When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Thanks for stopping by my swap thread! My plan here is to document what I did to share with others and hopefully help someone out if they are considering a similar swap.
A Brief History
I bought this car almost 14 years ago with the plans to auto-cross and possibly someday track it. I wanted something turbocharged, different, with great balance and the 944 turbo fit all those things. I was pretty young at the time, so it also had to be relatively cheap. And the car I picked up was all of those things. I found it locally through the classified ads at work. it had a power steering leak and a few other random oil leaks, but was in pretty nice shape inside and out. It drove, stopped, and turned well. I knew it was going to take time and money to make it right and eventually track capable, but armed with some excellent resources (e.g. www.rennlist.com and http://clarks-garage.com/) I figured I could handle it.Or at the very least be able to ask intelligent questions when help was needed. This is my original window sticker (or at least what is left of it).Car totaled out around $47K, which is roughly $105K in today's dollars!
Nothing too special, except perhaps for the several thousand dollars spent on the leather interior, which I really appreciate.
Why swap it?
Anyone who has driven these cars knows that they are total dogs off boost.Compression is around 8.0:1, pretty anemic for a 2.5L four off boost.Want more power?Just add a bigger turbo like I did with a 60-1 HIFI.It was great… on boost.But now it took even longer to get there.It was great on track, but pretty awful around town.I was either getting my *** handed to me by minivans off the line, or driving way harder than I wanted to just to keep up with city traffic.In short, unless I was on a nice highway cruise, it just wasn’t fun to drive on the street.
The Plan I lucked out in that a good friend who was also a 944 turbo had completed an LS1 swap on his car several years ago.His plan earlier this year was to go to 5cyl Audi power, so he offered his entire swap to me.So I was able to pickup everything including his hydro-boost setup.I was great getting parts from a personal friend, that I new worked and that he had already spent several years upgrading/developing, etc.
I started pulling my engine back in April of this year. That was about the same time I picked up the LS1.
I have another local friend with a 944 turbo and together, he and I have parted out 4 or these cars that were wrecked beyond repair. It was a little weird pulling my own car apart to this extent.
oil cooler lines run, manual steering. BMW H31 Hydroboost, stock MC. BMW Hyroboost "bomb", lines and cooler. Ended up replacing that cooler with a finned radial one and a filter.
Thanks, yeah the guy I bought the swap from has a brother in law that builds sprint cars and teaches race car construction/fabrication. They came up with some pretty cool ideas for packaging all the components.
I like the Euro Plates on the Turbo front especially with a "Correct" number on it!
Nice! I have seen pictures of your car and never realized it had 944 on the number plate, excellent choice. I also like the fact that mine helps to cover up some of the ugliness on my front bumper cover...
New Parts are here! I hesitated to buy these and considered building the fuse and relay setup myself. I know I would have learned a lot, but this is just so well done. All the wire sizing is correct, fuses are appropriate, everything is easy to follow and put together correctly with high quality components and clear attention to detail. Could not be happier with the product, looking forward to making all those connections!
10-09-2018, 08:23 AM
1987 Porsche 944 turbo LS1 Swap 
