[Rap]

Did a DE at Pocono today and saw a hot looking 968 with a v-8 Corvette engine. Most of the cars suspension and axel and gears were from a previous 944. Looked good sounded better and ran well. Personable owner though not a member of the forum

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[tamathumper]

Was it a PorsChev?

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[Rap]

?

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[tamathumper]

Back in "the day", when I owned my 944 S2, there was a buzzing little side industry of people transplanting Chevy V8's into 944's. At the time 968's were still too new and precious to do such a thing to, but 944s were right in that wheelhouse for catastrophic engine failures followed by Frankensteinian solutions. There was an online group on AOL or Yahoo and the group had its own "flash" who did a bunch of testing and found if you used a certain Chevy engine with a 944 drive train and a bell housing from a Ford Probe and a wiring harness from a,... well, you get the idea.

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[Rap]

Well this one had corvette all over it. Took a wrecked, he wrecked it, 944 and parted it while using a a 968

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[Monstrous4Banger]

LULZ Never!!

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[craigawoodman]

Ah, it is good to see each group has it's purists. If we compare the 911 owners and then the air cooled to water cooled groupings of those, this debate seems to be a bit similar. OK, it is not a Porsche engine, bu it would have to be a nice car to drive if set-up well. Each to their own. We had an electrician come around who had put a 6 cylinder Subaru motor into a VW Transporter - to me that is good thinking. How do we feel about people putting 6 cylinder Porsche motors into Kombi's, etc?



I love that people are willing to make their own "perfect" car or at least try. It is difference, not conformance that creates new ideas.

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[Rap]

Craig I agree. Difference is what makes the world go round. This guy was a personable fellow who enjoyed talking about his car and some of the problems he has had. It had a real purty like paint scheme!

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[Scott Collins]

Just sitting here waiting for Flash to attack.....

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[tamathumper]

How does that theme song from Jeopardy go?



Doo DEE doo dee,

doo DEE doooooo,...

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[jfrahm]

I am still interested in doing one of these swaps, although I had the dead-stock 92 out in the mountains last night. It performed just fine, I might be persuaded to just leave it alone.



There are a couple of swapped 951s around here done by TPC in TX and they are pretty decent. My SC car makes great power but the whine is distracting with the top down and encourages bad behavior from boy-racers you meet in traffic, A stock motor with a lot more displacement should be the easy way to get 350HP or so without drama and it'd sound really good to me (I like V8s.) If I had more spare time I'd like to try a swap.



-Joel.

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[Cloud9...68]

Given what I'm currently doing to my car, I'm the farthest thing from a purist, and I agree that unusual swaps like the ones Craig mentions are interesting and fun, but the thing that has me scratching my head about a V8 in a 968 is that our cars have the same front engine/rear transaxle layout as a Corvette, and they're about the same size and weight. In fact, at the track, I refer to my car as my "underpowered Corvette." So, it seems to me that if you want a nice-looking car with a big V8 driving a rear transaxle that weighs in the low 3000 pound range and is about 170-175 inches long, why go to all the trouble of transplanting a V8 into one of these cars? Why not just buy a Corvette? Although I get the uniqueness factor, and I suppose if you have a 944 or 968 sitting around with a blown engine, and are very mechanically inclined, this could be an interesting project.

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[flash]

lol - i've said my piece on this. summing up though, it can be done, but it is VERY expensive to do it right. based on what i drove, how it was, how much was spent, and how much was still needed, i would say that it would be every bit of $30k to do a conversion properly. it's a LOT more involved than just fitting the engine in there. working out the electronics alone is quite a job, as the 968 uses the ECU to control a LOT of things.

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[RS Barn]

Rap,

Was it white? Did it have a cool racing splitter on it?

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[Cloud9...68]

$30K? Hmmm... About the price of a decent used Corvette, no?

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[flash]

lol - uh - yeah



i think the big thing to consider is the use. track may be a real kick, but then you aren't trying to maintain the feel of the car anyway. i mean, when is the last race car you sat in that felt anything like the street version?



personally i like the feel of the 968. if i wanted a vette, i'd buy a vette, and take advantage of the 60 years of development and millions of dollars spent getting it to where it is



but hey - i've done some pretty nutty conversions that were a blast to drive for a short while, made absolutely no practical sense, and were a lot of fun to do along the way



even some of the stuff i am doing on this car makes little to no sense, and leaves me no room to be throwing stones

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[Rap]

No splitter Pete. Guys name was Joe Mills. He could use a splitter though! Again he took a lot out of the 944 he crashed. Bought the 968 in Georgia for 6000. Having trouble with the pistons. Wicked loud.

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[durtkillon]

I believe Bob Blackwell did a V8 conversion to a 944 with the help of Russ Kelso. Bob was a former and longtime 968 owner, forum member and a very accomplished auto crosser. When he totaled his 968 a few years back, I was surprised to hear he went down the 944 V8 conversion path. I recall him using the word torque about 3 times per sentence.



I personally would have a hard time going down that path unless I was retired and had a really nice shop. I'd love to have that V8 torque, but the thought of ironing out the electrical system and picking up shredded drivetrain parts is a deterent. I have the utmost respect for people who pull that conversion off, however.



For me, a balanced 3000lb, 300hp GT car is perfect. The 968 with the SC kit gets awfully close without the risks.

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[968Syncro]

[quote name='craigawoodman' timestamp='1340419772' post='128465']

We had an electrician come around who had put a 6 cylinder Subaru motor into a VW Transporter - to me that is good thinking. How do we feel about people putting 6 cylinder Porsche motors into Kombi's, etc?

[/quote]

Perhaps the Kombi (Vanagons) are the most common engine conversion around, it is done all the time. Most common are the 4 cyl Subaru (2.2 or 2.5 liters), and the 4 cylinder inline VW (from Jetta, etc.). Recently an excellent kit came on the market for conversion to the Ford Zetec engine. Some have the 6 cyl Subaru but that one is not legal in California. For Vanagon, an engine conversion is seen as a very good thing, the value goes up significantly. There are a few Vanagon conversions around to a Porsche 6 cylinder, it can be done, but the cost is high compared to the other options; and it is taller, so you also have to modify the engine cover and may loose the ability to sleep in it; and since most Vanagons are water cooled, there is no need to go to an air cooled engine. And there are also subjective opinions like with the 968: some think the conversion should like the original boxer engine (only Subaru), some think it should be in the VW family (in-line 4). There are many kits and parts and help to make all these conversions easy enough to do in your driveway.



Now back to the regularly scheduled program (V8 in a 968). It doesn't feel right to me. If you'd like a higher performance 968, follow these steps, at least this would be my suggested sequence.

1. go to performance driving school.

2. tune the suspension, reduce un-sprung weight (17s or 18s)

3. work on air flow in and out (with corresponding chip).

4. chassis braces and reduce weight (the original Porsche strategy). [spare tire, stereo, A/C, rear seats, carpeting, power seats, etc.]

5. supercharger seems like a great next step.

After that I suppose if you really need more horses, you might get some from a V8, but it seems like there are significant disadvantages. It seems most performance driving and perhaps racing rely on so many factors other than the peak on the HP curve.

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[94SilverCab]

[quote name='RS Barn' timestamp='1340462617' post='128487']

Rap,

Was it white? Did it have a cool racing splitter on it?

[/quote]



Heck Pete,



Are you doing V-8 Swaps now??? How am I going to explain this to my wife??? (No, honey that motor's been there all along, you never notice anything)



Jay

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