Don Nguyen | My Porsche 911 V8 Build

[Don Nguyen]

"I couldn't find the sports car of my dreams, so I built it myself" - Ferdinand Porsche

I bought my 964 when I was 20 years old. Probably not the best financial decision at the time, but I did it anyways. I knew nothing about Porsches, but after one test drive, I knew that this 964 had to be mine. Since then, there have been several times that I have come close to selling my 964. Whether the reason was due to lack of resources or not enough time to build and restore my 964 into the car that I had hoped and imagined it would be. However, luckily, I never went through with selling my 964, as it would have probably been my single biggest automotive decision that I would have regretted making. It's now or never.

I like Porsches, I like American V8s, and I like race cars. What am I alluding to?
Well, to simply put it, I will be taking my Porsche 964 and putting a Chevy LS based engine into it with the overall end results of a streetable race car. Because what fun, really, is a car that can't be driven whenever you wanted to.

However, to me speed is only one part of the equation. The car's going to take on styling cues of a race car from the exterior, but have a relatively tolerable and factory-esque interior, aside from a few various interior race bits here and there. I like to think of it as a wolf in wolf's clothing. Sounds wrong in every way? Sounds perfect to me. Speed, handling, styling, and comfort. The best part about building a car how you want it is that there is no bad part.

Why? I will only answer this question once. Because.

No fancy tools, no fancy garage, no team of engineers. One man, one car, and countless hours spent doing research. I will be doing as much of the fabrication myself as possible, from building the engine mounts to redoing all of the leather work on the interior.

I can go into details and tell you all of my plans and ideas for the car, but what fun would that be if I told you everything upfront and didn't leave a little bit of mystery to it. As I was always taught, show, not tell. You'll just have to tune in and watch as the progress goes along.

I am not trying to build the best car in the world, but to build my perfect car, which to me makes it the best car in the world.

Smiley face,
Don Nguyen

[Don Nguyen]

This is how the car looked like when I first bought it. These pictures were actually taken from the original ad that were used by the previous owner. Funny thing is, I actually did not remember saving these pictures, but I randomly happen to stumble across them the other day when looking for something else.





It took me only one week of searching to find my 964 and it took me only one more week after that before I put in an order for a set of coilovers for my car. I figured why wait to buy them, when I could buy them now and enjoy it right away.







This is ultimately what the car last looked like before I decided to put it up on jack stands and start the reconstruction process. Keep in mind, all of these pictures that I have posted thus far, including this one, are from over a span of several several years.



As of yesterday, this is how the car looked like. I actually had started taking the car apart before I decided that I would take pictures and document my build. I was never really one to start or have any detailed build threads for any of my other project cars, but I felt like this is one that I would share the process and progress as it goes along with you guys.







-Don

[MMiller]

I'm tuned in Don.....look forward to your progress. She is a beauty!

Mike

[Josh D]

I learned a long time ago when I was modifying Jeeps "It's not what you buy, it's what you build"

Looking forward to seeing the progress on your build.

[96740]

Other than completely destroying the value of the car, If it makes you happy, good luck.

[B D]

The car will be streetable until a smog test is due or the CHP issues an emissions violation ticket. A pre '76 car would be the way to go in Cali.

[wachuko]

Oh man! Car looked perfect righ there!!



Just tell me you got all the parts needed before starting the project...

This is a C4 right? What are you doing with the AWD? Are you using the same transmission?

More details man! More details!!

[1968SWTs]

Originally Posted by B D

The car will be streetable until a smog test is due or the CHP issues an emissions violation ticket. A pre '76 car would be the way to go in Cali.

I net he gets a BAR sticker from a ref. Best if he used an early LS1 from a 97/98 Corvette.. but he still needs full ODB, check engine light, and of course every piece of "smog" equipment that was on the 98 Corvette. It may not be as destroyed as some of the others as he can used three radiators up front , and of course the Kennedy adapter is bolt on. (I assume he has one for that transaxle) He will likely have a lot of fun doing it and might even get better mileage / less pollution

[Don Nguyen]

Originally Posted by Panerai

I'm tuned in Don.....look forward to your progress. She is a beauty!

Mike

Originally Posted by Josh D

I learned a long time ago when I was modifying Jeeps "It's not what you buy, it's what you build"

Looking forward to seeing the progress on your build.

Thanks! I will definitely try to keep progress going steady and not have any dead/down time, which is my goal in finishing this project within a reasonable amount of time.

