Craig Poust goes by the nickname of Just InSane for a number of reasons. However, the main reason happens to be his LS engine swaps. For instance, he swapped out the original engine in a 1983 Porsche 944 and stuck a 5.3-liter aluminum block engine into it. When Craig does an LS swap with a car, unlike most others I’ve heard about, he doesn’t go out and buy a new engine/block and drop it in. Nope. Let’s take a look at this proclivity of his, shall we? After that, Craig and I will walk you through the major aspects of this build.
Craig Calls His LS Swaps “Stock-Bottom LS Swaps”
Craig will get a call: “Hey dude, I’ve got a car you might like sticking an LS engine into for your shop.” (LS swaps and tech support is his “day job.”) So, off he goes to acquire the car. Then a local junkyard will give him a call: “Hey Craig, we’ve got a “insert LS-equipped vehicle model here” that just came in and the engine still runs. Do you want it?” So, off he goes again to acquire the engine.
These are all stock engines when he acquires them. Usually, they’re also high mileage stock engines. See, Craig goes against what has been automotive engine building industry “common sense” for as long as I can remember: “Grab a junkyard engine with more than 80k miles on it you need to completely rebuild it before sticking it in your hot rod.” The 5.3 LS he stuck in the 944? Yeah, it had over 140 THOUSAND miles on it when he pulled it and brought it to his shop. That’s 140 with three zeroes my friends. The only aftermarket component on the bottom end of this engine is a Holley oil pan because the stock one wouldn’t fit.
The First Iteration After Getting His Hands on the Two Major Components-Car & Engine
The first iteration of the build included a 76 mm turbo from his company JS Racing Products. He stuck an “almost stock” TH400 transmission by CK Performance in it with a 3500 stall torque converter from PTC-Performance Torque Converters.
Porsche body, Chevt LS Engine.
Out back he installed a Ford 8.8 inch rear from a 95 Mustang with 3.27 gears with Spartan locker and 31-spline Moser axle. He’s got Mickey Thompson 275-60-15 drag radials underneath it. Running the turbo at 12 PSI of boost, he turned a 9.98 second quarter mile pass.
Step Two: Install Meth Control Kit
Craig builds race cars that can sometimes be run on the street, so his next step was to give Julio over at Alky Control a call and order up a methanol/alcohol control kit from him. At the track, Craig changed the tune so the wastegate doesn’t pop until the turbo hits 20 PSI of boost. With that setup he was able to turn a 9.7 in the quarter through the traps.
Step Three: Install a Bigger Turbo
Not bad for a mostly stock LS.
However, that wasn’t fast enough for him. It’s highly likely that nothing ever will be. In his quest for speed and the optimal balance on the 944, Craig pulled the 76 mm turbo out and installed one of his own 78 mm turbos. He then took it to the track and proceeded to shave another tenth of a second off his previous best, running a 9.6 through the traps on the quarter mile.
Step 4: Ended in a Blowout
Although 9.6 seconds in the quarter mile is really damn fast for a street legal car, it wasn’t enough for Craig. He pulled the top end of the engine apart and stuck the cam from a 6.0 LS from an LS1 Camaro in. That only netted him a gain of four MPH and 40 HP, so ….
Craig pulled the “weak” 6.0 camshaft out and went with a custom one of his own: A JS Racing Spec 2 cam. Once that was dialed in, off to the track he went. At the drop of the green, he hammered it, and dropped the transmission. That was embarrassing, having to tow the 944 back to the shop.
Time to Install a Bullet-Proof Transmission
Out came the mess that was once a TH400 and in went a custom race-built 200R4 with another PTC 3500 stall converter. To ensure that the transmission could handle the output of the engine, Craig had it built with billet internals by CK Performance again.
Craig and his rival perform burnouts to heat the tires.
In that configuration: Stock bottom end with a custom camshaft and the 200R4 with the 3500 converter, it was time to go back to the track. First, he stopped off and put t up on a dyno, just for gits and shiggles. The dyno told him he was going somewhere: 730 horses running around under the hood of the around 2,500 pound car. His best pass in this configuration was an extremely respectable 9.49 seconds. However, that horsepower figure of over 730 started becoming problematic.
Tap, Tap, Tap-Uh-Oh
Shortly after that 9.49 second pass with 730 ponies galloping around, Craig started hearing a problem. He had a tapping, knocking sound coming from under the hood. His experience told him right away what it was: “I’ve got a Gen3 LS engine.” When he tore it down, he discovered that he was absolutely correct, he’d bent a rod and it was causing the piston skirt to dance on the cylinder bore. Time to tear it down and basically start afresh.
Gen4 Boneyard Aluminum Block 5.3 Installed
The junkyard aluminum block Gen4 LS in installed.
