944ninja's build

Hello 944hybrids,

Time for my build thread to start.

I moved to RI from OR this last summer and parted out my last project a 1990 VW Corrado swap, I also sold my 2007 BMW M6. I decided that having a fancy fast satisfying car to drive everyday makes me inherently lazy when it comes to building cars. So for this go-around I opted to challenge myself to something I have not done in years. Own one car.

I also decided what it is I think I want out of a project and out of a car over all, and that is:
Near neutral handling
A power to weight ratio of .17-.18HP/Lb
Close to 50/50 weight distribution
Reliability
Sexy

After many hours of searching and thinking and sharing my Wife's Jeep I decided to commit. The end of this last May I acquired this fine 1987 944 NA:

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Nearly bone stock down to the original radio with the exception of plastidipped wheels and to my recent dismay a hot wired DME relay, which I promptly fixed. The paint and body work is in decent shape for a near 30 year old New England car, I did some color corrective cutting and buffing this last summer anyway. It worked out pretty well but I found a few spots that had been poorly touched up including one bit of body work done to the drivers rear quarter which was pretty good but not perfect.

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Then I had to replace the shift boot, it was basically gone and it annoyed me to no end.

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The trans and engine mounts were pretty well schwacked with the car having 117k miles on it, I found a pretty good deal, and with my short commute I decided to snatch up some billet engine and trans mounts.

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I actually do not mind the solid engine mounts, they only vibrate bast at some rev/load ranges. However the trans mount is driving me nuts, the harmonics in the hatch combined with very little sound deadening material makes for quite a noisy ride.

The Power steering system had bled out long ago so I was driving around unpowered, which I did not find to be too bad. So I decided to go full manual steering and got a powered converted to manual rack from Martin Willis with solid rack bushings. I.. Love.. It..

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At this point many of you are probably wondering where the hell the V8 is. So here you go.

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Its an LQ4 out of a 1999 Silverado, making it a long crank. No big deal just have to get a used crank. I have not done to much to the engine except strip off all the truck Accys and manifold. The plan for it is:
Balance new crank and OEM Rods/pistons
Rebuild bottom end with ARP rod bolts
L92 Heads w/ Comp 918 springs
ls2 timing set
Comp LSR square port cam (not sure which one yet)
And Long tube headers from Slow Motion (hopefully    )

>>INSERT SWAP KIT HERE<<
(Renegade/TPC/One off... IDK)

Brakes wise I have made some progress. I got a set of Turbo rear calipers and Audi S8 Front and some adapter from XSChop to mount them. Going to rebuild/repaint and install them in the next month or so.

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One weekend I also decided to go with all red tails. I really like the way they turned out, I just need to take a little time to wet sand them one of these days.

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This is my winter wheel tire set up: Sport Edition Cup 4's with Yokohama Ice Guard tires.
F: 17x7.5 205/45s
R: 17x9 255/50s

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Here are my summer fun set:
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F:17x8.5 R:17x10.5

More to come...

dont forget the F-body accesorie set happy hunting !