Then you know that sporty car or not they'll do that. Hell, I did that with my first car, an '88 Accord with an automatic and 200,000 miles. 115 mph at 2 am on a road in the middle of nowhere with frequent deer crossings. I was an idiot. And somehow the fact that the car had a ~10-second 0-60 time didn't change that. I won't even get into the crazy stuff we did with my friend's Festiva (a whole 63 horsepower) other than to say that it's possible to steer a Festiva at 55 mph by opening the doors so that the wind resistance will make the car change lanes.

Moving from a 5-speed to an automatic won't change the fact that boys are boys.

And the sportiness of the 944 is in its cornering, not its acceleration even in the 5-speed form. Switching over to an automatic won't stop taking a corner too fast.

I've got a 914 as well. It's sporty, yes, but the 1.7 cars have a 0-60 time of more than 12 seconds. Even the "fast" 914-6 struggled to do better than 8.5 seconds to 60 (the 2.0 litre cars hovered around the 10-second mark). Not even close to a fast car. The fact that you still horsed around in the car didn't have anything to do with it being sporty or not.

But most importantly, as I said, the amount of time and effort required to make the swap makes it a bad idea. It's much, much simpler and cheaper just to buy an automatic car in decent shape. If you swap in an automatic, you end up with a car that has almost no resale value. It's a bad bargain. I can understand wanting to start with an automatic, but the way to go about that is to just buy a car that came with an automatic from the factory. The swap will just be a ridiculous amount of trouble and money to end up with a car that's worth significantly less than it was when you started.

^good advice. Of course you didn't mention it. Obviously, I was making a comparison showing that you are being silly and not making sensible decisions. My father ripped the axle off a Ford Pinto driving on farm land, lol. Now you're gonna tell me that's a fast sporty car huh? If I'm an assclown, at least I'm a intelligent one with sound analysis and corroborated facts.

My son and I restored a first year 240Z, VIN #4880. We took it down to the metal shell and brought it all the way back. When we were done, I let him drive it first. We had a great time together and those memories are priceless.

I don't know all what's involved but if you can get an 83 with a new rubber damper you should have the lions share of parts needed to get started. Any new parts required can be bought here from our host. Ian at 944online sells used parts and is pretty knowledgeable as well. In fact a call to either/ both of them might get you an accurate answer to your original question.

It isn't always about what makes the most sense or is the cheapest route to take. I've spent money on cars that I never recouped but so what, I had fun.

Good luck with your project!

VOTS

I'll agree with this, to an extent , even with my previous posts.

If the point of the project is to have a project, then that's fine. Tinkering for tinkering's sake is plenty fun.

But if you're only interested in the project as a means to getting an automatic car, then it's foolishness.

Basically, as an end in itself, swapping in an automatic to a car with a dead manual is fine. As a means to an end, however, it's a waste of time and money. Since your posts make it sound as though you view the swap as a means to an end rather than as a tinkering project to enjoy, I've recommended just buying an existing automatic that's in good shape.

I thought the OP made it clear it would be a project car for him and his son.

He also stated he was undertaking this project in the name of an auto 944 being safer than a manual. There are better 944 projects to be had

He called it a project, but the tinkering with the car seemed to have nothing to do with the underlying motivation. That is to say, while it would be a project (since anything you do over time is a "project" by definition) the impetus for starting this particular project was not "to have a project" but rather "to have an automatic car."

It wasn't presented as "we both like crazy projects, and expect this to be a fun bonding experience" but rather as "I want an automatic car and I suppose that I can call this a project too, I guess."

This is especially true as he insinuated that the only things wrong with the 5-speed car are the clutch master and slave cylinders. Why spend the money on good car with a relatively minor maintenance issue when, if a project were the true goal, he could easily find, say, an automatic with a blown engine (bad timing belt) and a 5-speed that had been totaled in an accident but still had a good engine? The cars he's described don't sound like candidates for projects.

If you want a project, buy a couple of project cars and make one good one out of two dead ones. Don't take a perfectly good 5-speed car and turn it into something that has almost no market demand. I know these cars aren't "rare" but there are few enough good ones out there that it just plain doesn't make sense to wreck a good one by putting the stone-age 3-speed into it.

Maybe I'm wrong. But I just don't get the "project for project's sake" vibe from this. To me this is more like "I think this is a simple bolt-up swap and I don't fully understand that the 3-speed unit in the old 944 will be absolutely nothing like the current crop of modern automatics that I'm used to driving today." That's the vibe I'm getting.

^verbose

Where are you located?

I am located I'm Winter Park Florida which is about 15 minutes from Orlando Florida. After much heated debate I believe at this point we are going to keep the 83 auto car and put the 85 1/2 good engine in the 83 car. I originally bought the 83 as a parts car but suprisingly it is in better shape than the 85 1/2 as far as interior, exterior, the power steering works (wierd as I thought all 83s had manual steering), and even the A/C blows ice cold which is such a big deal here in Florida.

My backup plan is to keep the 85 1/2 and if things do't go right I can always put the good engine in it and slowly start to fix all of the misc issues and problems it has pulling from the 83 where possible.

My son is so excited to get started he can hardly stand it. I am hoping to have one of these cars back on the road within the next 2 weeks.

Good luck with it. Hopefully the plastic bits under the hood won't crumble and extend your timeline. And hopefully you and your son will have fun working together regardless of the outcome.

Much better idea! GL

Lawyer. We like to hear ourselves talk. :D

Have fun with it. And remember that you'll need to swap over the DME and wiring harness from the '85.5 engine as well due to the engines using different versions of the Motronic hardware. I'm not sure, but you may also need to fiddle with a bit of electronic wizardry to get the '85.5 DME to run the '83 gauges as well.

Hey Gawenator,
I apologize, it may be me who is the ass clown :) It is hard to back down and be a gentleman, you have done that and I appreciate it.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/clap.gif

Side note, power steering was standard on auto 83's built after a certain point like 10/82

Bravo! This is a much more sensible approach with 1/10 the gremlins involved waiting to bite you in the ass along the way. Find a sound 83 motor and the swap is completely plug N play with no DME issues. Maybe 20 man hours tops even if you fix other preventative stuff while you're in there.

So tempted to quote myself from page 2 of this thread....

Good choice of action, OP. you'll both have a great time of this. While you've got the engine out, do a refresh. FOES, rod bearings and pan gasket, HG, vac system. Fun and rewarding.

Well this thread was an interesting read. Ha.

My first car...at age 16...was a five speed 924S. I'm still driving it five and a half years and 54,000 miles later. Never been in a wreck (aside from a very minor bump due to horrific traffic in Portland one day...)

My brother, however, got his first car, an automatic Subaru Impreza, at 18. It was slower than mine but not by much. He totaled it a year later.

Perhaps I'm just a better, more focused driver. But then, perhaps that is because I drive manual cars. Even now, when I drive an automatic I find it more difficult to focus on the road.

Anyhow, sounds like a fun project, and an engine swap will be quite a bit nicer of a project than converting a manual car to automatic.

I drove my auto Saab back from Travis AFB today (hour drive) could have been asleep it was so boring/lack of attention (relative to driving the 944)

I just got an automatic 1990 Chevy V8 pickup for $900. I only plan to keep it until I have enough money to trade it in for a nice Dodge Ram with a manual transmission. :D

I learned to drive in an automatic Civic, which for people who have never driven before is probably a much better place to start. But I was always eager to get into a manual car. My current daily driver is actually the one I learned manual with.