2001 Porsche 996 LS1 Conversion Thread by 1dirtyZ

13 minute(s) of a 536 minute read

i did try out the porsche gas pedal and its a no go it just doesn't have enough travel - it moves the throttle body about 1/3 of the way only.

so i'll be ordering the pedal soon and and have the cable made locally to the length needed.

furthermore, i did bend the aluminum sheets that will be used as upper heat shields, as well as the ones to be used for the alternator and A/C compressor. also sent the injectors in to be cleaned and should have them back today.

i should start getting back into it this week , 

i should have the intake all cleaned up and installed along with the injectors and rails.

also should start putting the dash and berace back in , which should be a fun process

11.06.10

time for a minor update:

i made a set of upper heatshields to seperate the coils and top of the engine from the heat generated from the mufflers right underneath it , its basically a bent sheet of aluminum with notches cut into it to clear the plug wires:

and here is how they look on the car (before notching) :

also got the caddilac CTS power steering pump in , but for some reason when i bolted it on the engine it was sticking out about 3 grooves out ( serpentine belt grooves ), so i got a hold of a '08 caprice pump ( we still get these over here, thery're the holden veresion) and stood them next to each other and still the same result,,,,, only difference is the CTS pump is mounted on a bracket and theCaprice bolts right to the head , so we'll see how that goes when i get back to it 

i also got the ls6 intake cleaned and prettied up 

almost looks like new ! 

and i got the injectors back in from cleaning, these are green top ford units ( i think they are 43lbs /hr IIRC) , so i'll be slapping those on the stock rails i have somewhere here and then bolting them up to the intake. that and bolt up the lokar throttle cable bracket 

meanwhile , i did bolt up my sexy black 90 mm throttle to the intake to see how it looks in the car :

and might i add it looks sexy 

seriously , i had to do so to double check throttle elbow/ intake clearance ; i was worried that the latch assembly would be too close to the throttle body so i installed it and put the engine cover back on , and luckily i have enough room 

(sorry for the crappy pic) 

furthermore, i also started on making a new radiator hose on the pass. side of the compartment , the one i have now is 1.75" and is somewhat in the way of the intercooler hose route ( in the future) and is rubbing on the engine mount plate bolts. so i decided to make a 1.5" tube that snakes away from all that and is a better fit in the compartment, plus it standardizes the hose sizes in the engine compartment . i also installed the steam vent tubes on the engine ; i used two stem vent tubes one for the back and the other for the front. i did that because the engine sits so flat i was concerend that under acceleration i might get some steam pockets at the rear of the engine , so this was a little added insurance .

moving on ,,, i finally got the dash brace all in what a pain in the a$$ ! i keep reminding myself how much easier this project would have been if this was a manual car to begin with , but oh well ,,, 

i didn't install the actual dash cause i was still debaiting and thinking about the pedal issue . like i mentioned before, i ordered the lockar pedal and i got it in , its a bit smaller than what i anticipated , but not by much. however after getting it in and seeing and thinking of how to mount it i came up with the following conclusions: i could either build a bracket to mount it in the stock location and have it sit a tad higher than the stock location and loose the TPS sensor signal ,,,,, orrrrr ,,,, just use the stock one! 

how you ask after seeing it and seeing how messed up those germans made that pedal assembly , well to make my life easier and others who might be doing the same project in the future i decided to use the stock pedal assembly and just install it like it was before and with the sensor connceted and all that , but the only diffference is that i would drill the top of the pedal horizontally and place a long through bolt that whould would act as the mounting location for the cable end ( think of the bolt going across your toes when your foot is on the pedal ) , the cable would be held in place with a bracket in on the trans tunnel or under the dash and the wire that moves exits it to the pedal , the closest i could think of is a gokart pedal assembly. the cable would mount on the right side of the pedal and close tot he tunnel , which should make it out of the way of my foot 

another benifit is that i can change the pedal ratio just by relocating where the bolt goes in on the side of the pedal ( the higher up the pedal i mount it , the more travel i get , and the lower the less travel i get 

that sums it up for now , like i said , its a bit slow since i'm putting more effort into the camaro now that the season is ramping up, but i will be working on this nontheless 

so next up :

finish as much as i can with the interior , which means :

-throttle pedal and cable

-install dash 

-hook up master cylinder and fill clutch hydraulics up 

-center console and seats

then there is the rear of the car :

-install intake , fuel lines, and throttle and other related stuff 

-start building the mini engine compartment harness

-install the standalone harness and mount the PCM

-finalize coolant system ( still have to route the puke tank hose and the steam vents into the puke tank )

