First post. Yes, another Porsche 944 swap. However, I want to go a different way with this than most people. I want to do an Audi motor rather than an LS1. Does anyone have a list of what Audi motors will bolt right up, or easily, to the stock transmission? I do not have a 944 yet, but will have one by May of this year. There is something about the Audi motors that I love, and would like to do it in the 944. I have read that the 4.2 fits right up to the trans but wanted some confirmation. Thanks guys. I look forward to the information you have to give and hope to give some of my own!
None of them do. :)
You need the bell housing from a 924 or 924 Turbo. The 944 bell housing is specific to the 944 engine (and maybe the 928 engine, but I've not confirmed that). Luckily the 924/931 bell housing bolts right up to the 944 Torque Tube :). I would stick with the 924 Turbo aka 931 unit since it is hydraulic over the 924 NA which is cable operated.
There have been a couple of completed Audi 20-valve 5-cylinder swaps (turbo and non-turbo) and a couple of V8 swaps as well. The V6's should work as well, but most go with the V8 or the AAN 5-cylinder. There are a few documented over in the 944 Hybrids forum on the Texas Performance Concepts website and there was one documented on the 24 Hours of LeMons website that used a Volvo diesel bell housing (the engine was an Audi diesel).
http://944hybrids.forumotion.com/t2355-posche-924-audi-42-v8-abz
http://944hybrids.forumotion.com/t2002-944-audi-v8
http://944hybrids.forumotion.com/t1348-first-audi-20vt-converision-in-usa-is-done
http://www.kuhnperformance.com/projects/19775-porsche-924-audi-aan-powered
http://www.924board.org/viewtopic.php?t=20485
http://www.924board.org/viewtopic.php?t=25742
http://www.924board.org/viewtopic.php?t=33841
Either way, document your build over in the build threads forum section and we'll help you through the engineering challenges and egg you on :)
Awesome! Thank you so much, I think I'm going to go with the 4.2, but hey we'll see what happens thanks again!
Keep in mind, the 931 bell housing is kinda rare, so if you see one, snap it up! Thats part of why the LeMons guy used the Volvo diesel bell, that and it apparently is stronger and fit better on the back of the engine. Of course the 924board is a great resource to try and find a 931 bell along with car-part.com.
If I blow up the 2.0L in my 924, I'm going to look very closely at doing a 4.2 swap :) which is why I've researched the swap so much already :)
Good luck!
Thanks man, you too. It'll be incredible, that motor in that car. Thats the way Porsche should have done it.
m4ttr33d wrote:
Thanks man, you too. It'll be incredible, that motor in that car. Thats the way Porsche should have done it.
Personally, I think they should have put the 5-cylinder in it when it became available as the V8 power was covered by the 928. The 928 was slated to replace the 911 as the top of the line up with the 944 and 924 filling the lower ranks. Of course that didn't happen, so Porsche concentrated on the 944 until they ran out of things to do with it.
I've seen quite a few people do that swap as well. Is there any engine code for the best Audi 4.2 to go in? My only concern is that the motor will be too wide.
Nah, the 928 motor fits better in the 924/944 engine bay with more room to spare than the 928's engine bay. The issue seems to be height at the front of the motor and the hood, so a little trimming of the hood support and flipping the intake seems to solve it.
Sign up for the 944hybrid forum so you can see the pictures and you'll see it fits quite nicely in the engine bay.
The newer motors have more advanced electronics, dual path intakes, coil-on-lug ignition, etc. they also make the most power and have fewer miles on them. You'll need to decide what you're going to do for electronics before you select your motor. I think motorgeek.com is a great resource for Audi motors and they might be able to help point you to the year/make/model that might work best for your swap.
Awesome thanks a lot. I have an account over at hybrids and am looking at the pictures. They look good. Thanks again! Will post updates and such!
Lots of work to put in a heavy motor that doesn't make a lot of power, unless you use an AAN. Then at that point you're spending so much money you might as well buy a 944 Turbo.
Things like this are not always done for logical reasons. They do sound better and it isn't a common swap. More power can be accomplished later (twin turbo, supercharger, etc.)
The ABZ is actually not that heavy (396lbs) compared to a full 944 turbo motor (409lbs), especially when you consider the amount of supporting hardware you'd need to do a 944 turbo conversion and the general lack of room in the engine bay (trust me, I've got a 944 turbo and the first step of nearly any maintenance is 'remove intake manifold' and then 'remove ten heatshields')
Plus the ABZ has a better power curve and will make that power all day long without lag. My 944 Turbo makes 350hp or so with a ton of lag.
I started a thread a while back about swaps in a 944 specifically dealing with non V8 swaps. After people got done flaming me for thinking out side the box some really great ideas were posted. If I can find the link I will post it.
Here's a 924 Turbo that might be parted out in California, the bellhousing should be relatively cheap:
http://www.924board.org/viewtopic.php?t=39507
