Notes for others considering 944 to 968 engine conversion:
 

Hey all,

Here are some notes to consider when looking into this conversion.

- The later the 944, the easier the conversion.
- 1989 944 S2's have earlier wiring. More similar to 944S' versus later S2's and 968's
- Parts you will need: 968 engine, engine harness, 968 DME, intake MAF, etc.
- Parts you want to keep from the S2: bellhousing, flywheel, front pulley (damper) torque tube and transmission
- Misc parts you will want: Short turbo 5th gear (pulls amazing), silicon hoses to match 968 MAF to existing S2 air box.

Wiring notes - the early 944 S2 has an 8 pin harness in the passenger side footwell. This harness is different than the later cars as they have a 14 pin harness similar to the 968. Swapping wires on those are much easier. As a result of this different wiring, the AC wiring is much different and harder to match up. As such, I am removing my AC. (No big loss, IMO.) I like the weight reduction.

If any of you are thinking about doing this - DO IT. It is well worth the effort. As I have said in past posts, the butt dyno is liking this - big time.

Hope that helps someone out there. Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I will do my best to help.

Chad

Chad

Just curious...and I know you did a whole bunch of other mods at the same time....but what can someone expect to spend just to do the motor swap correctly (as opposed to backyard jury-rig) ?

I am thinking that this may be an option at some point since my S2 has 199,xxx miles.

Not including all the extra stuff I did....the time to put the motor in is around 18 hours of labor. Do the math with your local favorite shop's hourly rate. If you do a cusotm exhaust and other goodies (like an engine rebuild, etc)...more time will be needed.

C.

Chad

Thanks! Not as bad as I had thought.....sounds like a reasonable alternative !

Congrats again !

Joe

Thanks Joe. Finding a low mileage 968 motor is a whole other matter.

C.

I can imagine! I am guessing that to be around a $3000 afair once located....although I imagine you could find a high-mile one to rebuild for less...and then dump the difference into the rebuild...

All things I will need to keep in mind as I am thinking I'll need to do this in the next 2 years or so.

How much harder would it be to swap a 968 motor into a 1989 non-S2 944?

On your Air I have the same problem. You may not need heat but I have found that the heat is all the way on or it's off. Plus I have no air on a 89 S2. I lived with the heat but I need air in colorado with a driver. I will be looking into this when my house guest leave in a few weeks. plus I will fix my tach. On the tach I had problems before the swap. I will check the wire from the CPU to the tach. I have 3 clusters so one should work.

I am about to start my swap into my 89 944 non s2, just waiting on the last of my parts to arrive. since i do not have the S2/968 fuel line any recommendations on which aftermarket lines to order? and i was also looking at the accelerator cable is there any need to swap out with the 968 cable or will my normal NA cable work fine? Thank you all.

Your cable should work. You will need to make a custom fuel line yourself or order one from Rennbay. If I remember right (it's been years) I had to purchase a new 968 line and hack one end off to mate it to the hard line. It's straight forward, just take a look at both sides.

Hope the website above helps some. You are going to love the final product.

Should have just looked before I posted... Again, it's been years. Glad I wrote it all down...

matt thank you, your site gave me the inspiration! i got some fuel lines from ebay they are like the lindsey ones. i was thinking about using the fpr from the 2.7l so i have a barbed line fpr instead of the flare fitting one. we will see the project has started but because of work(underway schedules) its moving a little slow. thanks again

Finished the swap, got everything wired up, fired up and..... wait for it... my air conditioning works!!! one note that i havent seen anybody mention, Pin 8 in the footwell needs to be spliced with pin 8 on the new harness, i couldnt for the life of me figure out why my engine oil level light wouldnt go out so after 8 hours of staring at the wiring diagrams for my 89 944 and the 92 968 i found what i missed. all my time wasnt just spent trying to figure that out, 99 percent of it was trying to figure out how to get my A/C to work. well thank everybody for all the help and write ups. only 480 miles to go to break in my new clutch.

968 to 944