I sure do miss the simplicity of a Chevy 350! I need to get more of those back in my life. The Marquis has the FoMoCo version - just as stout and reliable. Still fuel injected for now. When that system starts to give me trouble, that'll get carbureted - the way engines should be.
How did you get the VHS tape footage to your computer? I have THOUSANDS of hours of video of me back in the early 90's riding dirt bikes in sand pits and on the ice, racing someone at night in my '78 Cutlass that had a Goodwrench crate 350 and TH400 tranny, and endless debauchery at parties. I need to get that stuff digitized and on YouTube!
I have a VHS to DVD player ... but the trouble with that is, I don't own a functioning television anymore ...
SMITTY wrote: ↑Sun. Dec. 22, 2024 3:56 pm
and endless debauchery at parties. I need to get that stuff digitized and on YouTube!
That sounds scarry!
SMITTY wrote: ↑Sun. Dec. 22, 2024 3:56 pm
How did you get the VHS tape footage to your computer?
Funny you should ask. About 14 years ago I got my Dad a VHS to DVD deck. We converted all the tapes to DVD. Unfortunately, these files won't play when I moved them to my computer.
I couldn't figure out how to make it happen the right way, so I just pointed my camera at the screen and hit record.
That's how I came up with this video.
SMITTY wrote: ↑Sun. Dec. 22, 2024 3:56 pm
I have a VHS to DVD player ... but the trouble with that is, I don't own a functioning television anymore ...
That's a tough one. My DVD has a composite video out. Lucky my 4K TV as an input for that, my 42" computer monitor doesn't. It only has HDMI inputs. I guess TV's are still good for something.
Ahh, that's a good idea. That's how I was going to do it. Came out good! Looked too good of quality to be done that way. Nice!
My TV is a 27" Toshiba from 1989. When you turn it on, a bright white line appears across the center! I used to be able to smack it and the picture would come back ... but I guess I used up my smack allotment, lol.
The car has been sitting untouched in the garage for about 6 weeks now.
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It's been hiding from all the car dissolving salt and crap they put on the roads down here. Some of that crap got washed away by the rain so it was time to do a little work.
I changed the oil and hoped that the 5/2018 battery still had enough juice to fire it up.
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Our next project is going to be putting power steering back in. I ordered a pump, reservoir and GM lines. The GM lines will get spliced to the Porsche lines.
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The pump that is on there now has the veins removed and just acts as an idler pulley.
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And here is the video description of why and how we're doing this.
Roll'Em!
-Don
It's been a couple weeks and most of the parts we need to convert back to power steering are in.
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Unfortunately, the reservoir is a little too big to fit in this application. I think one from an old Cadillac CTS-V might fit, if we can still get one.
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Also, we are still waiting for the new steering shaft. This one is a little ripple-ly feeling. The shaft for the manual rack that is in the car now is too long to work with the PS rack.
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Chucked the rack up in the vise and removed the pressure IN and return lines. I read that there is a filter screen in the return but I don't see anything.
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I'll see if I can come up with a way to flush the rack out before I install it.
The manual steering rack came out with no problem.
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Unfortunately, the power steering rack didn't fit. The oil pan was keeping it from going up high enough. My first idea was to make up some motor mount spacers out of large washers.
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I cut them into a "C" shape so I could just slide them in rather than having to lift the motor mounts up and out. I used the angle grinder with a thin wheel to do the cuts. The sparks set my shirt on fire!
That never happened before.
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After all that excitement, I installed the spacers and got the rack in there.
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I consider myself very lucky to to have a local, Old School, Hardware store. They actually make hydraulic lines. I took my Porsche steering rack pressure line, and the new Chevy pressure line and this is what they came up with.
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It's 2 pieces and has a swivel. It was real easy to install it.
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I re-bent the Porsche return line and it was long enough to make it up to the reservoir.
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I need to make a bracket that bolts to the cylinder head to hold the reservoir.
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So thats the mock up. I have to take it apart one more time to make it all pretty.
In reality, the power steering rack should fit right in there without the spacers. I took a look at the motor mounts and I didn't like what I saw.
The Drivers side mount is cocked in the urethane. That is probably causing the front to droop,
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The passenger side mount doesn't look that good either. Looks like the urethane might be sagging.
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We'll be investigating the motor mounts in the coming days.
Took it for a ride and it makes a noise. Sometimes a LOT of noise.
I put Dextron 3 in it because I read that that's what 944's use. The GM pump don't sound happy though.
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I was planning on making a mount for the reservoir, BUT, while I was routing through oil line and motor mount parts, I found the reservoir mount that came with the engine!
Still need to clean and paint it.
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Re-routed the remote oil filter and lines again. I'm not happy about having the oil lines under the cross member but it will work for now. We'll probably figure something else out later.
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I talked to Renegade Hybrids about the rack to oil pan clearance and the motor mounts. They said that some 944's have this problem and some don't. When they have a problem, they shim up the motor mount just like I did last week. So we're good to go!
I talked to Renegade Hybrids about power steering fluid. They say do NOT use Dextron 3. With the Porsche rack and the GM pump they recommend using Pentosin CHF 202.
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This week I got some CHF 202, flushed the system and put it in.
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Cleaned and painted the reservoir mounting bracket.
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Cut the Zip Tie arrangement out.
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And installed the bracket. I had to cut longer rubber hoses because the mount is a little further away from the pump.
It's funny how different fluids work in some applications while others won't. Makes no sense to me, since they're both hydraulic fluids ... but people way smarter than me and WAY above my pay grade figure all this crap out, so I guess you gotta go with it!
You know that when you connect a GM part to any other brand, it causes a rift in the space/time continuum, and will cause several brand new GM vehicles to leave their drivers for dead in the middle of a 6-lane highway!!! BEWARE!!
Actually, that's not true - GM will cause that to happen all on their own these days!!!
LouNY wrote: ↑Sat. Apr. 05, 2025 12:46 pm
Glad to see you making progress on the ol girl.
I don't recall if it was mentioned but did you consider one of the newer electric steering rack?
Thanks Lou!
In short, NO. I did consider an electric steering pump for about 5 minutes. Then I realized I already had a pump mounted on the engine.
It's been my experience that factory parts are always better than aftermarket. As far as the rack goes, aftermarket parts are fine for a Honda, Chevy, Ford, ect...
With a Porsche, aftermarket parts are not usually an improvement. The amount of engineering and development that they put into these cars can't be matched by the aftermarket in a cost effective way.
This is why I tried very hard to stick with factory Porsche parts throughout this engine conversion. Also, I tried very hard to stick to factory GM parts on the engine side.
When it comes to Porsche and aftermarket parts, the suspension components are the exception. There are several aftermarket companies that make great upgrade suspension parts. The key to their success is that they have been doing only Porsche for decades. This is one area that I have used a lot of aftermarket parts on my car.
Oh God ... you do NOT want one of those electric nightmares! A tried-and-true hydraulic, belt-driven pump is the way to go. Nothing but issues with those electric ones.
Like everything today - great when they work, but a complete NIGHTMARE when they don't! At least you can fix hydraulic or belt issues without much trouble.
I don't know about that my last two pickups have had Electric Power Steering and my side x side has it. No issues on the pickups the side by side it hesitates some times.
