My Porsche LS1 build

Hello,

I thought that I would start a thread for my Porsche 944 LS1 conversion. I will try and keep it up to date with all the latest pictures and developments. This is my first engine conversion of any type, and is the most in depth car project I have ever attempted. I’ve always been into building and design new contraptions, now I’m a mechanical engineering major at the University of Maine. Other projects I’ve worked on include hybrid rocket motors, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] trebuchets, robotics and the like. Blacksmithing is sort of an offshoot hobby. Car specific mechanical experience is more limited, but currently I’m captain of the universities Formula SAE car which is quite the project, some of my buddies and I also built an entry for the New Brunswick Coaster Derby and won that, but that wasn’t anything to be too proud off. My other car is a Subaru that I have fun rally-crossing in the winter.

My current Porsche is a 1986 944 turbo, maroon and is in relatively good shape. I had fun driving the car for a year or so before I decided I wanted to swap it. In my opinion it handled like nothing I had driven before but the power plant was the weak (and expensive) part of the car. The previous owner wasn’t very easy on the motor (didn’t let it warm up/ cool down the turbo) so the cyl #2 connecting rod bearing failed and scored the cylinder. The head gasket is also blown; I did some research on rebuilding. It made a lot more sense to spend the same money on getting twice the power and have some left over for suspension upgrades and the like.

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Since the “big” decision this fall I’ve been doing a lot of research on the conversion, thanks to Greg I got my hands on the excellent conversion manual and found this forum. From there I’ve been able to figure out most of my questions pretty easily. My goal is to doing everything right the first time, including the rest of the car. I don’t want to have a great motor with no suspension, brakes or drive train to go with it. I’m sure everyone hear is just about sick of all of my questions. I’ve got a couple of weeks off so I’ve started the grunt work at last.

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Our new shop is heated and I’ve got enough space to work in so I started dismantling the car to the extent I need to. To save weight I’m removing the rear seat and replacing the electrically adjustable front seats. There was also a leak in the battery tray that you couldn’t really see on inspection because someone had smegged it and then painted over, however it did it’s damage and the entire passenger side of the is soaking wet. The rubber mats didn’t allow the water to evaporate so I ripped up the interior on one side and lifted the carpet to allow it to dry out. Luckily the Germans know how to pick their steel and nothing had rusted. I plan on just shampooing all of the carpet, fixing the battery tray, and laying things back down.

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I’m also getting rid of the nasty fall apart foam on the hood and replacing it with some other hood linings I found.

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I don’t want a completely stripped down car that is entirely uncomfortable (although I won’t compromise on suspension setup) so I’m leaving the carpet, dash, and most of the interior but anything else that is option is going out the window. Stuff like fog lights, AC, cruise, the huge windshield washer bottle, the cruel back seats, etc. While I have the car up on jack stands I’m removing all the bits that have to be modified or removed. The Front struts are coming out and will be fitted with Ground Control coilover conversion kits.

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The shocks are fairly nice and new KONI’s so I’m just going to use those with stiffer springs. I’m also taking out the rear torsion bars and putting in some stiffer bars. Of course the whole car will be lowered a bit. I figure the brakes should be pretty much alright but I’ll put better pads in.

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Recently I learned about the dangerous ball joints so those are coming out and I’m putting in a track kit from Rennbay, so I’ll rip those out soon too. The transmission will also be removed by the end of the week. I hope to start on the reinforcement plate and install that as well. While the transmission is out I’ll also fabricate the brace and put on the solid mount. I’ll wait until the summer when I’m putting in the engine to stick that back in the car. I’m also removing the engine and selling that for more funds. That should be out by next week. Once that is done I’ll have the space to prep the engine bay and make sure everything is ready.

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Since I’m a poor bastard I’m doing all the machining for the conversion parts myself. The goal this break is to have the bellhousing adapter, spacers, transmission reinforcement plate, transmission brace, and maybe the setback plates done. As you can see in the following pictures I’ve been in the machine shop for the last two days. I’ve got the adapter plate cut to size, I’m going to lay the holes out tonight. I’ve also got the stock for the spacers pretty much done, just need to mill them to the correct width and length plus drill the holes.

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Ti-84+?!?!

heck yeah! screw the 89

I have the exact same one right here! Love it.

Hey Luke,
Where did that cool publication full of Patent-free information come from?



C5 Plate looks great so far.
Manual milling (X-Y coordinates) sucks doesn't it?
It's cheap if you have the time, though.

Nice work!

Hey!!! I gave you credit!

thanks to Greg I got my hands on the excellent conversion manual and found this forum

Hahaha, well I'm only 19 so I don't actually own much of what you see besides the hand mechanics tools. You just need connections!

Just razzin' ya, Luke.

Thank the people listed on page 8, and then some. The list grows daily...
I merely wrangled it into one place (sort of).

Rock on, bro.

looks good, ill be doin this too mine soon. just ordered the book.

It's worth it!

I spent a couple of days last week finishing the adapter plate and spacers. After spending such a long time machining the hole drilling and tapping was making me really nervous, I’ve got a lot invested in the thing now. I laid everything out with layout dye and a scribe and then double checked it in the morning. For the final holes I used the (x,y) coordinates and the milling machine, I just wanted the peace of mind to see that the holes were being cut on my layout marks. Unless I find a mistake later on everything is in order. I’m waiting until I’m back at school and have a round ended mill to do the clearance for the hydraulic lines. I’m also waiting for the register pins to come in before I drill those holes.

