My porsche 911 DIY steel widebody, interior swap, engine swap build

Just thought i'd share my 911 build. it started out as a 1999 996 that underwent the following mods.

welded in steel wheel flares

complete suspension upgrade

custom front and rear bumpers

custom side skirts

custom wheels

custom monstrous stereo system

swapped engine : specs feature a 3.8sc from a grand prix gtp. ported from supercharger to exhaust, cam, springs, valves, injectors, tall stack intercooler, nitrous, and tune... plus more.

custom swapped lamborghini Dash

custom made exhaust/headers

A hole lot more but you get the idea. Hoping to get around 370hp to the wheels with out the No2. This is a link to my youtube channel that has some good vids of the build and also a day at the race track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwzq06vG7mI

some more

Awesome!

You'll do well here!

Outstanding!

Interesting.  Safe to assume the car was purchased with a dead engine?

Gorgeous 

love the colour 

What a cool project! 

Hey guys, thanks for the comments. unfortunately this is the extremely abbreviated version of the build. the full thread is on another site with about 100 pictures but i just came across this site.. or refound it.. not sure lol but thought i'd share the build over here. their was sooo much custom work done on this car and all in my dusty little two car garage lol

Lof8-Andy, no it came as a running 911 and a lot of fun to drive. the youtube video of the car on the track is with the porsche 3.4 motor. But the porsche motor.. i'm not a fan. 289 hp and no way of making more with out $20k. I sold the motor and bought a $300 junkyard motor and built it up. the cost of the engine swap so far (all parts have been purchased) is $7k and i'm done spending money on it.

Very impressive!

So you sold the Porsche motor and have 7K in this, wow.... 3.4 motors in running condition are at least $5K, so was this swap relatively inexpensive in regards to your total outlay? Minus all your labor of course. 

just a quick note, I purchased the car for $17k two and a half years ago. the first winter i did all the body work/exhaust/suspension you see. Drove it that following summer and this winter i'm doing the engine swa and the interior swap.

I I can post more pics if you guys want. All in on the car i'm up to about $30k but i am honestly all done putting money into it. Any more $ and i would be in 911/996 turbo price range and i'm just not willing to feel that guilt lol

i'm really hoping to have it done within 2-3 months so I can enjoy it this summer as well. The motor part .. not to much more to do but the Dash swap.. holy smokes, its killing me and taking me a lot longer then i had anticipated. but .... porsche with a lambo dash... thats epic and worth it lolol

dherr said:

So you sold the Porsche motor and have 7K in this, wow.... 3.4 motors in running condition are at least $5K, so was this swap relatively inexpensive in regards to your total outlay? Minus all your labor of course. 

so a rundown on porsche 3.4 motors.. rebuild not cheaper then $12k with the stock hp numbers. a dealer remanufactured 3.4.. runs $27k  the LS swap which is common from every thread i read runs around $20k but you get some mad hp but its a little tight in the engine bay. plus there is not to many used LS motors under $3k. so knowing how fast this 3.8 motor can be .. it just made sense to me since i know the motor. i will have a wicked fast porsche that is still very lightweight, easy to access and super cheap. the pic attached shows how much room i have in the engine bay. the video attached is a fiero with pretty much the same build i did on my motor except ...I did a tall stack intercooler and ported everything .. guys this motor is ported to flow ;)

Video of how this motor should perform in a 2600lbs porsche. I think i made a wise decision.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNTNQ9jAAiU

wow guys thanks so much for chiming in on this.. made my day. us car guys know how to enjoy life lol

This is awesome.  How high can you spin that 3.8?  The Porsche gearing is short.   

My motor isn't running yet but when i planned out the build i consulted with a 3.8 builder and he actually did a desk top tune(untill i get it running for a dyno tune) for my pcm and set my rev limiter to 6300rpm.

keep in mind i have knowingly/decidedly changed my Porsche from a no torque, only curvy roads. To a torque monster that will perform much better on the track and at lower speeds when cruising with friends. At the last track event i went to Porsche guys were asked to move over on the straight so the more torquey cars could pass.. then we would pass them up in the corners lol I LOVE my Porsche but under 4300rpms... they are slow.

At 42 yrs old i'm not to worried about going 180mph anymore. 0-60 feels a whole lot better and safer now. The set up i have going now with the short gearing of the 6speed .. i'm going to have insane low end in this car, which was my goal. The 6 speed i THINK will still give me enough higher speeds to be enough. I live in michigan so its city driving down by detroit/woodward or peaceful driving up in the thumb by where i live.