11.26.10

well i've been busy with the camaro and the race that just took place in bahrain , then i went camping and just came back a few days ago , so sorry for the delay in updates 

anyhow,,,, i think i can call the clutch hydraulics done now; i finally hooked up the reservoire to the master and the master tot he rest of the plumbing. all i have to do now is fill it with fluid and bleed it . also i can scratch the shifter and e-brake off the list sice i installed them both too.

also installed the dash pad finally , the weird thing is that it went in quite easily and i only have 3 screws left over

i didn't install the center console cause i still have to route the throttle cable - and fab a bracket on the gas pedal ( more on that later).

i also decided where i want the pcm, it will be in the cabin and right where the porsche unit would be. here is how it looks in place :

and how it looks when covered with the stock carpet :

i just have to drill a hole on the pass side rear bulkhead ( just above and to the left of the pcm - in the pic above) to route the harness through .

moving on ,,, i got me an ls2 fuel rail and slapped it on the intake along with the injectors , but when i tried to install the intake the top of the fuel rail (crossover tube ) hit the top of the engine compartment , so i guess i have to get some aftermarket rails for clerance reasons 

also finished connecting the vapor tubes to the puke tank , as well as puke tank to the coolant tube .

so thats what i got done recently , next up is taking the powersteering pump bracket to have 4 mm machined off its back ( so the pulleies allign) and installing it . after that i have to do the p/s lines.

also on the to do list is drilling a hole in the rear bulkhead to pass the harness through, clean up the harness , and mount the pcm

also have to fab a bracket on the pedal and under the dash to hold the throttle cable 

furthermore , i guess i can roll the car back on the lift so i can :

- install the balancer

- install the alt. and A/C heatshields

- route the heater hoses ( if i ever get them) 

- route the AC lines and compressor

- run a grounding cable between the block and the frame

should keep me busy till i get some of the interior parts i ordered in

12.04.10

i know i've been slow with updates on this project , but i've been busy with the camaro and the racing season that just started over here . 

speaking of updates , guess what ??!! this is one 

i got the power steering bracket back from the machine shop. they took off 4mm from the back to compensate for the thickness of the motor plate / mount thingy.

so i got it on there and slapped on the reserv. and connceted it , all i have to do is finish two lines ( return and feed lines) and be done with the power steering 

moving into the cabin , i managed to take offf the passenger side rear inner panel , sponge/foam stuff behind it ( man do the germans like this stuff ! ) , and the seat belt bracket . here is what it all looks like :

and after removing all that ,,,, i found the elusive grommet

so after givving it a good yank i released it and now i have a nifty little hole to run my harness from ( thanks marky ) as well as a new place to shove the pcm in 

here is how it looks like when looking at it from the engine compartment :

i also messed around with throttle cable placement , and i think i found a nice little place under the dash towards the center console to mount the cable bracket. 

and as you can see i still didn't roll it onto the lift , i want to be done with the interior first then move on to the outside. furthermore, i just ordered new fuel rails as well as few interior peices like the driver A pillar and defrost vents,signal stalk assy. , as well as the window motor and regulator and a bunch of other stuff. should be showing up real soon 

so next up :

-clean the ls1 harness from any unneccsary wires

-route the harness through the gromet hole 

-mount the pcm and fuse block

-finish the interior ( put the panel back on , rear carpet, steering wheel , etc)

-install the new rails and finish the fuel system

-power steering hoses

12.14.10

i got the fuel rails in today , but i have to take their brakets/bases to the machine shop to have another set made so they fit on the ls2 intake (these are ls1 rails ) , and i have to make a crossover and connect it to the filter :

i also layed the harness in through the hole in the side of the engine compartment, and figured out how to mount PCM and DME , the PCM will have a bracket holding it down while the DME will mostly be velcroed in place:

and this is how it looks with everything back in place, the fuse block and the OBD port will be hidden behind the removable panel under the rear window.

what i have to do next is finish the wiring ; i have to connect a switched source and an all time positive source as well as ground the harness. also have to connect the fan signals and maybe ,,,, just maybe ,,,, make an engine compartment harness for the porsche sensors 

i also gashed my thumb while making a bracket for the throttle cable but i think i'll spare you the details 

so the plan is to finish as much of the electrical stuff as possible , this way i can scratch it off the the list and get that much closer to firing up this thing 

i also found out that i don't have the pressure hose from the pump like i thought, so i have to see if i can get it locally , but untill then i can only make the return portion of the hose.

next up is finishing the rails , connecting the harness and mount the brains, and finishing the throttle cable 

then its back to the engine compartment where i should start buttonning up the engine and get it ready to start ( i hope ) .

also as soon as i get the rest of the interior stuff i'll finish the interior an scratch that of the list