Throwout Bearings

After some research on this topic I was able to get a couple of preliminary options sorted out. First I was talking with the gentleman from Russia who indicated that his car is operating with the bearing from an Opel Vectra C. I have also found that Tilton makes drive line components and several of its products look like they may be the ticket for this project. Their bearings are also adjustable for custom applications. I'm hoping that they might have a unit that will bolt up to the original guide tubes mounting holes. I can only guess that they will cost more than an OEM part and I still need to take things apart to find one that will actually work. I will post p/n's when they become available.

Audi LSD

It is true that you can use the LSD unit from the rear end of the Audi V8Q. This is a torsen type LSD. You will need the LSD and drive shaft flanges from the V8Q. There is also a little machining that needs to be performed on one side of the diff and the flanges have to be redrilled for the Porsche bolt pattern. Supposedly it works well if you want to use this type of diff. Reports are out there that these units are going for around 100 bucks which means that are practically free. If I didn't have my heart set on a clutch type diff I would give this one a try. Here's a link to get you some more info if you need it.

http://www.924board.org/viewtopic.php?t=23820

I am in a research phase right now since I have several projects around the house that need to be completed before I get to carried away with the engine swap. I have just heard that there may be a suitable Audi LSD unit that could be used in the 944 transaxle. Also I am searching for information on a hydraulic throwout bearing that could be used for this application among a lot of other things. If you care to make any comments on the blog or want to post info, you will find a comment button at the bottom of every post. You can use that to post replies here.

Following the site

Okay I'm not totally sure about this everyone, but I think that by following the site you will get notified when I make changes. Surely you don't want to miss anything. If your interested in this option just use the link in the minions section on the side bar. Should be pretty easy.

K24 Turbo

The car I bought came with an extra K24 Turbo. Either one will need rebuilding if the cores are good. I haven't taken them apart for inspection yet, but I'm debating on whether I should replace them with a different unit from the get go. Low rpm boost will be very important to me, but the car will run to red line all the time also. I think this topic will take a lot of research. I'm wondering how many hp the stock turbo is good for and what its spool characteristics are. I've got a couple of places to ask, but if anyone has been down this road, drop me a line. I will post the information that I come up with.

944 running with 7A installed

I'm pretty sure that this is a video of Bullmoose running his car up. Sure looks like it anyways.

Audi I5 20v Turbo

Here's an important item that you will need also. An engine! We are sourcing ours from a less fortunate Audi S6. I believe that it is a 1996 vintage, but the year that you pick really depends on your personal preference. I hear that any of the I5 motors would work in this swap, it is just a matter of how you want the motor to be equipped. I personally was looking for an S4 or S6 built between 1992-1997. You'll find that S4's were built until about 1994 and then renamed S6. In the 1997-1998 time frame a different engine started being used. Before the S4/S6 series there was a Audi 200 20vt that was made in 1990 and 1991, I think. So if my dates are wrong shoot me a message and I will correct them. In this configuration there seems to be a distributor and a different intake manifold. Older than these are Audi 10vt cars which are also usable.
The reason that I chose the model I did was because it has no distributor and the intake manifold begins on the driver's side of the engine. The Audi 200 20vt has a distributor and the intake manifold begins on the passenger side of the engine. Obviously the S4/S6 power plant is a closer match to how your 944 is configured right now. I'm making the assumption that this will make all of the intercooler plumbing easier to install.

Audi 2.7 TT Filler Plate

The next piece that you will need is called a filler plate. It's found on the Audi 2.7 TT equipped cars. So far this has been the hardest part for me to locate due to the fact that noone knew what I was talking about and I didn't have a picture. Bullmoose did a good job of describing it to me and luckily had a p/n to. The part number for the piece he used is 01E103551C. A dealer ship looked it up for me and said it was superceded by the number 01E103551A. The second number is the one that I located here in the states. The dealer also thought that part was applicable to both manual and auto cars. I hope so because mine is from an automatic car and Bullmoose's was from a manual car. The future will let us all know if both parts are correct. There are also several thicknesses of this peice available. You want the one that is about 11.2mm thick. I don't know the part numbers of the thinner peices. Here are a couple of pics to help you guys find the right parts.

Bell housing

Okay in my searches around the net and through conversations with Bullmoose I have found that the 924 has a bellhousing that is suitable for this swap. There are two to choose from actually. A 924 bellhousing is equiped with a cable clutch and will work, but there is no provision for a slave cylinder, which we all know that the 944 has. I opted for the 931 bellhousing that came with the hydraulic clutch. It didn't take much searching to find one although I was warned that they were rare. Maybe I got lucky and if so I hope that it continues. Here are some pics to help out with the id of the proper part.

 

 

A word of warning here though, I haven't actually checked parts for fitment yet so buy at your own risk until I have time to make sure that it works.

Another note is that the Porsche uses a pulling motion compared to the Audi's pushing motion. Bullmoose solved the problem with a custom clutch fork. He did mention though that using a hydraulic throwout bearing may be a better option. We'll see when we get to that point in the build.

