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Michael, plug in 1991 Thunderbird into car-part.com...look for supercharger...there's a few listed for $100 or so.
Thanks for that, looks like the most reasonable price-wise way to get one.
Next step for the build is engine assembly. That's going to be over a grand just for materials, and I've been spending too much on the car recently so I'm pausing for a few weeks to re-establish my checking account. In the meantime I've been weighing options about proceeding with blower, or going turbo. The main appeal of the blower is instant torque and the novelty of designing a completely custom setup. But then again, I've wanted a turbo car for years and driving 951s, even stock ones, is intoxicating. I decided to look into 951 parts just get a feel for what the investment would be.
I know the "NA to turbo" topic is beaten to death, but I'm already at a certain point with this car and I'm already taking the plunge with a ground-up build regardless. It already has a standalone in place and a lot of the parts I would need are things I would buy anyway for the blower build, like a turbo trans, BOV, intercooler, reinforced internals, boost gauge, non-rubber clutch, and piping. Some of which I already have in the garage. So really, all I'd need are the actual turbo system bits and some imagination for the exhaust.
I got a lot of PMs and replies to my feeler post, and the prices for all this stuff was a lot less than I originally thought. Slept on it. Decision? Ordered the following from Dimi...
951 oil pan
951 bellhousing/flywheel/fork
951 manifold/throttle body
951 turbo mount
951 water neck
951 exhaust headers
951 oil cooler console
951 brake booster heat shield
I was thinking the steel fragments could have been valve spring parts - but they appear to be something else, after a second look. Did you find anything odd/ broken/ missing in the head?
I just got too good of a deal on all this stuff. I still want to do a SC build, but given the upward mobility of a turbo setup (versus my 2:1 SC plan, which was kinda basic and limiting) I couldn't say no, apples to apples..
Whelp, garage flooded on monday. This pic is the street right outside my complex. Nothing damaged, but a lot of cleaning will need to be done to some of the parts that were on the ground. Block is on the stand and was untouched. The 944 itself is also fine, thankfully.
Got this stuff over the past few days, with more on the way...
The yellow box indicates you bought the contitech toothed belts. They have trapezoid tooth. If you look at the tensioner sprocket and the sprockets of you engine you will see rounded (HTP) sprocket teeth. If you look at the Gates belt it has the matching round HTP tooth profile as well. The contitech claims to be compatible but I chose the Gates over Conti. The Meyle engine mount is said of having mediocre quality, although I use it as well because of the cost of an original one. Anyway don't let your good vibes be taken away, I like this thread.
Thanks for the heads up about the Conti belts. I've been running one for 3 years with no issues, but if I had known that, I would have gotten a Gates just for peace of mine. We'll see, it's a few months before I turn the key probably.
Yeah the mounts are cheap on purpose... they're going to be modified a little
Well , at least you did not end up totally under water . It looks pretty bad down that way in places . I finally finished the clutch in mine and will be starting the timing belt and water pump on mine directly .
This project is about to start rolling again... LR shipped the rebuild kit last Thursday
Since my last post, I've been mostly taking care of really small details like cleaning. This morning I used an acetone soaked dress sock to clean the oil varnish off the crank journals:
It looks a lot better now but I'll be going round 2 later.
Another event was getting 951 pistons (a step you would skip for an actual NA rebuild of course). I accidentally bought group 0 pistons instead of group 1, so that will be a setback while I wait for these to sell.
I also reinforced some Meyle motor mounts with Window Weld, mostly to see if they can be fortified at all for longevity. I posted these in a different thread but here they are:
Lastly, I decided to switch the HX35 hotside from the 16cm2 to a 12cm2. That's going from a 1.13 AR (!!!) to a 0.89. I had no idea the current one was that extreme until someone online pointed it out.
The car has been undergone some unrelated work as well. Classic 9 dash, new strut mounts, new speedo cable, a little tuning, and this past week I ordered some early manual sports seats for $275 shipped I'm going to reupholster them with the Only944 kit.
To-do list for the next few months when I'm not assembling:
- get tolerance group 1 pistons
- I got an '87 cam tower as part of a trade, need to drill the cam bolt to extract the cam for this motor
- get clutch setup
- head rebuild
- figure out oil cooler
- get a 951 or S2 trans
- modify spare nose panel for intercooler
- gap the rings and plastigage the mains and con rods
03-31-2016, 11:22 AM
