step up, car wheel hopped bad. missed 3rd gear and when i finally got it in the clutch was pissed off. gopro went dead in the staging lanes and i forgot to turn the logger on.



i likely could have gotten 4 more passes before the end of the night, but after the 4th one i decided it likely wouldnt get any better. i was getting tired and making mistakes as it was. i did learn a lot on the tune and im happy with where its at, at least for now. i mean, id love to add some more boost, but i have a hunch on something. more once i analyse the data logs some more.



ill leave you with a couple pics and a video. 



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figured id post a little update, its been a while.

ive been picking away at things on the car, more so engine stuff than the rest of the car. i had slowly been collecting some hard to find parts for the engine. i managed to find a pair of adjustable cam gears and billet oil pump gears from an old gm sport compact drag racer. the oil pump gears are something i had been after for a long time, these engines tend to break the oil pump gears when you hit the rev limiter or sit on the 2 step, and thats what the billet gears solve. i also decided it was time to go with a proper harmonic damper. with the rpm im turning its a necessity. i decided to go against the curve and run a fluidampr, ive had great success with them in the past and thought it would work well on this engine. while i had the front of the engine apart for those parts, i stuck in a new timing chain, along with upgrading to arp hardware for the timing chain guides.

i spent a few months over the winter trying to get a larger pair of cams, and after being unable to get anything (comp cams grinds all the aftermarket ecotec cams, and they had no blanks) i stuck the motor back together. it wasnt even 2 weeks later that i stumbled across a good used pair of cams from gm racing, so i ended up tearing the thing back apart again to change them. specs on them are 247/249 duration at .050", and .499 lift. these are quite aggressive, ive increased the rev limiter to 8500 rpm, and its still making plenty of power up there.

over this past winter i also added some more data acquisition to the megasquirt 3x. i added a board called a tiny iox, its a can bus based board where you can add your own input circuits to suit your needs. i added 4 thermocouples for individual cylinder egt, and an additional thermocouple for turbo outlet temp. also added a pre-intercooler boost sensor, turbo drive pressure sensor, and a turbo inlet air temp sensor. i love having all the extra data.

about 6 months ago the first station with flex fuel in my area opened. just this weekend ive swapped to a set of id1700 injectors, swapped out the bosch 044 pump for an aem 400lph pump and filled the tank with ethanol. i was a little disappointed to find out the ethanol content is only 58%, but its better than nothing. its taken a bit to get the computer all set up for full flex fuel, but so far its working well. at this point i havent added any timing or boost, but once i got the fuel tables roughed in the power increase has been incredible.

so far everything has been working well, and im really happy with the car as is. there is one thing im always concerned about though, and thats the transaxle. despite having an aor, with the stiffening plate, im still worried about breaking it. ive decided that in the future (likely over next winter) im going to put a corvette transaxle in. many would consider this overkill, and it may be, but i dont want to be scared to put the car on the 2 step at 10 psi and drop the clutch. i built the car to beat on, i want to be able to run it hard and not fear breaking it. ive already got a transaxle, its from a 2005 z51, the ratios of the z51 will work alright with the 4 cylinder, coupled with a set of 4.10 gears in the diff. im slowly collecting more parts, ive got most of what i need figured out.