2001 Porsche 996 LS1 Conversion Thread by 1dirtyZ

14 minute(s) of a 536 minute read

no progress to report , i still can't figure out why i have no spark 

the coils are getting +ive all the grounds and fuses are good , yet no spark .

i tried reflashing the PCM, that didn't work , so i tried the pcm on another car and it fired right up , so that rules out a faulty PCM.

so i got me a set of coils to try and i'll try throwing some sensors on it like the crank and cam sensors to see if that helps. 

its just annoying to have this happen so late in the game and not know why 

just so i know i went over everything ; what are the reasons that would cause a no spark situation?

on a positive note, i got the front inner fenders and driver door compartment lid in today

04.07.11

i guess i fixed it 

i swapped the CPS and nothing , so i decided to take a look at the harness, and as i was fiddeling with it behind the engine i noticed that there were two grounds , one on each head , and one of them was kinda loose , so i tighten it and try it out and viola ! it fires up 

so now that we have that behind us on to the other issues :

why is the power steering fluid foaming ??? 

and i tried to get the air out of the cooling system but i guess it still has some in it ; i let the car idle and the temps slowly and steadily started rising untill about 210 degrees when it started puking out of the coolant tank ( from the cap) and i shut it down . the thing i noticed is that when i hold the rpms around 3k the temps dip a bit and start climbing as soon as i return to idle ,,,, which might mean i need a higher volume water pump or an inline one to help with the flow. but i guess i need to check the cooling system further 

04.08.11

any how, i decided today was not going to be a " work on the thing " day ,,, instead i desided to make it a "reliability test" day 

i took the car for a test spin around the farm just to get a feeling of the thing , and i learned a few things : make sure the indash CD changer is bolted down or else it will fly out and hit your hand on the shifter. second; i need to adjust the shifter to get reverse to engage easier.third : bleed the damn brakes !

first part : pulling out of the garage and flooring it :

second part is the driving part of the test 

then i decided to log a run ( well i kinda forgot to do so in the first outing so i now had a reason to go out again ,,,,, and do some donuts) 

i learned a few valuable lessons here ,,,, most importantly make sure you have more than 10 psi in your front tires before you do anything stupid ( helps prevent palm trees )

i look like a complete noob at donuts during this video )

i also have to mention that i drained some of the P/S fluid out of the reservoir earlier and after this i noticed theat the resv. had some fluid in it but it was not foamy !i still have to double check and maybe top it off .

so next time it will be bleeding the brakes , finish some interior odds and ends , and adjust the shifter cable .

04.14.11

messed around a bit today with the car. i adjusted the parking brake , also fixed the cut rear driver side brake wear and speed sensor wires. also adjusted the engine cover latch ( it actualy shuts now ) , also found out i have a bad latch release solenoid that i need to replace . i also noticed that the passenger side dash speaker is missing ( either the mice ran away with it or it never came with the car ) .

and when i was adjusting the brakes i noticed something which might have greatly contributed to the spongey pedal feel : i never tightened the axle nuts which made the wheel wobble on the hub and while doing so it was pushing the pads into the caliper and causing the brakes to fade ( kinda explains why the pedal went firm after a few pumps).

the front lip is also done now ; i tightened the screws holding the edges, so that gets scratched off the list too 

also took a quick look in the engine compartment and under the car , and its looking good and the belt is still riding on all six ribs and while there i looked where to mount the rpm sensor and it seems there is a nice spot right off the Alt. bracket which would make for a great location for the sensor while keeping the bracket needed as simple as possible - sorry , forgot the camera .

and i dropped off the rear panel just under the rear window to get reupholstered (fire damage ruined part of the leather) .

next time i should slap on the damn AC compressor , and adjust the shifter ( i just ordered a short throw conversion so i might hold on adjusting till i get the shifter in ) , make the crank sensor bracket and start mounting the bumper.

05.01.11

didn't get to spend much time this week on the car , been real busy with other stuff.

i did manage to fix the cut speed sensor wire and i took the car for a test : i have a working speedo now ! 

also adjusted the shifter so now the gears go in smoothly. and i got the rear panel ( under the rear window ) back from upholstering , so now that sits nicly in its place and covers my new fuse box.

as for the A/C compressor ,,,, still sitting snugly in its box 

i also got some new bulbs for the brake lights but they still don't function properly 

the brake light comes on and stays on when i turn the lights on , and stays on even after i turn it off ( untill i shut the ignition ). its got me confused .

i messed around with the front headlights, and i managed to get the driver side light going , but for some reason the turn signal still doesn't work ( i changed the bulb) .

on the passenger side everything works except the hi/low beam , i still have to check on the bulb in there.

another electrical issue i'm trying to figure out is why the oil pressure guage doesn't read, last time i tried grounding the sensor to the frame and still no dice 

i'm starting to think i'm using the wrong signal wire in the engine compartment - maybe i'm using the wrong year diagram or maybe the wire has a discontinuity some where along the line.

