how hard would it be to put a chevy 350 in an old porsche 944?

Question

i have a friend that has a mid-late 80's 944 that has no motor or trans and my question to you guys is, how hard would it be to mount a carbureted 350 and trans in it?

im not talking as in bolting directly to where the old stuff went, im talking fabricating motor and tranny mounts, as well as putting a dif rear eng in it if it is necessary

end not eng

Answer 1

The SBC change with any Porsche is generally not looked on too favorably by the Porsche community... and in many cases for very good reasons as the change can add some very bad characteristics to the car. But, among all of the cars, the 944 is probably the best canidate for something like this.

There are a few companies (Renagade Hybrids is the one that springs to mind) that make kids for the conversion. The fact that someone else has already done the custom fab work makes this alot easier (different mounts, different oil pan for the engine to clear the suspension, different hood, etc). However, most of these I've seen are aimed for an LT1... but most of it will probably work with an oldler SBC.

Compared to a 944 with the Porsche engine, the newer SBC will only change the weight distribution a little (go from 50/50 to almost 52/48). The slight amount of extra weight forward in this case should actually improve problems with understeer (at least with stock suspension), but the slightly higher center of gravity with the V8 will cause a little more roll under side loading (this probelm is MUCH worse though with V8 conversions to cars with the boxer engines).

The older SBC should weigh more, which may cause some larger problems with handling (though still not terrible), and will probably require some custom fabrication... but it's doable. The question will be if it's worth it. I'd expect somewhere close to $2k being the minimum price it will take (assuming you do all the labor yourself).

Answer 2

In the October 2007 issue of Excellence there was an article about putting a Chevy V8 into a 968. Evidently the conversion worked quite well. However, this is with an aluminum block engine. A cast iron block would upset the weight balance and probably throw off the handling. I'm not sure if there would be room for a carburetor. You might have to cut an opening in the hood. Also you have to keep the Porsche transaxle. It might make sense to upgrade it to a Turbo unit. The gears are stronger.

Answer 3

A Chevy 350 will throw off the 50/50 balance of the 944 and destroy the handling. The suspension isn't made for the added front end weight even if you sandwich it in and the cooling will likely be an issue too. A 350 is a brute force, low tech, gas hog that relies on dumping gasoline and cubic inches for power. Go to your local Porsche auto wrecker (http://www.partsheaven.com/) and buy a motor/trans. (recommend the 5 spd stick). Switch out the stock shifter for the short throw and the stock throttle pulley for the short response throttle pulley. Have the engine rebuilt by a dealer or a reputable Porsche trained mechanic. Then, have fun! You'll get 200,000 trouble free miles out of her. Use of a Chevy 350 will nullify the whole reason you bought a Porsche in the first place!

Answer 4

Porsche 944 V8

Answer 5

This seems to me like a rather pointless conversion but really with enough talent and money you can put any engine into any car. I've seen 350 V-8s in 911s.

So yeah, you can do it but it won't be easy and you won't like what you end up with.

An 80s 944 is not a collectible, it's just a used car and not very valuable, so no harm in chopping one up if you want to.

If this is a really cherry 944 body, put a 944 turbo motor and transmission in it and you'd have a decent car.

Answer 6

This is probably the best place to start:
http://www.renegadehybrids.com/944/LT-1/LT-1.html
http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-the-Porsche-944/968/924-Series-Models-to-Chevrolet-V8-Power
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2571731
http://www.autoatlanta.com/model/944catalog/944-001.html

The problem you have is lack of transmission - which means no rear end either, as 944 have a transaxle.

Other than the 944 transaxle, the only "low" priced alternative is a C5 or C6 Corvette transaxle......

Or you could do a MASSIVE amount of work, and adapt a standard transmission - would require lots of cutting and welding. For a rear end then, the 8.8" Ford IRS is probably the most easily sourced, and adaptable the Porsche IRS.

Answer 7

I am looking for the website that has a car with this in it. So if you are good at fabbing stuff up it is completely possible. I remember that there was a clearance issue on the hood so you might have to do some accommodating body work to shoe horn it in. Also with all that weight up front for the street it will understeer like a mother. So think about cutting the firewall and locating the motor back as far as you can.

Answer 8

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I did a v-8 swap in the short time of my spring break my summer year in 04. Dont be scared, but be patient and dont expect any help from your buddies lol. Go s-10. I put mine in the new body 94 year. went with a metric 200 and it shelled out a block down the road! put a turbo 350 in and ripped the bell housing in two. put the t5 camaro transmission in it with a 12" truck pressure plat and stripped the input shaft twice.....700r4 lasted 2 weeks.....All and all the turbo 350 transmission was my favorite-the only difference in the 350 and the 400 is that the 400 is more heavy duty-perfect for this project. I went with an aluminum drive shaft out of a ford aerostar that fit perfet out of a junk yard with bastard u joints and i lasted a good while til the ears were ripped clean off it(i guess thats what happens since it was rated for a 200 hp van lol). got a steel one chopped down and balanced with new ujoints for about 120 bucks. hedman headers(summit 130 bucks) chevy caprice motor-frame mounts at oreillys 20bucks and adjustable motormounts from summit $$?? 2.5" duals ran down passenger side with fabricated x pipe half way down to my two 40 series flows with 3" flare pipe dumps at the axle-300 bucks(Well Spent!). I had a factory 4.10 rear end that hooked up great with some 235-60-15s, always left two brothers on take off! b&M SHIFTER about 130 at summit. 3 core radiator from summit for 200 dont by the v8 swap one for 500 bucks just use the measurements from that one and by the B Cool one..I think. I used a cam that was a high rpm cam (it built power to about 7000 rpm before the cam would float with factory style cast pistons 40 over 350. put dual electric fans on it out of a junk yard with good ol fashioned heavy duty zip ties. Run a 210 thermostat (running a cooler 180 my truck would try to get hot since it was a high reving engine the coolant would try to circulate too fast not giving it enough time to cool). If you're serious and plan on spending about 1000 bucks I dont mind coaching you through it! EDIT: By the way get some centerbolt heads(valve covers are bolted on through the center to the hea) piss on double hump-these flow better than any of the earlier models and are quite easy to get ahold of and most people dont know the hidden power!

Answer 9

I would assume it is very difficult, especially as one has metric-sized fittings and the other is Imperial.