George Elliott
New member
True Simon, but also the better the finished job in terms of reliability and performance. the jury is out, i'm starting to think i was wrong to doubt this concept. George 944t
My 944 1uz-fe V8 swap
- Thread starter Eldavo
- Start date
My 2 cents... I run a 968 6 speed which I believe is more or less the Audi 01 box. If I were doing a V8 swap I would opt for the 951 5 speed with the longer gearing. That's if you want to take more advantage of the natural flatter tq curve. My guess is that the stock n/a box will fail at some stage..probably sooner rather than later.
Ah, maybe a slight misunderstanding here, although i do engine conversions for a living i'm afraid i won't be offering this as a service to my customers, this is just my own personal 944 that i'm doing a cool swap to and documenting it for you chaps to follow along.... however i'm more than happy to help anyone do the same, the advice is always here. George we will have to wait and see how she turns out, i suspect with this V8 being lighter than the stock engine (no actual figures but it feels lighter) and bags of low down torque it should be very civilized to drive, we shall see. Hi Patrick, thanks for your gearbox input, i will go for the 951 5 speed based on your experience.... yep i agree it will probably munch the stock NA box at some point, i'll address that if/when it happens. No pic until later, but one of the two engine mounts is now made, the engine will be free hanging on both mounts at some point today, after which it will need removing to carry out engine bay mods and overhaul the engine itself.
The engine mounts are now done, these still need final dressing before painting but plenty strong...
The mounts fitted to the engine...
And sitting on the Lexus rubbers which are bolted to the 944 subframe...
The subframe itself has been lowered 3/4" on these, very necessary for clearance....
Here you can see my new mounts, Lexus blocks and lowered subframe in the same shot...
Perfect alignment...
So i made a start on the new sump, i think i'm going to have 20-30 hours in the sump itself, it begins with a basic frame that i have bolted to the original sump pan, all very basic for now, this needs welding, trimming down and shaping before the next stage.
Final sump fabrication will take place on the engine block when it is mounted on the engine stand, but for now i can trial fit this frame between the subframe/rack and engine.
Monkeythree
New member
Interesting project. I like it! Will the lowering of the front crossmember lower the steering rack and screw up the steering geometry? I would expect you will need to do something with the suspension geometry to compensate for the lower rack or else suffer some interesting bump steer issues.
The rack itself will cope with a 3/4" drop without any issues, the length of the rack has only altered by a few mm moving it down, the length of the tie rods also helps with this, it will be fine. What is going to need attention are the lower track control arms, they are much shorter from mounting point to hub and a 3/4" drop has much more of an effect, there would be bump steer issues if left like that, so the usual mod that the 948 boys in the US do is to redrill the subframe track arm pivot point 3/4" further up, that returns the geometry to where it should be. I could fit an extended track rod end to the steering to lower that at the hub, but it won't be necessary.
An interesting days fabrication work, i now have a bespoke 1uz/944 sump, it took 15 hours so not as bad as i was expecting. As above i started with a basic frame mocked up on the original upper 1uz casing, that gave me the bolt hole positions are served as a jig to keep it all straight, avoiding distortion. I decided to use the Soarer belly pan and incorporate that into the design, effectively making this as close to an original rear mounted sump as possible, so an angle frame was made with captive nuts...
This frame also gives me an extra 15mm of sump height which is about 3/4 ltr extra oil, the reason that is needed is because my "shallow" part of the sump is likely to hold less oil than normal. I then made a 30mm frame to act as the shallow part of the sump and as a structure to weld the belly pan frame to...
I then welded the belly pan tops onto the frame, it had to be done this way or i would not be able to seam weld it with the belly pan in place....
Brace in place preventing warping...
Belly pan section welded to upper part, you will see i also have a notch out of the shallow part for steering rack clearance...
The shallow pan base then added, with a scallop out of it for the rack hump it needs to clear...
Still need to add windage trays and surge channels to the inside. Quick comparison, LS400 left, Soarer middle, 948 right.
And for good measure, Alfie (Woodsport dog) doing a spot of photobombing.
Still need to add dipstick tube, soda blast the entire thing to get rid of all metal particles before painting. Level Zen fabrication completed.
George Elliott
New member
Paul, you don't waste any time for sure.. I agree your lower wishbone thoughts but I think you need to re-consider the rack comments M3 makes above. The track rods are affected in the same way as the lower arms....no? George 944t
No the rack tie rods pivot much further inboard than the lower wishbone does, simple geometry, think if the rack pivot point was 10ft away (hugely exaggerated, hardly any noticeable effect of being 3/4" lower, now imagine the tie rod is only 2" long (again a huge exaggeration) a 3/4" drop has a massive effect on the arc that arm swings through. Lower arm will get moved back to stock, steering tie rod will be fine.
George Elliott
New member
Understand the effect of distance on the "difference in height" and it certainly minimises the problem. Stick the numbers into CAD and it will tell you the steer angle effect of say 30mm travel On a lowered 944, people often add a longer lower ball joint as heavy compression on the strut can exceed the travel available on the LBJ. Similarly, they often add a compensation to the track rod as per elephant racing - see their website. Its detail, just my 2p (or maybe M3s) we wont argue [
] George 944t
] George 944tThanks George, i'll check out Elephant, a simple taller track rod end puts it back to stock though, but i've done this for over 15 years on our Mr2s with over-lowered suspension (Ferrari replicas and the like) , so well aware of the problem, those cars get a 2" drop though so the bump steer effects are much worse.
Wow, hello Paul! There's a name I didn't expect to see on here. Don't know if you remember me from twobrutal, I bought msherry's mk1 v6sc. Glad to see you're still pushing boundaries, looking good so far I sold the 2 mk1's and bought a 944 turbo cab in the end, hence being on here. Good luck with the rest of the build
I sold the 2 mk1's and bought a 944 turbo cab in the end, hence being on here. Good luck with the rest of the build 
bennyboy
New member
Hi Paul, any particular reason why you don't plan to offer this swap to customers? I genuinely believe there is some good potential out there for you, depending on price of course. I had and loved a 951 for a few years and would contemplate one again if it had a v8 in the nose!
Hello mate, small world this internet! Yep i remember Mr Sherrys V6SC Mk1 very well, how do you find the 944 compared to an Mr2? I absolutely love mine, sadly i can't leave the standard engine in anything it seems.ORIGINAL: Sidewaysfreak Wow, hello Paul! There's a name I didn't expect to see on here. Don't know if you remember me from twobrutal, I bought msherry's mk1 v6sc. Glad to see you're still pushing boundaries, looking good so far
Hi Ben, to be honest it's the huge amount of fabrication work involved, i fear if it was a paying job it would end up pricing most people out. I would say there are 200-250 hours in something like this (rough guess) and how do you ever price something like that at £50-60/hour garage rates, that's a £10k swap without parts (although to be fair the parts cost is quite low) I would never say never, but i think it would be a step too far financially for most, such a shame it isn't more of a drop in/wire up/plumb up job.... it's the fabrication work that costs. Let's see how mine turns out and if there is still interest it might be something to consider. I also wasn't sure how well received a Lexus V8 in a Porsche would go down, it will sound amazing and pull like a train, but cross breeding isn't everyones cuppa. I know manufacturers do it all the time, hell older 944's/924 has the Audi engine etc.... sorry rambling!
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