Turbo into '84

[Guest]

Hey people...

Another question/Another possibility

After reading through the thread i created on v8 engine conversions...

can people please tell me/discuss what the possibility's of putting a turbo into a non turbo car.

I presume the looms are different so running a emerald or mega-squirt ECU would make it much simpler?

I presume the engine mountings are the same?

So would it be a straight swap psychically?

Also can you get all the parts to rebuild these engines, im guessing theyre not too cheap to do?

The bores are nickle plated arent they? so if the bores were worn is the only option new liners?

Also what are the internal differences on a turbo compared to a non-turbo engine? Im guessing it much have a stronger bottom end?

Can you turbo a non-turbo engine if you suitably lower the compression? If the turbos a much stronger engine then i guess its best not to.

cheers

 

[Peter Empson]

Anything's possible if you've got the time or the money. This question is often asked on forums such as Rennlist, and almost always shot down in flames, and whilst I hate this knee jerk reaction I have to admit that there's is a lot of sense behind it.

If doing an engine swap I think you're best to buy a complete parts car, as it'll make life a lot easier, after all you'll end up needing almost everything (front loom, radiator, gearbox, exhaust, plus ideally brakes and suspension etc).

The engine mounting points are indeed the same though so the basics at least bolt up, but there are lots of things you don't necessarily think about at first - take the air filter for example, if its an early car you'd probably have to cut out the badge panel, then there's the oil cooler/intercooler to think about, heat shield and so on. (I can't find it now, but a while back I listed all the parts and some of the issues faced when doing my conversion).

A few years ago at a Bedford trackday there was a silver grey 944 whose owner had done this swap. I'm sure the usual suspect were there [] so perhaps Paul, John or Tony may remember the car too?

But being brutally honest, rough Turbo's can be bought so cheaply now that I think it'd be wiser simply to restore one back to its former glory, it would certianly make more financial sense as you'd have a very saleable commodity at the end.

The V8 conversion idea makes a lot of sense in that you'd end up with a car that simply wasn't offered by Porsche, if you're going to the effort then to my mind it would seem more worthwhile to end up with something that's almost unique.

Personaly I don't see much point turbo'ing a stock 2.5L engine, there are a lot of differences on the Turbo lump to cope with the boost (pistons etc), so I suspect you'd need to run fairly low pressures, which means you may as well start with a factory turbo engine in the first place.

Supercharging is a much more appealing idea to my mind (you can probably guess what's on my to do list []), its so much simpler to fit that this becomes a really exciting idea, however at the moment all of the off the shelf solutions I'm aware cost as much as a cheap 951...

I realise how two faced this must sound given what I've had done. But I don't regret it one bit, I've enjoyed every step, and justified it to myself as I already had quite a bit of money tied up in my car (brakes, suspension etc), I am fond of the thing and don't want to sell it and I had a clear vision of what I wanted to create in my mind (somewhere between an CS and an RS 944, if that isn't blasphemy!).

So on that note, ignore whatever anyone says, and go for it! []