Originally Posted by rude944

Appreciate it, Gentlemen... I have to pass most of this praise on to my old college friend Ian at Advanced Composite Systems. I'm just the architect (and Treasurer), he is keeping it all awesome and properly finished. It's great having a solid partner when you do something like this, and the shop scene is great, an excellent way to spend a day. I'll happily display an ACS sticker on my 1/4 window.

Jay, the boost hard pipes were fairly simple to accommodate. With the blue reducer hoses at the intercooler, which are 4", there is an easy connection made with the factory parts. The problem is in the recirc (proper turbo guys call this the blowoff) valve has to be oriented 180 degrees to clear the expansion tank. This requires you to cut the hard pipes hose flange and then mark and drill a hole in the other side, upstream a bit on the hard pipe. Then just weld the flange in, on the drilled hole, connect it using the stock elbow hose and weld the old one closed. It cleaned up well and the recirc valve is sitting on a Lindsey J boot with the 3" intake, also in blue. Easy peasy, cheap, and clean. Thank you for a healthy aftermarket!

Originally Posted by rude944

Bit of a break in progress, but we're back on... in the last month, I was traveling to Brazil back to back for most of the time on business. However, the last 2 weeks have been wonderful. First bit of progress came last week, when I prepped for removal of the 3.0. Once all the individual progress was made, I required some help. Got a Kiwi to assist and we were able to pull the 3 and have the 2.5 in, same day. Once the 3 was out, I got the brake heat shield in place (factory studs were retained in my model, which was a big time saver). Following weekend, I was able to swap the torque tube and get the transmission back in.

Some notes for people who are also planning this conversion. First, I'm using an early torque tube, no dog ears. I understand that this is the same internally, so finding one that had nice bearings was key... I didn't want to rebuild it. However, My tube had been outside of the spec for shaft extension into the clutch, so I had to do some research to get the proper spec (a Tom McGunn thread on this lovely forum put me right) and the torque tube slid right in. The next note is the 968 transmission coupler is a bit dissimilar from the 951, in that it has 4 bolts instead of two. This might be much stronger, but it's a bear to align. I might have to heat it up a bit to slide it in all the way. That's a job for next time.

In any event... here is the progress photo.

Still lots to do... fab a custom exhaust (with test pipe), but keep it as 968 as possible... thinking of 951 muffler and 968 tip (stealth!), fuel lines will get the right fittings, wire it up (as I understand, it will just take two connections, AC and fuel pump to make it right)... intercooler and twin hood latches will go in later this week. I'm using the 3.0 oil cooler housing (block) and 968 cooler, so that was an even trade. The swap is much smoother than expected. I'm encouraged to get it done, and deadline is a baby due on Sept 19th.