Originally Posted by 96740

Other than completely destroying the value of the car, If it makes you happy, good luck.

I am not worried about resale, if I was, I probably would be not be modifying cars and drive factory stock cars instead.

Originally Posted by wachuko

Oh man! Car looked perfect righ there!!



Just tell me you got all the parts needed before starting the project...

This is a C4 right? What are you doing with the AWD? Are you using the same transmission?

More details man! More details!!

I don't know how having all of the parts needed before starting the project really matters or not, because I don't think it necessarily does. Yes, this car is a C4. Just like a C2, the transmission is just simply adapted to mount to the engine. The entire drive train from the transmission onwards is independent of what engine it is mounted to.

Originally Posted by B D

The car will be streetable until a smog test is due or the CHP issues an emissions violation ticket. A pre '76 car would be the way to go in Cali.

Originally Posted by 1968SWTs

I net he gets a BAR sticker from a ref. Best if he used an early LS1 from a 97/98 Corvette.. but he still needs full ODB, check engine light, and of course every piece of "smog" equipment that was on the 98 Corvette. It may not be as destroyed as some of the others as he can used three radiators up front , and of course the Kennedy adapter is bolt on. (I assume he has one for that transaxle) He will likely have a lot of fun doing it and might even get better mileage / less pollution

This. At the end of the day, we all take chances modifying our cars and dealing with the law (especially true in california). Like noted, if I decide to BAR the car, then it will be a non-issue.

-Don

[1968SWTs]

California is actually easy if the ref senses you are not trying to cheat.

a 944 or a boxster would be fun:
Sounds of an LS6 Porsche - YouTube

[Don Nguyen]

Completely took the dash apart/out and removed some more of the sound deadening/padding. I am going to try and remove as much as I can before relaying new padding down.

Not sure what would work best, so I'll take any suggestions if anyone has any experience with this. I've read/heard that closed cell foam padding was a good option.





Pile of misc parts and wires that were removed.



One of the other reasons why I wanted to go through the whole car, which was to find any rust spots that would be developing such as what I found here around the rear quarter windows.



Not sure if this was like this from the factory, but it seems like someone's removed these before and used 3M double sided tape to put these trim pieces back on. With older cars, you never know where someone before you could gone/been through before. I will most likely be using the 993 window seal for the rear quarter windows, which will delete the need for that trim piece that was removed.



I originally thought that I wanted to run 993 door panels, so I bought a set with the hi-fi sound package in them. However, I may end up just reupholstering the original 964 door panels and using those. I kind of like the pattern that's on the 964 door panels. We will see. If I do run the 993 door panels, I won't be using the hi-fi speakers, so I can get the small door pockets back







Random shots of the engine bay and car as it sits now.





-Don

[Don Nguyen]

Here's a picture that I pulled off of my instagram, @don__nguyen with double underscores in between the name, for those that use it and if you want to follow me for miscellaneous updates. Sometimes I don't get around to posting all of my updates/pictures on the forums, since it's easier for to just upload directly to a source such as instagram.

Bought a used short block, so naturally I had to take it all apart to check and make sure everything was ok. I am going to go ahead and get the cylinders bored out slightly bigger, oversized forged pistons to match the new bore of the block/cylinder once it gets machine, get the crank cleaned up and get new bearings (con rod, cam, and mains).



-Don

[johnvan8]

Sent you a pm Don.

[smellslikecurry]

Nice! Im in the middle of the same build!

Im scared to remove my rear glass. The seals are solid but its letting water in :-(

[Don Nguyen]

I was trying to read on how people were removing their rear glass. I guess you can pop it out from the inside, but I ended up just cutting the rubber seal from the front with an xacto blade. Be careful of cutting the wires that are in there. Once it was cut, I just punched it out from the inside.

-Don

[drmatera]

Subscribing, looks like a cool build

[smellslikecurry]

Thanks for the info Don,

what are you doing about heat in the car? I'm thinking about removing everything OEM and running a summit racing heater.

[Don Nguyen]

I would like to adapt something similar to what the factory heating system was set up as.

I am not familiar with the summit racing heater.

-Don

[smellslikecurry]

Something similar to this hooked up to stock venting.

Summit Racing® Cab Heaters SUM-991102-1 - PowerSportsPlace.com

[Don Nguyen]

That's an interesting alternative, but if I can get the stock system to work, I will just do that. Haven't fully figured that out yet.