Craig liked the power and feel of the 5.3 in the 944, but he wanted it to be stronger, he went with a boneyard Gen4 aluminum block 5.3-because the rods in Gen4 blocks can handle quite a bit more power (and because it shaves around 150 pounds off the finished product). He installed a set of unported 243 heads with BTR springs, LS7 lifters, and a mild Lil John Motorsports cam (duration of 220-ish and a split .580/.600-ish lift-exact specs are his secret.)
Craig’s motto is “I like to go fast….for cheap.” This means that instead of splurging on expensive parts, he makes do with what he can get for lower prices. Such as standard head gaskets and Chinese Pro-FormX head studs. One of his pricier acquisitions was the Z06 intake he’s now using.
Fuel System Changes
With the new engine installed with his 76 mm turbo installed, Craig discovered that every time he bumped the boost up over 20 PSI, the fuel system went too lean. This required him to pull the Porsche stock Bosch 044 fuel pump and install a Holley 1200, but that also allowed the mix to go lean at higher boost pressures. Now it’s got a Holley Billet 1600 pump and supports up to 25 PSI of boost quite easily. He also determined that the stock Porsche lines (3/8 inch feed and 5/16 inch return) had to go. Not enough fuel volume being delivered.
The rest of the fuel system now consists of:
- Stock 98 LS1 regulated fuel rail
- 1/2 inch feed and 3/8 inch return fuel lines
- Siemens-Deka Short Form injectors flowing 80 pounds per hour
Craig Had to Build an Interesting Brake System around the LS Engine
Two calipers from 1995 Mustangs per side on the rear.
Every car has to have a functioning brake system, especially ones that hit the low 9.4 second range in the quarter mile. For staging, he’s using a bump box of his own design. Under the hood he’s got a Wilwood manual master cylinder. That’s being aided by a Walker remote dual diaphragm brake booster mounted in the trunk.
Up front he’s running the stock Porsche calipers. Out back he had to do something very different. He burned out the stock calipers, so he put together a custom bracket and is using two pairs of stock 95 Mustang calipers, with the second pair being plumbed to the primary brake circuit. This lets him launch like a crazy bat when the green drops.
The Walker remote power boost Craig installed in the trunk.
Other Stuff Craig Made Custom
Cooling is a big issue in Craig’s Porsche, both the intake air and the transmission. He fabricated a customer air-water cooler for the tranny cooler and stuck into a lunch box under the passenger seat. He also stuck a fan-cooled cooler under the rear bumper and equipped it with a 180 degree thermostat.
Suspension Modifications
The Porsche suspension was never meant to support the weight of a big V8 and its transmission, so Craig had quite a bit of modifying to do. Up front he’s running the factory struts with KYB gas cartridges. Out back it’s running a set of customized coil-overs he got off e-bay.
The car has a full rollcage for safety.
The lower control arms are from BMR while he custom-made a set of Heim-link uppers. To help support the extra weight, he also installed a set of 79 VW Bus air shocks. Instead of the stock coils, he sliced a set of 95 Honda Civic coils in half and installed them.
Craig’s top pass was 8.9 seconds, but he’s done a few things to it since then but the track’s been closed, so he wasn’t able to give an update on the improvements. He’s promised to update us in the comments, so check back in about a week. For more information about this and his other builds or to hit him up for advice, check out his Youtube channel labeled “Just Insane.”
Comments
You guys post these like no one has ever put a Chevy in anything else. 944’s RX7’s Jag’s and many other cars are very common to have a Chevy V8 as it is a cheaper and more powerful in many cases alternative.
Now you want something Different I can give you the phone number of a guy who put a 428 Pontiac in a Jag sedan.
That is not our intention. I write and post them because they are unique; they aren’t the ever-present F-Body LS swaps we see and read about all the time.
How about an email address for him? Does he have pictures? I’d love to write about that if he has pictures detailing the build process.
I like the part where he stuck a cam in from 6.0 LS motor from an LS1 Camaro. back in my day an LS1 was a 5.7 L. from 1967 through 2016 Camaro has never had a 6.0 engine.
Dear Folks,
Thank you so much for publishing this interesting and informative article. I wish you would publish more like it. I do think a Porsche chassis would be better used if it were tuned as a high performance road car.
Frank J. Landers
Hey Frank, do you have any ideas for us? Got a personal car in mind that you’d like to see in print?
This article was a good read, except for how it says Craig was the one who built this car. The guy who *actually* put the wrench time in is the one with all the pictures of the build and who *actually* got this car to where it is today. He sold it to a friend, and that friend sold it to Craig – with the LS, turbo and Ford rear end already in it; and already insanely fast. If Craig himself is the one who fabricated all these lies about building the car, well…it goes a lot to show his true colors, I think.
