Awesome car and well done.
This is my 944 turbo, or 951 in P-car speak. I bought a non turbo at the end of high school which sealed my fate as an eventual 951 owner. I’m a sucker for their styling, handling, and bang for the buck. I bought this car in July ‘05. I picked this particular car because it already had a huge list of parts that I would’ve selected to install on my own. The value of the extra goodies easily exceeded the purchase price of the whole deal. It also had a complete repaint by a guy that owned a body shop, it looks outstanding. It was an Arizona and California car so while the galvanized bodies on 944s don’t typically rust, this one doesn’t even have rust on the bits and pieces under the hood and out back. The big price break with the car is that it does have a little higher mileage (170k) and the engine was dead. The seller was quoted that it would just need new bearings and be good to go. I do ALL of my own work, but I decided to swallow my pride and send it to a shop for a quick rebuild so that I could enjoy the car right away. The shop tore into the motor and found it needed the cylinders re-honed so it would be twice as much. Then the pulled the motor and found it actually needed either a new short block or more involved cylinder work, then needing some still unproven aftermarket oversize pistons, of course, double the price again. At this point, I told them to park their wrenches. Paid my uber-expensive “diagnosis and engine pulling” fee and towed it back to the parent’s garage. My engine choices were pretty simple:Buy a freshly rebuilt shortblockBuy a used shortblock and rebuild itPart the car, (probably still come out pretty far ahead)V8 swap Work with my existing shortblock, except with a couple of improvements I chose the last option. An experienced 951 engine builder and racer had been designing and testing a new sleeving system on his personal cars, and had recently converted a few other owners cars. The 951 block is an open deck, similar to hondas. The all-aluminum block is prone to a bit of weakness, and high boost levels can make the cylinders wiggle around a bit and cause headgasket problems. There are other fixes for this, but since my cylinders were already toast, I figured I had the perfect candidate. The sleeves are from Darton. The design is called MID or modular integrated deck. This means that the tops of each of the cylinders now physically touch each other, along with the sides of the block. They’re also “wet” sleeves, which means they are exposed to the coolant and the entire original cylinder is machined away except at the base of the block. They have a big following with the boosted Hondas, as well as LS1s and Ford 5.4s. They’re made of ductile iron, which is an extremely HARD material with excellent resistance to surface abrasion (cylinder scoring). Here are pictures of a stock open deck block… Compared to my MID sleeve block… An interesting writeup of the full process used by my engine builder is on his page here… http://www.944enhancement.com/html/engine_machining.html Ok, enough background, here’s the fun stuff… Engine2.7L (2682cc) - 104mm boreCNC’d block to fit Darton MID (Modular Integrated Deck) nodular iron “wet” sleevesJE forged pistonsTotal Seal rings Hybrid 2.5/3.0L head gasketGriffin AL radiatorEvans NPG-R waterless coolantLate NA camshaft (a bit more lift & duration on exhaust)Calico CT-1 coated main & rod bearingsIshihara-Johnson crank scraper and windage trayFlapper door in oilpan, collar welded around oil pickup1000 cc/min fuel injectors TurboGarrett GT3576RTiAl SS turbine housingInnovative Turbo Systems 51mm IndyGate wastegate ElectronicsMegasquirt ‘n Spark-Extra2 stand alone fuel and ignition management MS Extra2 Features:Coil on plug ignitionElectronic boost controlProportional water injection controlKnock sensing ignition retardWide band O2 inputTargetAFR controlTraction/antirev controlInnovate Motorsports LC-1 wide band O2 controller DrivetrainFidanza lightweight AL flywheelKennedy Engineering Products 3800lb (Stage 2) pressure plateSachs 930 clutch discFactory limited slip differential SuspensionTurbo cup Bilstein coilovers w/500lb springs30mm rear torsion barsKoni yellow rebound adjustable rear shocksWeltmeister adjustable front and rear swaybarsWeltmeister front strut tower barKelly Moss Racing camber/caster plates968 caster blocksRennbay race balljoints Brakes/Body/Wheels13.1” 993tt xdrilled rotors4 piston 993tt calipersA.I.R. front splitter968 TRS replica wing968 mirrors and door handlesAutopower roll barCorbeau A4 seats (added P-crests)6 pt harnessesClass I hidden receiver hitchTrack tire/equipment trailer17x8.5 FRH Int’l 3 piece twists front, 17x9.5 rear I’m looking forward to the Megasquirt project, as I’ve used them on multiple vehicles in the past and they keep introducing newer, more powerful toys and features to play with. I’ve started an MS-biased DIY Standalone informational thread for 951s over on 951forums.com. Now for a couple of highlight photos… Here’s a few shots of some of the new stuff coming together under the hood… Innovative Turbo Systems 51mm IndyGate Most of a $1750 order from EBS Racing… I-J Crank Scraper/Windage Tray… The freshly sleeved shortblock from 944 Enhancement… 104mm of beauty! If you’d like to see more, I have pictures posted here… http://evilengineering.com/gallery/v/gielamonster/eVil951/ My goal for this car it to keep it 100% streetable, capable of long trips and sitting in traffic, but also be a beast on the track. I’ll update with more details and news as the build goes on. I’m sure there will be a number of changes and additions.
Awesome car and well done.
Wow! Beautiful car and great mod list!
Thanks guys. More info on the project is up here: http://951forums.com/forums/index.php?topic=283
This is on my list of cars to buy. Nice.
I have always loved the 944 look. Yes it was supposed to be the "cheap Porsche," but I love it. What you have done is masterful work. Wonderful job, I envy this car!
Wow, very awesome.
Love the car! I really miss my 951. Great work!
Beautiful car and I loved the info on the rebuild.
You are the man. Nice set up !
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