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Jon came to us with a goal to have at least 400hp from his Stock 944 Turbo in December 06, this got the wheels turning and Dave suggested two options, either build up the stock turbo motor and install a larger turbo and strengthen everything or for similar cost do a GM Crate motor swap and squeeze a 2006/7 Corvette Crate engine under the hood. Jon loves Chev's and Porsche's so he lept at the idea of putting a reliable, easy to maintain GM motor under the hood and doing away with all the heat and complexity of the factory porsche motor. In Jan 07 the project was born and we began stripping down his rust free California Car. Sadly it had suffered some front end collision damage in its previous life so it was sent to a frame shop to be checked, straightened and inspected. After that the new Fenders and nose panels were fitted and the LS2 arrived on a pallet and we matched it up with a Renegade Hybrids conversion kit. The Kit was designed for an LS1 and several components were unuseable. In the end most of the value was in the bellhousing adapter and cluch. Jon really liked the idea of having his car still sound european and not like a domestic V8, we decided that an engineered set of Long Tube V8 headers and Crossover would be neccessary to smooth ouf the V8 sound, a Pair of headers were purchased from American Racing headers for a C6 vette as it looked like the closest fit. The drivers side header fit beautifully but since Porsche offset the engine and drivetrain to the passenger side of the car there was no hope for the passenger side and we ended up cutting up most of the header and refabricating the tubes to clear the chassis. The drivers side only needed two tubes slightly modified so that the steering column could fit. The exhaust has a pair of 4" miniature Catalytic converters which then feed into dual 2.5" stainless exhaust all the way to the rear of the car and through a single dual in/out 2.5" stainless muffler with an internal crossover. Brakes were upgraded with OEM Porsche 996 TT units up front and the rear was kept stock, the Transmission was sent out and a Torsen LSD was installed, the transmission was reinstalled along with a Solid Aluminum mount for it. Axles and hubs remain stock, the Torsion bars were removed and a set of Elephant Racing Poly/Bronze bushings were installed. To control the ride a full set of Bilstein Racing coilovers were installed along with 450lb front springs and 500lb rears. 255/45ZR17 and 275/45ZR17 Falken FK452 tires ride on 3 piece wheels custom made to be as wide as possible and the perfect offset for the early 1986 front Control arms. The control arms up front had the OEM ball joints pressed out and we machined the arms to accept a spherical bearing and made new Balljoint pins from Rockwell 60 hardness tool steel, the pins were upgraded from 17mm to 19mm and the spindles were machined to accept the larger diameter. The pins were also designed to be 1.5" long to match the amount that Jon wanted to lower his ride. This is all to negate a common failure point as well as the longer pins allow the arm to maintain the correct camber and bumpsteer gain through its suspension travel by pushing the arms back down towerds being parallel to the road even after it was lowered. We custom made new Fuel rails as the OEM LS2 motor comes with a returnless system and the porsche tank has a return fitted, an aeromotive FPR was used along with a new Bosch 044 Racing fuel pump mounted in the back. Jon wanted to retain all the stock luxuries the 944 came with so the cruise control, power steering, Air conditioning and power braking was kept. In order to fit power brakes we modified a factory BMW Hydraulicly assisted braking system to fit the 944 as there is no room for a vacuum booster next to the valve cover on the LS2. Custom lines were made for the AC and Power steering/braking systems to match up all the components. Being trained as a mechanic himself Jon was able to dive in and do a lot of the mechanical work himself and is responsible for a large portion of this build on his own and lent a hand whenever needed. The interior was left relatively stock other than fitting a full Pioneer DVD/NAV/Sat/Ipod unit in the center console, some upgraded speakers, laser jammers front and rear and a front mounted remote radar detector. All the stock marker lights and signal lenses were switched over to clear with coloured bulbs to match its gorgeous new black paint. A Vems V3.4 ECU is used to control the LS2 and is happy reading the stock crank trigger, and controlling the OEM injectors, coilpacks, idle air stabilizer etc. And has a Bosch LSu4 wideband O2 sensor fitted in the exhaust for feedback. We have yet to put this car on the Dyno but we have no doubt that it is already making at least 450 crank ponies and putting down a solid 400rwhp, Jon however is already on the hunt for a Top Mount supercharger system to really put this build over the edge and into insanity territory. Jon our hat's off to you for seeing this gorgeous car through to the end, it was a big complicated conversion and you've made sure to spare no details along the way. Check our galleries for photos and videos of this car. |
