Graham went out and bought us an engine hoist last night, so we can now progress with totally disembowelling the 944. With a bit more time I probably could have had the Porsche spit its engine out, but the hoist will let me save my persuasion techniques for something more important.

On a side note, I drove down from Toronto to Detroit last weekend and picked up a brand new Warp9 motor! With proper cooling, I feel that this motor will provide us with all the power that we need. It's a heavy beast, so it'll be nice to have that hoist to haul it around.

Dave from Fisher Automotive in Mississauga has agreed to help us fabricate an adapter plate, so once the engine is out, we'll also remove the clutch housing and send it along with the Warp9 motor over to him. While the adapter plate is getting ready, we should have enough time to clean out the remaining ICE parts from the car. This includes the fuel tank which requires the removal of the transaxle before it can be taken out, and the fuel lines, filter, etc., etc., etc.

We also purchased a sand-blasting adapter in order to strip all of the old glue and rust from the interior. We'll pick up some non-silica sand and some ever-important protective gear, and then let the sand fly!

With the engine removal imminent, I think it's about time that we capture some more photos and videos of the 944 overhaul. I'll be picking up some form of camcorder tonight. You might even see something on YouTube soon.

Yesterday, Graham and I tackled the engine bay again, and managed to almost fully prep the engine for its removal. Starting with the A/C condenser, and its piping, then the fully exhaust system from the bottom of the manifold, then the alternator, A/C compressor, motor starter, and finally the ECU, we steadily removed just about everything that we don't need anymore. We took out almost 200lbs of equipment, and the engine has yet to come out. This is great weight savings for us, as we hadn't anticipated the weight of a number of these heavy components. In general, everything came out very easily. Only the thoroughly rusted bolts on the manifold caused any kind of problem, and they were dealt with fairly easily. For the engine to come out, we will have to remove the lower A-frame and some of the suspension components in order to drop it out the bottom of the engine bay. Judging by how easily everything has been coming apart so far, I don't anticipate that this will cause any problems. 

I managed to find a Porsche auto shop that is interested in buying all of the used parts that I salvage, which is great. I was dreading trying to sell each an every piece individually, even though I could potentially recover more cost that way. Hopefully this week, we'll get a chance to borrow a hoist, and take the engine over to the shop and get rid of this huge pile of parts that are accumulating. It's starting to look like a 944 boneyard, which is a little creepy. 

So, the engine bay has come under attack. I have removed the front bumper (surprisingly heavy) and the cooling system is starting to come out. The massive radiator fans are out, all of the coolant, the coolant reservoir, air intake, and a bunch of hoses. Probably about 40lbs of stuff that doesn't have to go back in again is now sitting on a shelf in my garage. And, if we splurge on a new bumper, another 20lbs could be saved as well. There's actually a lot more weight in the engine bay than I was expecting. Hopefully there will be a bit more lightness adding going on tomorrow too.

So the 944 has now moved into its new home in my neighbour's garage. After a few hours of moving stuff out of the garage, donating some of it to the Salvation Army, and storing the rest of it more efficiently, there is now plently of room for the Porsche, and elbow room around it. Admittedly it's not perfect. The head-space is a little low, especially around the entrance. The door is a mere 5'-5" high maybe, and there are a few beams throughout the space at this height as well. Luckily we will be doing most of the work while sitting in the car, or hopefully on chairs in order to reduce the number of time we smack our heads. Still, the car is in, the door is closed, and we can work on the car whenever we want, whatever the weather.

Since there has been no interest in the 944's engine whatsoever, I think it is time to pull it out of the car, and put it on a shelf somewhere in the hopes that someone will still want it. I have been considering leaving the water-system in the car, but I have a feeling that integrating it into the new motor could be quite challenging. Plus it's pretty heavy, and would provide cooling far in excessive of what we'll need. Maybe we can sell that too.

I'm getting eager to start a detailed design of our system, and figure out how everything is going to work together. We need to find some way of cleaning the exposed interior body of the car too. Lots of glue and some rust too.

Well, after many long hours of grueling hair-pulling and nail-biting, my wife and I finally came up with our new Singular Motion Logo. This highly anticipated symbol is going to be proudly displayed on all of our converted vehicles, to unite them under one name.

I could explain what the symbol represents, or even how we came up with the idea, but I think that I'll leave it up to the reader to figure it out.

We are still hammering out the details of our banner, and business headers, but this definitely is a good start. Many kudos to Amanda for her creativity and total artsiness.

