Lizard928

actually I do too, I am just lazy, I really have no excuse

Lizard928

there I changed to my own

Fastest928

We have done the job twice so far, and Lucky has done the same job a few times. We have the wiring process down fairly well.....put an 330 rwhp GTS engine into a 83 euro, wired a 84 euro LH into a 80, and a S4 engine into a 85, Lucky has done at least three hybrids....I don't think he will do another.

Hi Chuck, how are you doing??

Marc
DEVEK

dr bob

I'd be comparing the cost/effort of repairing the "totaled" S4 with the cost/effort of swapping the motor. Fix the S4, and you have a non-bastard car, plus you still have the old one to drive or sell. Otherwise, once you do the engine swap, you are married to that car until death do you part, unless you find someone who's a bigger masochist than you are. Ever try to sell an ex-wife? You'd know immediately what I mean...

This is spoken from a been-there, done-that perspective, at least the car part. You know, fool me the sixth time, shame on me.

I know it's tough to see a good car waiting to go to the boneyard, with just a crushed front quarter. Call Mark A. and see if he has a good section that could be welded in to replace the bent stuff. Chances are that he does, and that would leave finding a shop to do the welding for you, you do the mechanicals, and then the paint of course. Other places like 20th St Auto in Phoenix might be OK too if they are very local to you, otherwise talk to Jim and Mark to make sure you get all the bits needed to fix the S4.


Good luck!

bcdavis

Yeah, but how often do you hear people on Rennlist tell people to run away from any car that has been in a serious accident? People look at the Carfax, and see that the car was totalled, and see that 1/4 of the car has been grafted from another car, and most people would be very leery of buying it. They would be worried about a bent frame, bad handling, etc...

I think equally leery as they would be about buying an older car with an s4 engine transplanted.
But to some, that would be an advantage.
Extra horsepower in a lighter car...
Not a bad combo...

John..

Or you could rebuild the 81 engine and do something radical to it?

Jim bailey - 928 International

Dr Bob..."Ever try to sell an ex-wife? You'd know immediately what I mean..' No kidding , the closest I could ever arrange was a couple of test drives............. I really disliked paying alimony

V-Fib

Quote:

I'd be comparing the cost/effort of repairing the "totaled" S4 with the cost/effort of swapping the motor. Fix the S4, and you have a non-bastard car, plus you still have the old one to drive or sell. Otherwise, once you do the engine swap, you are married to that car until death do you part, unless you find someone who's a bigger masochist than you are. Ever try to sell an ex-wife? You'd know immediately what I mean...

Does this mean I'm making a big mistake changing the sleeved U.S. 4.5L for the M28.11 Euro S 4.7L? Should I just replace the 4.5L with another 4.5L? Other than being an automatic, I thought the U.S. to Euro swap would actually help the value of my 79 OB, and be more desirable. But I could (usually) be wrong.



Anthony Tate
79/928 Silver Metallic

bcdavis

I think it might be more valuable to some people.
But those same people who see the value of a higher horsepower engine in an old body style,
would also appreciate the extra power of an s4 engine swapped into an early car...

As long as everything works, and is not hacked together,
most people with mechanical skills will see it as an advantage, to have the extra power.
And most non-mechanical people will not even realize the difference, and will
probably be impressed by the newer engine, and by the extra power...

There are only a few people who are *really* into the old US 928s.
Most of the "average" owners are interested in adding power to the US cars.

bshaw

It will be an extremely difficult installation. And an extremely expensive one. Now, what was your friend's phone number? :-)

Bill
'84s 5 sp. (FrankenPorsche)

Nicole

I've read that there were quite a few changes to the bodies over time that were not always visible to the casual observer.

For example, the early manual cars had a narrower "cap" over the transmission, making the rear seats wider than in the automatic version (the automatic needed more space becaus of the huge torque converter, and they had initially forgotten to design that in...). Later they made only one body for both automatic and manual

Then there were changes in the suspension for the '86.5 and later cars, that required changes on the front structure of the body. I'm trying to remember, but I think there were some other changes in that area at an earlier time.

The '78 models had the battery compartment attached to the transmission, while later cars had a compartment welded on to the body - just another example.

I'm not saying you can't swap new parts into an older 928 - as we hear, Marc and Lucky have done this successfully many times. The questions should be "what does it take", and "does it take too much to make it worth while".

I'm pretty sure that if you wave a few $1k bills in front of Marc and Lucky, they'll make it happen. Similarly, you could spend a few weeks/months of your life in your garage, doing just that. Whether that's a worthwhile investment, only you can decide for yourself - you've already heard about the resale aspect.

My personal take is that if you want to upgrade to a newer car, buy a newer car. If you like what you have, but want more power - there are probably simpler solutionis to accommplish that.

My voice of reason has spoken again... ;-)

TeufelHei

Thanks for the input Nicole. I think I'll go down the road of getting more from what I've got.

Just so everyone knows I opted out of the opportunity my friend presented due to prohibitive costs and limited returns for the project. Mostly he just needed the money more than I needed the power.

I've got a line on a few other options, namely an '85 bottom end that would look nice on my top end. Again the matter of fuel injenction comes up, but I'll figure a way arround it.

I've also not really pursued the potential of what I've got because I have know idea where it stands right now. I'm waiting to do anything until after the currrent engine is out and apart.

John..

Tim,

When I am done with this 82 motor it will be for sale. It could be a wicked build up, do the heads cams full 9 yards and then boost it to about one bar or so. I don't have it just yet, but it is supposed to have run fine and have just 75,000 on the clock.

TeufelHei

John..sorry about not getting back to you on your kit. So you got that donor motor huh?

I think I'm going to go the 5.0 route prior to incorporating any boost. Wiseco makes 944 pistons (Nikasil only) in both turbo and NA types.

You mentioned something about them not decking out in the 928 block, what's the deal with that? From all I can tell the specs are the same (stroke, rod length, etc.) is there actually something different about the 944 parts?

John..

I don't totally know, but I think the piston pin to top of piston is quite a bit different on the 944. It comes out to like mid 7s on the CR, but some of the others on here might know what the deal is. I wanted to go 951 route, but it was a hard sell on a 95 mm block.