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The spacers were a synch, relatively speaking. The mill was a little tilted so on the first few the finish wasn’t perfect, but I got that back into adjustment. As far as I know they are all done now.

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My latest project in the machine shop has been the reinforcement plate for the transmission. I’ve only got the stock cut out and the holes laid out. Hopefully I’ll get that finished up soon; I’ll post pictures when it’s done.

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It took me a while to get the transmission taken out, when I went tractor shopping with my dad (I tried to convince him to buy a used Porsche instead but he didn’t bite) I had to pick up some 12 point star drives for the CV joints. When I started the job I didn’t realize those were star drives they just looked like allen heads on quick inspection. After wrestling with it all day today I finally got it out of the car, there isn’t any turning back on this project anymore. Inside the bell housing was nice and clean but the rest of it needs a good cleaning, I’ll do that when I take it apart to put the reinforcement plate in. I’ve been reading about people putting in the limited slip diff from the Quattro V8 for a pretty cheep price. Unless something else comes up I figure that’ll be the route I’m going to go. The mount for the brace will also be figured out while the transmission is sitting in the machine shop.

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A friend of mine has been helping me out a little; he’s learning to work on cars for the first time. While I was getting the transmission out he was prepping the engine for removal, the radiator, fans, wiring harness, etc are all ready. He also brought an engine hoist, so I hope to have the engine out completely in the next two or so days. The “Sell” pile in the shop is getting bigger by the minute.

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Unless the UPS plane crashes I’m waiting for some new suspension bits to arrive. I talked to Jay at Ground Control (very helpful) he set me up with some new Eibach springs for the front along with the coilover conversion kit. I’ve also got some top mount camber/caster plates. New 29mm rear torsion bars are on order as well. I’m pleased the previous owner got some really nice Koni’s for me to use on this setup! That saved me an arm and a leg.

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Can’t wait to give this thing a try next summer! My buddy and I are planning our second road trip in the NH Mountains, last summer was a blast. He’s got a car you don’t see a lot of around here, a TVR 280i.

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no big deal but I noticed all the pictures are cropped so they're not as wide. hmmm, whatever

You can resize them under special effects. Yours is the same color as mine! But it looks like your budget is bigger.. You must not have kids yet Sure would be nice to have access to machines like that. Nice work!

Yeah! I was looking at your pictures couple of days ago, looks great! Overall I'm not sure how I feel about the color, the price was right. It is sort of growing on me though, although black, red or white I think are still the best colors. A dark British racing green might look good too (not quite right on a German car though). All of you guys have a lot more experience with this than I do though so I'm throughly jealous of how much knowledge everyone has. It's funny you mention the budget cause I was thinking today that since my GF for two years and I split a little while ago I'm not even going to feel guilty about spending all this $$ on the car and not her Not sure if that is an entirely good thing or not though

Hi

I figured I’d list my planned modifications to the ol’ Porsche and see what you guys have to say, unless I just forgot to mention it anything not on the list will just be stock or what is suggested in the conversion manual:

Starting with an 86 turbo

Suspension:
• Ground Control coilver conversion kit
• Eibach front springs 440#
• Koni adjustable shocks front
• Top mounted camber and caster plates by Ground Control
• Front strut brace
• Track kit for front ball joints by Rennbay
• 29mm rear torsion bars
• Koni adjustable shocks rear
Brakes:
• Wilwood manual master cylinder
• Carbon ceramic pads, not sure exactly yet
Power:
• LS1 V8! (kept pretty much stock from whatever it is pulled from for now)
• RH headers (I know I know)
• Clutch, don’t know anything about specing out a clutch, need to do more research (suggestions are more than welcome)
• C5 bellhousing with adapter
• Summit Racing Griffin radiator
• 3” collectors, 3.5” main to a Flowmaster 50 series (from what I’ve heard a 40 might be too loud)???
• No cats
• No AC, cruise or anything like that
Drivetrain:
• Reinforcement plate in transaxle
• Solid Transmission mount by Lindsay Racing
• Transmission brace
• Limited slip differential, I’m not sure how yet. The most likely route at this point will be the unit out of a V8 Audi for a $150, the fabrication necessary is minimal.
• 285-295 Rear
• 245 Front
• Battery relocated to rear of car (not sure where yet)
Interior:
• Bride Racing seats
• Harness bar
• 2 four point harnesses
• A roll bar would be nice eventually but won’t happen immediately
• No rear seats, carpeted panel instead
• Retaining carpet and stock interior for the most part

I'd like to use Royal Purple synthetics all around

I spent a good chunk of today cleaning the transaxle. You can see that it was very grimy, but the oil looked really clean and the level wasn’t low. I was also very pleased at how clean the inside of the bellhousing was, you can see in the picture. Overall I’m amazed at how well that car has kept for 20 some odd years, I haven’t found a seized or stripped bolt yet (knock on wood). Everything is such quality; the car is a pleasure to work on.

BEFORE:
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AFTER:
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on the way to the other shop:
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I also got to drilling the holes in the reinforcement plate, it’s in the lathe now ready to bore out the big holes in the middle. I’m planning to get the engine out of the car tomorrow, but Wed I should be able to rip the transaxle apart and give it a try.

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