2001 Porsche 996 LS1 Conversion Thread by 1dirtyZ

12 minute(s) of a 536 minute read

sexy oil pan and lines

axleshafts and driveshaft and another angle of that sexy oil pan ( don't you think i have an oil pan fixation

forgot to mention that i installed the dipstick

10.06.10

sorry for the lack of updates , just been busy with other stuff and just found out that the racing season here will kick off in about two weeks ! ( great job BIC for telling us that just now )

For some reason , routing the coolant hoses is kicking my butt! i don't want to do a hack job on it and just run some flexi hose deal , i'm trying to make it look decent and somewhat OEMish , which doesn't seem to be easy !

so , there are two sides to deal with regarding the cooling system hoses in the engine compartment ; pass. and driver sides.

on the driver side , you have the two heater hoses ( still waiting on the stupid metal hoses - the first time the mail service i used lost them , and now i''m still waiting for the replacements) , main porsche coolant line , T from the main coolant line to the expansion tank, and the "L" to the waterpump outlet.

on the passenger side , you have the porsche main return line , the funky stainless hose i made , and the thermostat housing .

on the driver side - after many a head scratch and visits to parts stores , and countless $$$ spent on some really weired looking hoses - i decided to do the following :

from the main porsche hose use a rubber coupling to the funky tube i built , then run a 90 deg rubber elbow into the "new" thermo housing . why a new housing ??? cause the freaking angle and size of the orginal one was giving me a hard time , so it was just easier to go to a machine shop and tell them to make me a straight up housing with a 1-3/4 neck.

here's how the 1-3/4 stainless hose looks like :

and how it looks in the car :

it terminates just before the thermostate housing location , so now all i need is 90 deg 1-3/4 elbow and i'm set ( sorry no pics of the housing or the end result yet)

as for the driver side ,,,,, it gets a bit more complicated ,,,, so to solve this i decided to use a few rubber hoses as possible . i fount a small plastic coupler that has a nipple so i can conncet the main line to the expansion tank , and from that plastic paice i'll run a stainless hose along the engine compartment wall to the water pump outlet. kinda like this :

but then i realized the just where the bend is is the air intake tube hole , so the hose can't run there . so the solution was a few 90 deg. bends to snake around the engine mount bolts and then back to the rear engine compartment wall. this is how the other "funky" looking stainless tube looks like : (trust me the welds look much prettier in person )

this inturn will lead to the other stainless hose ( i'll make these all one peice later on ) i made which is the water pump outlet hose. 

for that hose to work it had to clear the engine cover latch ,,,, wich means more elbows!

well since it will take quite a few words to explain , i'll spare you the novel and snap a few pics soon 

moving on ,,, i also got the inner fenders in a few days ago and bolted them on and i also got the AC pump fitting in , so i can start routing the AC hoses now 

and i machined a fitting/adapter to mate the stock porsche oil pressure sender to the side of the remote oil pump mount .

and i ordered a CTSV powersteering pump setup so i can finally be done with the steering and its hoses . also ordered was an ATI| balancer and a starter to alternator to main harness cable ( oem porsche ) , those should be here in a week or so .

another cool thing i found out is that i don't need a boost guage 

i always wondered why i could not find any aftermarket boost guages for this thing,,, and found it odd that there isn't one on there . well it turns out there is one and its a digital one on the dash information panel ( saw it in action last week on another porsche )

i'm still working on the ALT. and A/C heat shields , and also started to work on the upper heatshields ( kinda isolates the coils and other stuff from the headers).

i know its alot of talk for not so much progress , but i will make it up to you guys 

as soon as i'm done with this coolant crap , i'll slap on the harness and intake, connect the fuel lines, and maybe take the car off the lift and start working on the interior for a change .

