johne

Just over one year ago I purchased my 951 with no motor, with the intention of dropping an LT1 in the engine bay. In search of technical information I stumble across some forums called Rennlist. The people on there convinced me to use a turbo motor instead of an LT1. I then got a complete motor with a blown headgasket from ElonDooberhead and the project began. Armed with the shop manuals, clarks-garage.com and the collective knowledge of Rennlist I was able to repair and install the motor, and at 11pm August 5, 2003 she finally started up.

A huge thanks goes out to the busted knuckles and kind words of my family and friends: Mom, Dad, David, Morgan, Lydia, Jenn, James, Blanton, Brett, and everyone who has helped along the way. I would also like to thank all of you for your advice and guidance with specific thanks to John D., Jenn, Danno, Perry, and Manning.

MAN I AM SO FREAKING HAPPY.

The first drive is coming very soon.

Massive thanks to all,
John

Ken D

(that's three cheers!)

Perry 951

Feels good don't it! Congrats!

dualblade

shoulda gone with the lt1

heh, congrats man. it's great to finish a huge project. i hope the first drive is really enjoyable

David Floyd

nineeagles

CONGRATULATIONS!!!.....drive carefully and learn the handling and when you find that everything is ok with the engine and car, learn to drive it like a Porsche........

johne

Good doesn't cover the feeling. Man I think if everyone could feel the satisfaction of achieving a goal after really pouring their heart and soul into it the world would have alot fewer problems. For the past two months I've pushed the work up to the next level, spending every hour after work and the weekends working on the car. This project has totally drained me and I couldn't feel better.

Now I just have to figure out how to get get the headers to stop leaking were they meet the head on cylinder 3 and a little on cylinder 1. My baby sounds like a Mac truck right now.

John

johne

So does anyone have any tips or tricks on how to make the headers seal against the head better. When I installed them they were slightly warped and required a little "persuasion" to install. I'm thinking about using two gaskets on all of them or maybe just the two that are leaking. What do you all think?

John

billybones

When I had my headers off I unscrewed them slightly? maybe the studs are not all the way in? I eventually had to replace 2 of them. they fell out completley... hope that is not your problem.

johne

well I used all new studs but it was quite difficult to put them in do to the headers being warped slightly. I had to use a wrench to screw ~4 of them in due to the torsional force applied by the warped headers. So I think I got them all the way in but it was hard to tell when they were bottoming out in the holes in the head because it took ~8 ft*lbs of force to twist them in and you are only supposed to snug them against the head with ~15 ft*lbs of torque.

Any advice? Or has anyone had similar experience?

Thanks,
John

Chris_924s

SUH WEET --- Aint it!!!
Congrats!!!

ahofam123

Congrats John. Hope to get mine back on the road soon so we can see each other while driving around.

DinoEck

Inspiring story!

Did you warm up the headers with a little hot exhaust gas and then reattempt to snug them up?

'86 944 turbo

cheers dude. Tells us how it rides.

Cass944

sweet my name is in there.... i think its for a different brett though