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1985 Porsche 944 V8


Rally Pat

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Sorry more engine shopping questions.

 

I've been keeping a close eye on the local market (and up near Lorain, Ohio where I travel for work a lot) to buy when the time is right, since one of the goals of this little experiment is to spend as little as possible.

 

How do you guys feel about 4.8's? They seem to go a smidge cheaper than the 5.3's and there could always be a snail involved down the road.

 

Also, where is the best place to find the lower profile accessories and intake mani?

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How do you guys feel about 4.8's? They seem to go a smidge cheaper than the 5.3's and there could always be a snail involved down the road.

 

There was a thread a while back that said the 4.8L was the "best" turbo engine because of the short stroke. I don't have first hand experience but my buddy back in NY had one in his fox mustang with a giant turbo. I think he's since went to a 5.3 but not because he has had trouble with the 4.8. He had nitrous stacked on top of the turbo and the car was a wheelstanding beast.

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How do you guys feel about 4.8's? They seem to go a smidge cheaper than the 5.3's and there could always be a snail involved down the road.

 

Also, where is the best place to find the lower profile accessories and intake mani?

 

1) No working knowledge of the 4.8, but I'll forever remember HOT ROD doing an article about China-Turbo'ing a junkyard 5.3*, pulling it 30 times on a dyno to almost 1,000hp before it grenaded...

 

*...and then finding a casting number on the head when they were pulling apart the engine that it was a 4.8L the whole time! :lol:

 

2) I would say go for a complete 4.8 longblock with rotating assembly if you can find it. Any efforts to find a 5.3 that needs intake/rotating accessory drive will quickly escalate to a good amount more money than a complete 4.8L that's still in one assembly.

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There's a complete f body ls1 on Craigslist with auto trans(which you don't need) for $2000. While this may sound expensive, by the time you purchase a 4.8 or 5.3 and Fbody oil pan( can't use the truck one too deep) intake manifold and fuel rails, and buy the correct front accessories for the truck engine you will have surpassed this the 2 grand.

 

You will also be able to use the f body pcm and harness with little modification. There's nothing wrong with a 4.8 or 5.3 but if you can buy a complete pullout it may be better. The downside to the ls1 is that it's 20 years old (1998)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry gents, still waiting on the Legacy to sell.

 

Just doing tons of reading and research. Watching lots of Sloppy Mechanics and the like, taking tons of notes. Deboss Garage's Audi build for the YouTube Project Car Challenge was 4.8 guts in an aluminum 5.3 block (with 2 compound International turbos, for a total of 4 turbos, not that I'm doing that lol).

 

I am still leaning towards a 4.8 anyway solely because they are everywhere and dirt cheap, and everyone is saying they are more rev happy which is more my style. I have my eye on some complete vehicles to use as donors.

 

I was wondering if getting a 4.8 and transplanting everything to an aluminum block would be worth it. The weight difference is about 90 lbs from everything I have read so far, and I don't want it to be super understeery if I can help it. Of course, there are other ways of dialing out stuff like that.

 

Bonus Content:

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If you are building on a budged, the engine, while usually a higher ticket item, gets overshadowed by the many $50 $100 items that the rest of the project will consume.The only reason I would consider a 4.8 is if it was going to be turbocharged, getting 400 hp naturally aspirated is costly.
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