i'm planning on taking the car into town some time this week to have a radiator shop do a complete cooling system flush , and then take it to the A/C place to have them bend me some lines and finish the system . after that i might take it to the upholstery shop and have them make me a rear shelf carpet with some decent insulation behind it as well as redo the seats .

i still need to order a speaker , rear cover latch, cubby hole shelf thingy under the head unit , head unit , parking sensors, and a few assorted peices 

after that i'm guessing i will dedicate a full day for chasing down wiring and trying to fix electrical bugs 

06.05.11

time for a minor update 

like i said i got the electric water pump in , so i dropped it in the car after welding a bracket for it on the passenger side and finished all the hose connectiones , also vaccume filled the cooling system and wired the pump to work when the fuel pump works . only problem is i forgot my laptop so i couldn't log the temps so i didn't start it 

anyhow here is how it looks :

in other news i found out that the broken master cylinder feed line that i fixed before broke again (guess brake fluid and crazy glue don't mix ) , so i JB welded it this time till i get the new one in . i also ordered an electric power steering pump which should be here real soon. 

also got a bunch of prebent aluminum tubes so started working on the intake Y again , its a slow process but should work out real good now and later: the intake tubes will snake all the way to the ports in the side of the engine compartment ( where the intercooler outles poke out originally) where the will attatch to a set of filters for now , and when i fo FI all have to do is just put the intercoolers in ther and connect them to the same Y pipe .

i also finished wiring the coolant temp sensor , so in theory it should work now 

(still didn't trace and check the oil pressure wires )

so next up is testing that the car doesn't overheat at idle , tune the idle (it has a base tune now, won't hold idle when i first start it and its running super rich - plugs were fouling ) , fill and bleed the clutch hydraulics, install the hood latch actuator when it comes in , mess with the intake tube some more, and i have to remind myself to put some gas in the thing 

off course all this has to wait till i come back home in a week or so, and pending other to-do's on other projects . so if the cooling system proves itself i might start taking it out for longer "testing" sessions 

06.06.11

one more update before i skip town for the weekend ( our weekend) 

i fixed the master cylinger reservoire tube and installed it , all i have to do now is hope it doesn't leak and bleed it .

then i proceeded to the idle test , i fired it up and let it idle for 35 minutes and the highest it ever reached was 190 degrees 

which means the cooling system is officially done !

in other good news , the temp guage also works ,,,,, and apparently when id does so does the oil pressure guage too 

( i was so happy that all i had to do now is the RPM sensor and fuel level relearn i decided to snap a pic of the dash )

so after finishing with the cooling deal, i went back and started messing withthe intake tube.

i already built two Y's but i couldn't get either of them to fit like i wanted . 

so i decided to go with a different approach ; basically a small section of 4" aluminum tube with two 3" 45 degree tubes going into the 4" tube . this should get me the needed clearance i need to clear the hood latch . 

anyhow , here is what finished so far :

and as usual , the to do list for next time :

-bleed the clutch 

-more intake fabrication 

-build a crank sensor bracket 

-more stuff but i'm too tired to think about

06.24.11

well i got some progress and "regress" to report 

in progress news , i finally got around to tuning it ( well,, idle and tip in tunning ) and now she purrrrrrs the thing was ideling at 10:1 AFR before , which explains the fouled plugs and the sluggishnes. 

i also finished mounting and wiring the porsche cranks sensor , so now i have a working RPM guage so now all the dash guages work propperly , and all that is left is to tackle the small warning lights .

and in the not so good news side, the damn master cylinder fix didn't work and it leaked again , so all that hard wrok bleeding it went to waste and i now have to wait till the new part to show up 

and in other crap ,,, i decided to change the non functioning engine compartment latch but that still didn't fix it , which meant i had a problem with the wiring .

so i started tracking it back into the driver side rear corner inside the car . now i never really looked into that corner because most of the wiring i messed with was on the passenger side corner, and i issumed that since the the passenger side wires were slightly burnt and stiff , the other side couldn't be worse ,,,,,,, well man was i wrong :

the wiring was burn't to a crisp ! and not just that , the damage extended to other sections of the harness ( i never took a really good look at the harness like i did lately ) which could explaing the sensors not reading and the brake light issues and what not, and potentially being a short and fire hazard down the road. 

so the next step was to fix it i decided to cut and "patch" the offending part of the harness , which meant i had to seperate the wires one by one so i can track their colors ,,,,, fun!

well after more than 2 hours into it this is where i ended up :

and it was obvious this was going to be a huge - and frustrating task (given my love of wiring ) so i looked into getting a replacement harness and thans to the awsomeness of Ebay , i'm now waiting for the new - un burned, un stiff - harness to show up 

so this pretty much sums up what i have been doing lately, so later on i'll be ripping the old harness out in anticipation of the new one getting here, fixing the master cylinder again , replacing the driver headlight bracket, dropping in the dash and door airbag covers, messing with a few odds and ends here and there ( can't remeber what right now )

in hind sight , why didn't i just rip all the interior out of the car and inspected and redid what ever was damaged then assembeled every thing back in ? (guess it didn't look as bad when i first looked at it )