With the 944 in my driveway, parking has been a bit of an issue. The single car garage has been housing the 944, and half of my wife's car. My driveway then takes the rest of her car, and my Miata, with about a foot of it's bumber hanging over the curb. I've been lucky with avoiding tickets so far, but I can't count on that lasting forever. Plus, not being able to close the garage door overnight during the winter will let snow get in the porsche, which is completely unacceptable. I've been pondering possible solutions for a while, and just last night, the solution finally came. My neighbour has graciously offered the use of his detached single car garage. On the condition that I clean out all of their 20 years of stored 'items'.

With Graham and I hauling stuff, I think we can get the garage ready for use over the space of a weekend or two, no problem. And then we'll finally have a cozy place for the 944 to be worked on. The neighbour's garage is slightly larger than mine anyway, which will make life a lot easier. My neighbour has always wanted to turn the garage into a workshop anyway, and once we're done with it, it will definitely be a functioning workshop for all of his future projects. Or for my next EV conversion - we'll see!

I have a feeling that I may be paying for the use of his garage by keeping his fridge stocked with beer, but that's a small price to pay for the huge convenience it will provide!

Plus I won't have to shovel snow off of my wife's car this winter either. Yes, the miata will sadly have to endure the snowstorms, and hail and ice... But it has survived two winters already, without whining too loudly.

Time to break out the gloves and the garbage bags, and go crazy!

On the business side of things, we are slowly gathing information about local EV supplies, and groups of EVers. We have had a few discussions with a local designer/manufacturer of DC controllers, battery chargers, and other electronics - ElectroCraft. This is a very exciting bit of progress. Having local products wil not only help us save on shipping and troubleshooting, but also fits in perfectly with goal of making our 944 as green and environmentally neutral as possible. ElectroCraft offers a number of different controller solutions, and we may be able to add them as a preferred and standard vendor for our future clients' conversions.

From our preliminary discussions, we will likely be sourcing out an 11" DC motor with an 800A controller. We have decided to maintain the existing transmission and clutch system, for a number of reasons - including simplicity and safety. Our next major decision will involve the battery system. Do we grab a dozen or so 12V Yellow Tops from Walmart? Or do we try to source a more advanced battery to increase energy density and lightness?

Budget is a concern of course, but we also need to prove to clients that with a good balance of reducing weight, and investing a little extra in the right technology, they can improve the enjoyment and usefulnes of the car to make it all worthwhile. At the next EV Society meeting in Scarborough, Graham and I will try to talk to one of the members from Electrovaya (a leading Mississauga battery manufacturer) and see if we can get our hands on some of their batteries. But that's not until September.

Our fully functional 944 is starting to feel a little exposed. With no hood, no hatch, and its sunroof up on a shelf, every interior part is now quite visible to the exterior. With so much light getting in, it's quite apparent how years of sun have taken its toll on the carpeting throughout the entire car. The multiple shades of brown, some almost as light as tan, are certainly not right for Singlar Motion's future flagship. It's time for the 944 to shed its humble aged interior.

I managed to pull the seats out without too much difficulty, exposing some nice dark shades of brown carpet. Definitely time to have them out. Starting around the back seat, and then the main floor of the car, the carpets detatched easily. Most of the underpadding is in shreds, or damp, or rusty. Nice. I even managed to recover $1.36 from various unlikely places. The 944 is starting to pay for itself already! Prett soon, there was a lot of nice sheet metal getting exposed. It'll have to be sanded and re-painted, which gives us a nice opportunity to give the new interior a new look of our choosing. Bright lime green? Electric blue? Maybe shiny silver with a roll cage to make it like a true track car. Or even a deep black. Who knows what personality we'll be imprinting into our 944. Most likely, as we get to know her better, it will become clear.

I had to take out the centre console to release some of the carpeting, and the 26 year old plastic was so brittle that most of it got cracked or destroyed somehow. Not to worry though, all of the instrument clusters can be refitted into a new console, or replaced with maybe a built-in computer screen. It's not our intention to re-make the entire dash, or try to turn the 944 into a spaceship. But a little bit of modernization can't hurt. Plus, we'll be frequently using a computer for diagnosis and monitoring, so why not build it right in?

I think tomorrow I'll finish taking out as much of the interior as I need to, and hopefully start cleaning it up. A good vaccuum, light sanding, and a wash will make it infinitely more enjoyable to work in the car.

Day One:

We searched and searched for the right car to begin work, and we were fortunate enough to stumble upon this beautiful 1983 Porsche 944. With its light weight chassis and 50/50 weight distribution, we thought it would make the perfect platform for our first conversion.

After a Kirk wedding and a honeymoon, we got to work, first removing the rear hatch, part of the back seats, the carpeting and the front hood. Next step - sell out the original components and start to order the new.