Off the wall 944 question...

[many944s]

Has anyone ever built up a 44 engine with carburated Induction? Some of us around the shop have been tossing around the idea of building a straight carburated or even Supercharged or Turbocharged carburated 944 engine with points instead of the DME control. We already have a suitable guinne pig engine that has been ported, polished, balanced, lightweight pistons, custom groung cam... yadda, yadda. Not to mention a shelf of suitable turbos, and a couple of suitable blowers! (You can see what we do when we get bored and have unlimited access to an engine machine shop!!)

On a side note, you would be amazed how smooth these engines run W/O balance shafts when they have been truely balanced!

Basically, I was asking to see if there are any pre-existing plans for a mechanical (points) ingnition ditributor. The rest is already drawn out and calculated on paper at the shop waiting for us to get crazy!

I know it may sound like I am being sacreligious, but the guinne pig block was badly damaged. It has taken ALOT of work to make it usable again, we saw it as a challange to rebuild it in our down times.

Thanks for any info..

-Nick

P.S. I have a spare 3pin temp switch that came in my new radiator. I swapped it out for my recently purchased 2 pinner that was on the original radiator. Let me know if anyone needs it... it's yours no charge

[callmethewander]

hey many, how do you achieve that perfect balance, my 944's don't seem to be that smooth even with the balance shaft belt, and I could definitely use that switch, i currently have a toggle switch plugged into the connector that i turn on when i go driving if i think i'll hit any traffic, otherwise the air flow is enough to keep the temp down, sometimes i get hit by the fan tho when i reach down there to turn it off. But either way please tel me how you got your engine balanced so well, thx, jc

[Razorback1980]

The switch wasn't an altogether bad idea, but why didn't you put it inside the car?

[Razorback1980]

Okay Nick, I thought you were a little crazy with loaning the 9201, but now you are wanting to build an engine with points and a carburetor? Are you nuts? Of course you are, look what you are trying to do. I was so glad when they got rid of both of those. Matter of fact, I think I threw my dwell meter away! Now there's an instrument ...wonder how many people know what a dwell meter is much less have one? Be an interesting poll wouldn't it? Guess we would learn who the old people are! Yep, I'm one!

[Slam]

Tossed my dwell meter when I went from a 1975 Chevelle to an RX-7. Nope. Never did learn how to use it... And that was over 15 years ago!

[Razorback1980]

All you had to do was hook it up and use an allen to adjust the points to 30 degrees dwell and points were set! Not that I ever did that, I just read about it in a book somewhere...points were way before my time!

[speedracing944]

before I decided to do the lt1 conversion to Legion's burnt up S, I was going to use individual carbs from 88 cubic inch Harley Davidsons and created the needed linkage and individual short runner intake. I decided to go with the V8 swap because of the awsome power potential so the carbed 16 valve never cam about.

earlr85944 has a car with individual weber 45 idf carbs on his carand running a mds ignition with crank trigger ignition. He might be able to shed some light on you questions.

Speedy

[Razorback1980]

Just looked in my tool box and I still have my dwell meter. Don't ask me why cuz I have no idea. Hey Nick, let me know if you need to borrow it.

[earlr85944]

the car was sold and is being rebuilt in Cali. My budget leans more towards something that I can drive to the track right now. I've seen crank trigger ignitions avail for the 944 comercially.. Actually it would be more accurate and recomended over the cam trigger method because there would actually be variation due to the timing belt flex, and if you going high end \ precision you dont want any variables.

The intake was contrusted of a chopped stock 944 intake, very simple but effectice. The runners were cut about 4" away from the block side and the mounting face for the carbs were attached and linkage and brackets were installed. Ive got articles at work about using the stock crank sensor signal to fire msd ignitions if interested.

[pokey]

Old school! I used my dwell meter this morning, on the Lincoln. I'm going to build my spare engine for boost and eliminate the balance shafts.
If you post the articles about triggering the MSD with the stock sensor, I'm sure there will be interest. I'm curious.

[earlr85944]

trying to dig up paperwork with the stock sensor info which is availabe from a dme modification site on the internet, its been a while. The stock sensor fire for aftermarket ignition does keep the dme for the calculations and is probably not what you are looking for although the dme was reprogrammed and remapped.
and yes the car I had didnt run a balance shaft belt.
The car I had featured a "jimmy rigged" cam triggered setup. Basically it was a trigger welded to the rotor shaft with a pickup mounted above it with an adjustable dwell at the drivers seat. Nothing fancy and prpbably only good fot WOT.
heres the link to clewett with a photo of installed trigger:
http://clewett.com/

[Razorback1980]

I'm impressed Pokey....yep, definitely old school. But if you have a sixty's model car, nothing else will do.

[many944s]

Ha! I actually use my dwell meter on a regular basis on the Spitfire and the '55. Not to mention my old-school Sun diagnostic machine, I think it might actually weigh MORE than the 944 engine!

[bigyagi]

jeez, i must be old. i remember after setting the points gap, i would attach a small 12v bulb via leads, from the hot end of the distributer points, to ground. set the timing mark, and then rotate the distributer, back and forth, so that the light bulb would just flicker on and off, as the points opened and closed, then reef it up!
old school!

[bigyagi]

hi many 944s. i see you have a 69 spitfire. you must be on good terms with lucas, the prince of darkness !! i had an old triumph vitesse mk 2, which ran well, but seemed to break down every other hot day! good old lucas electrics!

[pokey]

Originally posted by bigyagi
jeez, i must be old. i remember after setting the points gap, i would attach a small 12v bulb via leads, from the hot end of the distributer points, to ground. set the timing mark, and then rotate the distributer, back and forth, so that the light bulb would just flicker on and off, as the points opened and closed, then reef it up!
old school!

Static timing, I still do it. Then I follow up with a timing light to get it dialed in.