Organization - hey, that slope looks a bit slippery from here

As of March '10 there was funding from the sale of the 964.

With cash in the bank, it was time to get started on a shopping list.

On that note it is an understatement to say that I wanted this project to get off on the right foot and stick to the budget. With family and a hectic job to fill up most waking hours, getting through the build in a reasonable amount of time is a key organizational aspect of this project.

Track season starts in a month (argh), and my goal is to get the car on the road by June in order to drive at least 6 track days this summer and get as much ORP track time as possible.

http://www.oregonraceway.com/

I haven't attempted a project like this in the past.

First off, this was an original work using parts that weren't designed to work together. Next was the question of purpose - well now that I mention it the purpose is pretty clear. Fast. Track. Car.

Other projects I've done start out as a complete car. Hammered by age & neglect yes, but complete. It's all there and you learn how things go back together by taking them apart. The Crossle FF we restored and raced was a near basket case, but was complete when we dragged it home from LA. The various BMWs and 911s I've owned and worked on always arrived complete as well except for certain key emissions equipment in the case of early '70s examples. Even the Land Rover IIa is all there. On this project, I'm likely to start with a roller, then need to update all the major drive-line, brake and suspension components.

So I consulted with people, thought about what's important in a track car and came up with the following list:

1. LS1 or LS6 - pull out motor from a GTO or Corvette. 350 to 405hp with stock cam and internals.
2. 944 turbo roller - preferably sunroof delete with nice paint. The Turbos have better control arms, bigger brakes, stronger tranny usually with LSD and the nose panel that I prefer.
3. Kit - Not the American Girl Doll...more on that later.
4. Brakes - big reds or blacks as with the 964. Great stopping power for this sized car and use affordable and easy to find pads and rotors with Porsche bold-on simplicity.
5. Suspension - preferably front/rear adjustable coil overs from Bilstein, Cross or KW. Maybe something double - if affordable. Solid bushings will be nice too if I can find some.
6. Wheels - 10" rear, 8" front wheels if possible in order to run 275/245 tires.
7. Interior - race seats and roll bar necessary with this kind of setup.

Those were the main components.

Brake MC Setup

The beginning - well not really the beginning but this is where we start

Why bother? Why go to the effort and the expense of swapping the motor out of an unloved and common car like a 944?

For some reason that's difficult to pinpoint, I've been thinking and talking about swapping a big displacement American motor into a small foreign car for several years.

There are so many neat cars out there that I'd like to own some day. The list is long and many are from the '70's and '80's. But that's another topic for another time. Back to the V8.

The idea started with putting a Ford 302 into a Miata. After all, the Miata is small, lite and very tossable. With 300 or so hp one of those little things would go like stink and may even be a bit scary on the street.

After spending some time in my Father-in-Law's Miata at a track day, my aching neck and scratched up helmet told the story. With a hard top, Top down, the original Miata is a cramped little car. Not X1-9 small, but small. Add a hard top and a passenger and it becomes very cozy. Headroom is lacking, especially if you like to sit up straight. My helmet spent the day trading paint with the hard-top. And these cars - while lightness is good - just don't feel very substantial in their construction. Anyway, the Miata is a great little car but something didn't appeal.

Moving on. I had read about people plugging the new generation Chevy LS series aluminum small block Chevy motors into 911's and 944s. Hmmm, that might be interesting. Porsche build quality, fantastic handling and brakes with 5.7 or 6.0 liters of straightforward, reliable and relatively inexpensive push-rod Chevy power sounded like a good combo. The obvious question - would it fit?

In talking with Renegade Hybrids of Las Vegas, http://www.renegadehybrids.com/ the conversion idea started taking shape.

At the time I had a 964 set up with PSS9s, RS sways and big brakes. The only shortcoming of the car was weight (over 3,000 lbs) and the stock motor.

By comparison, the Chevy LS motors are a bit lighter than the fully dressed 3.6 Porsche motor, and where my car was putting out a healthy 260hp, a stock LS2 is 405 with as significantly more torque.

So, with mental wheels turning - sell the 3.6 motor out of the 964, buy a kit from the guys at Renegade, find an LS1 and there we are...

Except one small packaging detail. H2O. Yes, the Chevy needs coolant. Coolant requires radiators and the 964 was a couple generations away from being packaged for radiators. The commonly used solution to this on air cooled 911s is to cut open the front structure of the car and place a radiator in the front trunk. After seeing some gory photos of cars that had been cut for this procedure, I decided the 911 wasn't going to be the platform for me. I couldn't do it.

944? Handles great. Easily modified. Tons of aftermarket support? Built in relatively large numbers during the 1980's. Front engine and already set up for water cooling. Sounds good. Ok, that's the direction.

Sell the 964. As usual with my automotive investments, buy high (or medium in this case) and sell low. After a few months talking with lots of interested lookers, the car went to a good guy in LA who is now building it into an RS replica track car.

With cash in hand, it was time to start the adventure, hoping it wouldn't be too overly adventuresome in the end.

Kit - the conversion, not the doll

As I shopped for motors, brakes, 944 rollers and weighed my options, one of the most straightforward choices to make is where to source the kit.

There are currently two companies out there that are set up to sell you a 'complete' conversion kit. We'll define 'complete' later - in the case of 944 v8 conversions the word means something a bit different, sort of like buying a airline ticket for Boston Logan, which stops at 14 cities and small landing strips along the way, then drops you off somewhere on a dark, lonesome dirt road in rural Pennsylvania with vague instructions on how to walk and hitchhike the rest of the way...

For now, let's keep it high level and stay with the conventional meaning of complete.

Renegade: http://www.renegadehybrids.com/

944 v8s: http://www.944v8s.com/index.html

These kits generally include the major parts needed to connect the motor to the torque tube, mount the engine in the chassis, and then optional parts are available to sort out the other details, and in the case of this conversion the details really matter a lot.

Details - a brief list

1. Wiring - The 944 is mostly '70's technology. The LS motor is a very modern computerized system. The two come together mostly via 14 wires which drive gauges and relays. The LS brain is transplanted into the chassis.
2. Cooling - several options here. The challenge is to