I'm told that some clearancing will be required inside of the bellhousing to make it fit properly. Time will tell and I'll put it all in here.

Swedish Dyno Video

I had forgotten about this one.
Mapping Nira I3 - video from Maxtuning.se
It comes from sweden and it looks like they are doing a good job on this one. You can dig around in the website and get some info, but the translators that I have been using aren't that great. If this doesn't inspire you then, just move along. LOL

Websites

I'll list some websites that I have been digging through looking for info. If your reading this you will probably be familiar with at least some of these.

Porsche sites
http://www.hybrid9s.com/
http://rennlist.com/
http://www.924board.org/index.php
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=10

Audi sites
http://forums.fourtitude.com/
http://audiforums.com/forum/
http://www.motorgeek.com/index.php?page=2
http://www.audi20v.net/home/
http://www.s2forum.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=2

There are alot more in my bookmarks, but these are the ones that I go to first, they get alot of traffic and each one a large archive of posts. Those should keep you reading for a long time.....

Starting out

Okay so I know this blog was built for a certain purpose so lets get on with it. I began researching this project about two months ago and all I can say is that there isn't much info on it. Let me rephrase that, if there is alot of info on it somewhere I hope someone will let me know. I did find one guy in the Netherlands who has gotten a 7A engine into his 944. He goes by the name of Bullmoose on some of the forums that are out there. He also has a site up that shows some very nice photos of his work. You can find it here http://www.944-20v.nl/ . I've been talking with him for a while and gotten alot of my info from him. Thanks for the help Bullmoose!

There is also a guy in Russia who has gotten the AAN into a 924. Here you can see a video that shows his car running. I haven't been able to find out anymore about this conversion.


So as you can see the pickings are pretty slim. I keep hearing that it has been done before, but now on knows by who so I have to assume that when mine is complete it will be the first in the US.

Catching up

So to bring everyone up to speed it is mid July and I have been to 6 events so far. The car does very well competing in the CSP class. I believe that we are fourth overall at the moment and the people beating us are on r comps. We started out running 15" phone dials with Direzza Star pec tires. I really like those tires, but they are only available in 195's for that rim size. I just didn't feel that there was enough rubber under it so I searched for some new rims. Being in the Kansas City area we have a nice site called http://www.kcws.org/ there you'll find alot of 944 guys. Check it out, they are very helpful. Eventually a set of 993 cup II's came up for sale, which I purchased. They came with Sport Contact 2 tires, 205's front and 255's rear. I ran them for one weekend and didn't care for how the car turned. It was pushing alot. I was able to dial most out with the rear bar, but I opted for new 235 Ecsta XS tires in the front. Although I haven't run them yet I can tell from street driving that I have alot more grip up front. Rear bar adjustments are going to be mandatory at the next event. Besides that the car has had alot of other mods now, a/c delete, short shifter, AFM refurb, water pump, belts, hoses, ps pump, steering rack, the list goes on and on. You will find with one of these cars that most previous owners just put gas in them and after 20 odd years of use they need some attention. Shortly I will begin the info on the swap, but I wanted to lay some ground work and figure out how this blogging stuff works. I'll leave you with a more recent pic that shows the new rims on the car. If anyone happens to have a good condition front valence panel that they would like to see Nina wearing, drop me a line.

Background

Well you have to start somewhere.....

We took delivery of Nina on the 27th of July 2008. I can tell you I've always wanted one of these cars since I drove my aunt's 1986 turbo way back in 1987. In 1995 she offered the 951 to me, but I didn't think I could afford the parts to keep it running and passed on it. I have often regretted that decision, but you know how it goes. In early 2008 I found out that my brother-in-law had bought a 944. After seeing it once I told him, "If you ever decide to sell it you let me know." A couple of months later we had worked out a deal and picked her up. Driving home I was having visions of racing this car somehow to satisfy one of my boyhood dreams. Here is a picture tucked away in the garage that first night.

Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I am pretty anal about my machines. I'll go get them, but noone gets to use it until I have checked it out completely. In this case it probably saved the car and someone's life. While checking wheel bearings and brakes I noticed the passenger side ball joint was about to fall off. I made a note of that and moved to the rear of the car. I found both rear axles were missing bolts and the tranny was howling like a cat in heat so I made a couple of decisions. We had to overhaul the entire car's suspension and we were going to start racing in Solo. Parts began rolling in, money was rolling out and I trudged on putting everything together. Nina was getting pretty grand treatment: full delrin bushings, Hyper coil Koni coil overs up front, larger t-bars in the rear, new axles, bearings at every corner, new a-arm and ball joints, new pads, rotors, and some 968 m030 sway bars. I know there was alot more, but I cann't remember and your getting bored. I finished it up one week before the Kansas City SCCA's Solo test-n-tune event.

So here is a little picture that my wife took that first rainy day, what a blast!