I have an '83 with a blown engine, and an '86 with a good engine that I'm removing so it just makes sense to put it in the '83 instead of just scraping the '83. Now I have both complete cars so I could either use the wiring/computer from either car. Is it better to use the wiring/computer from the '86 and adapt it to work in the '83 body, or is it better to move all the wiring/sensors from the blown '83 motor on to the '86 and keep all the stock wiring/hoses from the '83. I have a feeling that it would be easier to work on in the future if I kept everything as close to stock '83 as possible.

What do you guys think??

 

Hi Robin, Change all the engine wiring over to the 86, and install the 86 DME and AFM. The car will run much better than the 83 engine ever did. I am doing the same, but with an 85.5 engine into an 83. Fix all known oil leaks and replace front end seals while the 86 engine is out. How is the clutch and RMS? If you have the 86 engine on a stand I would replace the RMS and use the Elring Seal. Paragon Products sells the Elring Seal.

Happy Wrenching,
Larry

 

+1 Grandpa#3. Robin, you have an excellent opportunity to upgrade to the 86 DME and AFM and get rid of the errant idle on Series 1 cars. Check everything that might leak, service it. If at any time you contemplate tracking the car, consider purchasing the 3pc crossmember that racers use. That way, if you need to service anything in the bottom end, you can just drop the center piece of the crossmember and the oil pan in 1/10th the time. Good luck with the project.

 

Thanks guys, that's exactly what I wanted to know. I'll transplant everything from the '86, and give it a good once over while it's easy to work on. I know the belts should be changed, I've heard a lot about the water pump, is that something to do as well? Is there a way to check water pump health?? Any other things that may appear ok that should be changed anyways? I will have a good selection of other parts to choose from though, since everything gas related is coming out of the '86 I can choose the best exhaust/starter/alternator etc.

I'll probably never track the car, it'll be a daily driver for awhile or I may sell it once it's running nicely. The '86 is the real project and it's getting the manual steering rack from the '83 and a big electric motor. (that's why the good engine is coming out of the '86 in the first place) The electric motor has between 240-340ft lbs of torque available between 0 - 2500rpm (depends on the amount of current to the motor so the controller will decide the maximum torque more than the motor itself) it'll be a monster off the line but with limited top speed, as it's only about 115hp (by limited I mean to ~100mph). It should be fun to drive though, and no more leaks/timing belts/gas etc.

I know it would be cheaper to throw in a V8 or something but that's not the point, electronics engineering is my background so an electric car is what I'm going to build.

 

What a cool project Robin. Let me know when you complete the job, I'd love to see it up close. Good luck with both projects!

 

More info on the electric conversion!

 

Here is a bit more info on the electric conversion plans:
The motors I'm trying to decide between are, Kostov 11" or a Warp 9"
The Warp 9 is capable of the 240-340ft lbs at 1000 - 1400 Amps (yep that's a hell of a lot of current)
http://www.evsource.com/tls_warp9.php
The Kostov 11" trades some RPM for more torque but overall power is only slightly higher than the 9" motor. It will do 400+ ft lbs though.

I will be using either a Warp-Drive or Soliton1 controller, each is capable of 1000-1400 Amps.
http://www.evsource.com/tls_controllers.php

The weak link in the chain for me is batteries, this won't be a drag racer it will be a fun daily driver so getting the best compromise of range and power means lower peak current than I would like to get the range I'm looking for.

So the engine comes out, everything engine related comes out, gas tank, cooling system, exhaust etc. The power steering is being swapped with the manual rack out of the '83, and the A/C will get powered by a small dedicated DC motor, it should be pretty simple since the compressor clutch is controlled by the car in my setup the clutch will be removed and it will turn on an electric motor instead. The main electric motor gets coupled to the clutch and bell housing, the clutch remains for shifting. The car will use 2nd, 3rd and reverse. Reverse can be done electrically however I'm choosing to use the tranny because it's already there and saves a bit of complicated high voltage wiring. The car will stay in 2nd gear 90% of the time, and you don't need to push the clutch when starting or stopping, the electric motor simply stops. It has maximum torque from 0 rpm so there is no need for 1st gear to make up for poor torque/hp performance of a gas engine at low rpm. The electric motor is most efficient at high rpm so cruising at 3000-5000 rpm is the sweet efficient spot (although torque drops off at high rpm just like a gas engine). My '86 has a turbo tranny in it so 2nd and 3rd should be good for normal driving, up to 70mph or so and 1st gear would only be good for burning the tires off.

I personally prefer driving a car with a high torque engine, high hp is great for speed, but where I live it's not practical. My daily driver is an '07 G35 sedan with 306hp, sure it's a hell of a lot quicker than my 944 but it doesn't have that push you in the seat torque that I like and it's far from the nimble handling of the 944. Not to mention the seats, I love my 944 seats lol.

 

Wow.

I may have a use for my 84 afterall....

 

Check out http://www.evalbum.com/type/PORS
there lots of 914, a bunch of 924's and a few 944's and 911's.

A good conversion isn't cheap, mainly because of the batteries, electric may be the way of the future and I would rather drive a 944 than a nissan leaf.

 

I would do it the other way. Use all the 83 electrics and injection. Less hassles on getting the wiring right. It can work the other way too, but it take more effort and you can run into minor issues.

 

I think this route would be much easier, since I could just put the engines side by side and swap over all the wiring/hoses. However would it run as good as the '86? I bought the '83 with a blown motor so I really have no experience with how it runs. I do love my '86 though, other than bad engine mounts it runs pretty well. I suppose I could try it with the '83 stuff and if I'm really not happy with it swap over to the '86.

The BLOWN engine:

 

Why not just use the 86 as a dd and the 83 for the conversion,that way you save yourself a lot of time and work? btw the 86 is also much nicer as a dd.

 

 

That's the whole point, the '86 will be my dd as an electric car. The '83 is a side project that I bought mainly for the manual steering rack. I just happen to have a spare engine, so spare engine/spare body, my logic says put them together. I may drive the '83 for awhile, or sell it, if I don't put the engine in I'll just part everything out. But the '86 is the real project and it will become electric.

Thanks for your input everyone, it helps a lot.