( and no ,,,, i still didn't work on the engine compartment harness )

10.09.10

i think i managed to hit a small milestone last night ;

the car is off the lift and rolling at its own free will

funny thing is like all ls1 conversions ,,,, i need to lower this one as well 

check the fender gap in the rear !

and i just noticed something while i was pushing the car into place , the damn thing is light! so light that i had no problem steering it with one hand while pushing it and while at a standstill. this is causing me to possibly rethink my powersteering plans 

i also almost finished the driver side coolant tube , its now all stainless with just a few sections of rubber for when the engine vibrates:

here it is before welding it :

you can see how i had to cut back the outlet tube on the water pump a bit to give me more room . i also got the thermostat housing from the machine shop , i had them make me a straight outlet that is 1-3/4 OD to make life easier for me : all i have to do is get a a 90 deg. elbow that is 1-3/4" od and be done with 

offcousre after all is done and finished i'll be taking everything to the powdercoaters to get a nice coating of black or silver maybe.

here is how the new thermostat housing looks like :

but there's only one problem : the neck is too long , so i'll be taking it back and shortening it along with the porsche oil pressure sensor adapter that i made ( taking it back cause i told them to machine the threads on the wrong end )

the sensor will be located out of the way on the side of the remote oil filter.

and i finally got the alternator to starter cable done now i have to get a block grounding cable fabbed up and i'll be happy 

so now that the car is on the ground, i can take a brake from working under it and focus on the top part , some of the things i'm planning on doing now :

- install intake manifold and throttle body

- plug original oil sensor hole

- get some waterpump bolts and permanently mount that thing 

- hook up fuel lines

- modify then lay the ls1 harness in place 

- get a throttle cable made

- remove the existing under dash brace ( need to do so so i can swap to a clutch pedal)

- figure out where to mount the PCM

that should keep me busy for a while till i get some under car parts in ( like the balancer and heater hoses )

10.16.10

moving on ,, i got some work done last night 

i finally got the dash brace out ,,, after many nights and days un bolting and un screwing and looking for hidden bolts and screw , i finally got the dash out , and i have enough bolts and nuts and screw to re build the titanic 

here is the after math 

and here is what i got out 

i was happy i was done with removing it ,,, but then i realized something !! the damn thing is identical to the new one except for the clutch pedal bracket and bolt!!! i could have just bought the bracket, pedal, and a few other dodads and just bolted them to what i had and be done with it ! i guess is should have researched ( and poked my head under the dash ) a bit more

http://i896.photobucket.com/albums/a...p/100_2469.jpg

another point in the project i reached and was postponing is the gas pedal deal; the porsche uses a pedal unit that bolts to the ground , and has a cable that runs out of it and up into the dash ,,, which is fine till now and looks promising ,,,,, untill you find out that the cable is only about a foot long and ends under the dash at the TPS sensor !?? why wouldn't you just incorporate the sensor into the pedal assembly ?? 

here is how the pedal unit looks like :

it basically has a cam inside that the cable runs over , then goes out to the sensor , which has another cam and the cable is attatched to it :

at this point i don't know if i should keep this unit or go with something different , the problem with this unit is that it does not have that much travel , which leads me to think it won't open up the LS1 throttle all the way . on the other hand , it would be nice to keep it and keep the sensor working , and find some way to use them both so i can retain the stock tps signal for later use , plus this being an automatic car before, it had the benifit of a kick down switch built in to the pedal ! you never know when that will come in handy ( finger is pointing to it )

either way the cable routing is pretty straight forward , from the throttle body it will go back and up into the hump behind the passenger seats ( there is a hole already there- just above the intake manifold) and work its way on top of the driveshaft tunnel ( and under the carpet ) towards the shifter , then goes through the center of the dash anturns into what ever solution i come up with for the pedal 

anyhow , i'll keep banging my head till i find a solution cause only then can i bolt up the dash .

furthermore, i installed the steam vent tubes on the engine , i'm planning on running two vents ( front and back ) and have them tied together and connct to the puke tank. the reason for that it that the engine sits pretty flat if not tilted backwards ( think hard acceleration ) and having the vents plugged just seemed it would cause steam pockets, so i used two cross over vents front and rear.

i also got the ATI balancer in finally and plugged the oil sensor hole in the block , and bolted in the porsche oil pressure sending unit on to the remote filter thing ( sorry no pics ) and got the shortened thermo. housing inplace , and finished the driver side coolant tube , here is a picture of the finished product in place :

up next on the list :

- figure out the throttle cable/pedal delimma 

- once that is done , bolt the stupid dash back in place 

- connect the vent tubes together and tie into the expansion tank

- clean and install the intake, fuel injectors, and rails 

- finish up the coolant hoses.