Ken Lanham

Does anyone here have any experience with both the 928 Porsche and C4 Corvettes? An interesting topic came up among freinds this week. We were contemplating buying a Porsche 928 for a couple thousand dollars and installing an LT1 Corvette motor into it. I just don't know what you would end up with exactly. Please, hold back your passions about bastardizing a Porsche with a Chevy engine, or your patriotism toward american Corvettes for a minute please. I'm mostly interested in opinions about the 2 chassis. Their refinement, the comfort level to drive long distances, high speed stability, cornering ability, braking, and fit and finish. Since the 2 drivetrains would have similar maintenance costs, and durability, I wonder if I would end up with something better than a c4 Corvette, or much worse than a C4 Corvette? FYI, the porschev would weigh in at about 3000-3100 lbs. when done from what I have gathered. A bit lighter than a stock Porsche 928. The chevy engine is actually lighter by 100-150lbs. Is the Porsche 928 a good chassis at all when it comes to road course or canyon carving ability? Or is it just a hiway cruiser.

I have not driven or ridden in a 928 enough to have any ideas about how capable the chassis is. I just think that it is a Porsche, so it must handle great! Very Naive I am sure.

-Ken


[Modified by Ken Lanham, 5:04 AM 10/9/2002]

MrNuke

About 5 years ago I almost traded my '85 vette for an '87 Porsche 928 S4 . It was a pretty nice car, little less roomy than my vette inside (I am 6'3" tall), Had a nice looking engine, but didn't have a real performance car sound when started. It was an automatic, 4speed I think, no OD (not sure though) and had a 5.0L DOHC V8 in it.. It felt like a highway cruiser to me, to tell the truth. Couldn't smoke the tires up when I took it for a test drive, which made me mad, as it was supposed to have 276HP. e I decided to skip it and was glad I did.. Besides, my insurance would have been higher too.. I just checked, and the car was rated 14.5 in the 1/4 and 168Mph top speed.. Not bad, but not too hot for a 'Porsche' with a DOHC V8. BEst thing I'd say is to see if you can go and test drive one (ALONE) and see how u like it.. :cheers:


[Modified by MrNuke, 11:17 PM 10/8/2002]

388 SOLid RoLLeR

porsche is nice. but it depends on what year vette your comparing the bastard child 928/vette. buy a c-4, and tighten the frame with daves x-brace or camber brace and VOILA, its as tight as a c-5 and it will outhandle the porsche anyday. A 928 is a gt car, more of a cruiser. A c-4 is supopsed to be a sports car ( it is) but magazines called it a luxury heavyweight sport-like car. Go with a vette. Its not just the car, its the name, and the family that we are. besides, i bet ud be breaking halfshafts in the porsche liek crazy, not to mention the rear end, or the tranny, or the u joints, or the driveshaft, or the ...... :lol:

93 ragtop

Not for sure, but it seems to me that the 928 uses a drivetrain similar to the c-5. The engine up front, but the transmission in the back. I would suspect that adapting the corvette engine would be more trouble then it would be worth.

Gary K

Kits are available that make this a mostly bolt in deal.


I think you might be better off to go with a 944 hybrid. The 944 has more potential to get the weight down, more aftermarket support, and parts seems to be a little cheaper. The only problem with the 944 is that it will probably be harder to fit a supercharger/turbo setup, as the engine bay is fairly tight. I'm not sure if the 928 is roomier under the hood though.

Barrier

I owned an '84 928S Stick a few years ago. Great car but with problems mostly steming from Porsche giving up on it. Car had some quirks. I suffered with an intermittant starting problem that turned out to be a cracked rotor in the distributor. The interior was really nice but on mine the leather which covered everything was shrinking and cracking. Suspension parts were a problem, springs were sagged up front and the only replacements were used ones, not an acceptable option for me. With the setup I had the car was very quick with incredible power and handled well, (although the 944 I owned handled better just an anemic engine). It has been described as the ultimate Camaro.
I think the problems you might have is the lack of many parts. You will get raked over the coals for minor parts, relays, controls.
With all that it might be an interesting project. They were one of the most beatiful and advanced cars for the time, the design holds up today. I think they were far superior to the 911 I also owned (an '84 version 911 Carrera).duck. :)
Barrier

Rick93Z07

I'm a little confused about the weight's you're quoting for this car. I heard the 928 was closer to 3400 lb which is why no germans wanted one. That's with a lightweight, small, all aluminum V-8. If you install a cast iron mouse motor, expect the already plump curb weight to rise and handling to deteriorate. I can not believe the cast iron Chevy is over 100 lb lighter than an all aluminum sports car motor.


[Modified by Rick93Z07, 10:04 AM 10/9/2002]

vettmech

check out jagsthatrun.com :seeya

92TripleBlack

This was a fairly common operation with 928s and Jags in the late 80s and early 90s. Their motors were not reliable in the jag case and very expensive to maintain in the case of the porsche. I don't have first hand experience on the porsche but I heard you needed to lift the motor to access the plugs for a tune-up. Even worse than the opti-crap. They were nice cars but they weren't supported by Porsche as they had to decide to either back the 928 or the 911 for future development so they were dropped.

zbros106

Hey Guys, I owned a really clean 89 928S4 automatic and a good running 85 vette and now a 94 vette convertable. I really loved the 928 but parts were very expensive ie $1200 for a radiator (thats crazy) It handled very well and was always smooth and quiet. I think it had a seven foot long timing belt which isnt fun to change! My car was reliable and I miss the the wonderful build quality, If you loose the resonator it sounds so much better- night and day!! The back seat really was a joke, worse than my prelude. When you really got on the car hard and drove like you were serious and pushed the car, it finally felt like a sports car and not a mercedez. You'll need the small library of shop manuals (used about $300-$1000 for the set) insurance was alittle higher and gas mileage was only 16-17fwy.
The L98 in the 85 had lots of tourque but lacked ABS, and traction control. and was very rough. But it felt like a sports car and handled very well. My 95 conv I really like alot! Lack of space is one problem but hey its much more fun with the top down. The mileage is better than the 928, I get about 18 around town, 24-27 hwy, about 22-23 on the 85. Parts are very reasonable, small block chevy! most everything can be bought at good prices. The 94 really is better than the 85 and handle really well too. My only complaint is that i've been fighting an o2 check engine light problem that I still havent fixed. The vette just feels like a sports car and get really perform in the mountains were I live in southern california. I paid about $9500 for my 928 and $5000 for the 85 and $5500 for the 94, which was fairly cheap, I'm a chevy guy through and through! I hope this helps!

TorchTarga94

Run!!! Zombie thread!!!

DinoBob

Where's Crocamonga?

Polo Vert

Get a Fiero and put a Northstar Caddy motor in it......

856SPEED

Who blew the dust off this thread and put it back on the shelf???

Joe C

- an 11 year old thread - not close to a record, but WTF! even the OP hasn't had any forum activity in 2 years. mods need to shut this one down - PERMANENTLY!!! .

aboatguy

Sidney004

I know its an old thread but here's my C4 chasing my friend Brian around Thunderhill, no sound though:


Those 928's go pretty good!

TorchTarga94

raccer

A Fiero w/ any engine swap ( > 250 HP ) is awesome!

89 Vett

I have a friend who transplated a chevy 350 (carb though) into a 928. I'll see if I can get some pics from him and post here. The car is gone now, but worth mentioning that the engine out lasted everything else.