[sparkydog]

Thanks for all the reading & clicking you had to do Xio!

OK time for an update on the 944. This time its all words and no pictures. I think that writing all this down might help me with some of my decisions.

I've been doing a lot of brain work and a little bit of wallet work and almost no actual work! Since I stuffed the Camaro motor/trans into the 944 I've been wrestling with a bunch of tradeoffs. The next logical step for me is to place the motor where I want it and fab up some mounts. Fore/aft was fairly easy to come up with. Side/side I want to put the motor over on the pass side as much as I can within reason. I'm trying to stay as far away from the 944 steering shaft as possible. This will also pay back when it comes time to situate the brake and clutch MCs.

First I tried mocking up using the stock Camaro headers. With the motor about 1" to the right of CL the right header clears the frame but would dump slightly into a corner of the stock K member. And the left header dump flange hits the steering shaft. Rear-ish dumps would work better so then I started looking at both the Mustang V6 and later model Camaro headers as options. I have a set of Mustang V6 headers now and they solve the steering clearance problem but hug the block just a teensy bit too much. So there would be a lot of fab involved to mod them. I'll get a set of the 00-02 GM headers and see how/if they fit.

And even once I have a set of headers that fit - I will also need to keep in mind the low mount A/C compressor as it will require that I mod the K member to clear. So for now I can't proceed very far with motor mounts until I have the header and A/C mocked up - then I can firm up the side/side location of the motor.

With side/side location still uncertain I have to be careful with what I do in the trans tunnel and driveshaft hump. But I think I can proceed with the trans mount cross brace fab. I know that the most I would shift the motor to the right is about 1.5" so I'm going to fab a trans tunnel and cross brace that have a hoop that will clear the worst case. I've bought the tubing and U-bends for this portion of the project so stay tuned for an update on this aspect.

Next up is the gas tank. The basic void where it needs to go is shaped like a rectangular box. The OG 944 tank has the right shape but I won't be using it for several reasons. I saved the Camaro tank but it is shaped like a wedge of cheese and after a couple of wrestling sessions I have decided I don't want to use it (but will keep the pump/sending unit/vent/vapor recovery stuff). I could buy an aftermarket tank or fab my own but my cheap bastard is trying to hold off on that impulse. Right now I am looking at taking either an S10 tank or a C10 tank and modding them. They are both too long but have the right cross sectional shape. I need to also consider that I have not fabbed an upper shock mount and need to reserve space for panhard/watts and muffler(s).

And toward that end I am thinking about shaving the spare tire compartment completely out of the 944. It would solve a whole bunch of space issues. I would have enough room for about 20 gallons of gas, room for rear suspension goodies and a little left over for a muffler. In 40+ years of driving I've only had 1 flat tire and it was within 100 yards of my house so I just drove slowly back to the garage. So I've never needed a spare tire - and now that I have written these words I have jinxed myself. Another option is to "negative tub" the spare tire compartment. It is shaped to hold a regular fully aired Porsche wheel and tire. But my 944 is running Mustang spindles so I can use the more modern, narrow spare. This would allow me to shorten the depth of the spare wheel cavity by 1-3.5" depending on how aggressive I want to be.

OK that's it for now - thanks for reading all this blabber.