I'll add this as well, if you've checked out my YouTube video(on my channel) of the car on the track or the rev off with the Porsche turbo you can hear the exhaust i made for the 3.4... it was in my opinion the best 3.4 I've ever heard..completely unbiased ;) the chrome pic below is that exhaust.

the sound of that exhaust was probably my biggest regret about ditching the 3.4 engine.

But the new set up, being that the 3.8 already has a 180' firing order I tried to mimic the Porsche sound as best i could. I spent a few weeks reading up on exhausts and the different styles and read a really good thread in a physics forum about the Ferrari exhaust and aside from not having the Ferrari engine lol one thing talked about was the the over length of the exhaust... short.. everything short.

so the new exhaust I made for the 3.8 is very short equal length headers(just under 6" primaries) to an X-pipe through some Dynomax sport shorties and out the rear.  The total length of my exhaust per side i think was 27" so i'm hoping if nothing else i'm going to have a very unique sounding set up being that i had to give up the glorious flat six sounding Porsche sound.

I'm not a welder .. be gentle lol I get an A for effort lolol

  Been waiting a bit for these to come in. Got here last night so now i can get back on to the motor  fuel logs/kit from ZZP and a intercooler fill with burber valve for my setup 

Exhaust flow through that x pipe will be interesting...

probably not worth worrying about though. 
 

interesting solution with the V6! I can't wait to hear it!

spandak said:

Exhaust flow through that x pipe will be interesting...

probably not worth worrying about though. 
 

interesting solution with the V6! I can't wait to hear it!

Agreed on the flow, but my reasoning was mainly for the sound. I think the motor will be plenty in power area but this motor..imo doesn’t sound that great with the norm exhaust. If it doesn’t sound goes .. ill make another lol

yesterday i was able to get some time in the garage and managed to get the mold for the cluster inlay, one of my rear bumper exhaust exits started. Also put the last coat of resin on two of the carbon fiber parts. 

Slow but fun

I do find it fitting that your assistant looks to be wearing a cape while working on the car...

XLR99 said:

 

I do find it fitting that your assistant looks to be wearing a cape while working on the car...

He is my little superhero  he helps me a lot with the garage projects. Its a great way to teach him to use his hands. He turns 10 this month... my little buddy. 

So this morning before church i went out and glassed the cluster inlay for my mold. Also tried some textured paint for the sub that goes between the two front seats. I think it looked betted in matte but i clear coated it because i was worried about having to clean. Also started doing some wiring for the console features... then off to church 

Any suggestions on how to treat this. this is where the steel flare bonds to the fiberglass part (side skirt) It cracked at this spot and rather then recoat it with bondo as it will likely crack again I figure I'd just put a visible seem but I don't want it to look goofy. I was thinking possibly a piece of plastic glued in on either the top or bottom and just paint over it so its less visible.

Any thoughts?

What a wicked build!

Someday... someday I'll get my own E36 M3 done.

Wish I had some advice to offer on that crack, but I'd likely just fill it again. Is there some sort of flexing going on? Might look for a way to bond both sections together from behind so the force of flexing is spread out. Not sure what the best way to do that would be. I'm sure someone here will have a better solution.

Azryael said:

What a wicked build!

Someday... someday I'll get my own E36 M3 done.

Wish I had some advice to offer on that crack, but I'd likely just fill it again. Is there some sort of flexing going on? Might look for a way to bond both sections together from behind so the force of flexing is spread out. Not sure what the best way to do that would be. I'm sure someone here will have a better solution.

Azryael, i wish i had found this forum when i started the build. the thread i have going over on a Porsche forum has easily over 100 pics, 115k views and to tons of input and is so detailed. so much more happened to this car then what I've posted here on grassroots.

But looking through the threads and post over the last few days... there is some serious builders here.. i love it lol

I have a few other cars which would rival this build but no time to attack them lol the pic below is one of them. i'm building it from scratch, NOT A REPLICA but instead a one off and i have the molds lol it will get finished one day but for now i have this porsche to finish up and a very built audi tt 225 for my wife to build.. then perhaps back to the custom car.

thanks for the input on the fill, something flexable and paintable may be the solution... hmm.

Fill the crack with silicone and  cover it with a carbon fiber rock-chip guard sticker perhaps?

No worries! Glad to offer some ideas.

I hear you about the level of builders here. I'm by no means at that level, mainly because I lack the time and space for it.

That one-off project of yours is looking neat! I've always had a vision of a one-off project myself, but instead of a sporty design, I wanted to try my take on a somewhat modernized design of old late-60s to mid-70s big body sedans.