Woah slow your roll Chris and Eric lol, Lets get this straight, I already contacted the author about some errors in the article, he got a few more important facts wrong then who started the project, but since your on the subject, lets go over it..the car was a started project when i bought it , however for my safety the first thing i did was tear it completely down and redo EVERY thing over that i felt was not to my specs including cage the car. There are barely any parts left in the set up that the previous owner used accept a few minor tid bits for example parts the of the motor mounts are reused and the 8.8 housing it self but not the internals , I also reused the radiator but built a much better cooling system. I redid the steering shaft design and made it manual and i completely changed the front and rear suspension design and set up. EVERY thing about the build was completely redone and changed to my liking. The car was not insanely fast as you put it it, in fact it didnt even start or run, the trans was blown and the tune in the ecu was a cobbled wreck and it had honda spark plugs in the block that leaked compression due to being the wrong seat design. I redid the brake system completely front to back and inside the dash. I can go on and on and on about all the items i had to spend time correcting and redoing, It almost would have been faster to start with a 944 that hadnt been started on. I have several months invested in rebuilding this car from the ground up so for you to assume your going to belittle my investment think again. But because i am a nice guy i left all that out of the interview because i wasnt about to bash the previous owners attempts and be little him.. that gentlemen is my true colors. * DROPS MIC*
http://944hybrids.forumotion.com/t1760-944-with-gm-5-3-4l60e-ford-8-8-rear-end-combo
more pics for your guys!
Hello guys, i am the builder of this car and the owner of JS Racing Products. First off some good news the car recently went a 8.94 at 156 in street trim and that video can be found on my youtube channel. Now for the reason I am posting. It was brought to my attention that two individuals tried to post on here that the credit of building this car does not belong to me. So lets get the facts straight shall we? I did not want to hurt the previous owners feelings so I never made it public all the mistakes and issues I had to correct and redo, In fact I simply sucked it up and attacked the project head on as if i had started from a unmolested car. but I digress, so lets start at the beginning. I planned on building a 944 to replace my Datsun 240z so i was happy to find one on Craigslist that appeared some one had started and done most of the labor already. I drove the 6 hours 1 way drive only to find a car that not only didn’t run but looked like it was built by a group of freshmen for a school project. I decided that since I was already there and i was sure I could make use of allot of the labor already invested I bought it with out even hearing it run ( because it didn’t ) I got it home and started the process of tearing into the car to identify any safety concerns and it was like a onion, the more i peeled the more i found that wasn’t up to my standards.The motor and trans he had in the car both had issues and had to be scrapped. So I decided the best thing was to identify what could be salvaged and reused and simply start over on the rest. There is very little left from the original owners attempts, small bits and pieces remain and others I altered or redid over from scratch. half way into the project I was convinced it would have been better to start from a fresh un touched car. But i pushed on and made it happen. My intention from day 1 was never to have to hurt the previous owners feelings or bash his attempt in any way but i feel i was backed into a corner and left no choice. Back on track stay tuned for more exciting things to come here at JS Racing Products , we have allot of cool stuff coming up. http://www.JSRacingProducts.com
I am one of Craigs good friends and I was there in his shop for allot of the work he did on this car. I think Craig covered it already with his statement but I want to add that any one who follows him on youtube and watches the kind of stuff he does already knows exactly what kind of guy he is. He is one of the last true good guys left.
Good job on this car !! It was admirable of you to not put the information in the article about the previous owner. I am sure he is now regretting his post. Can’t wait to see what you do next.
Sorry man. I know you did a lot to make that thing what is today, I wasn’t going to post anything up but a coworker did. I got rid of the car because of financial reasons and it was very far from finished so my hats off to you for getting thing down the track so fast. I legitimately thought people might want to see more pictures of the car.
I spoke with the author of the article and he is going to adjust it so that in the next publication of it it does mention the previous owners contribution. I just wanted you ( or your co worker ) to under stand that the car today has nothing left other then the shell and a few small tid bits of what it was when i first got it. I really did not want to have to say stuff in public about having to redo so much of the car over and risk hurting any ones feelings but i guess not putting it in there caused more of a ruckus. no worries just wanted us all on the same page is all. have a great day.
I’m really not worried about it man. Not embarrassed either. So it really doesn’t matter to me, I was just happy to see it go down the track 🙂
“One of the last true good guys left” has been on the run from law enforcement because of jumping bail on several felony charges including drug, gun, and rape charges.
His gf Channel is also wanted on charges and on the run with him.
“Craig Poust goes by the nickname of Just InSane for a number of reasons.” Maybe because he was off tapping those asses and giving bitches roofies. lol