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Posted by: mark21742 Sep 1 2011, 04:32 AM

This is my first post here so please bare with me lol.

I have a 1973 914 speedster project car and was looking to see if there was any tips or tricks to get a little more power out of the 1.7l....currantly its practically a stock motor other than it has a awry of VW Bus dual carb intakes with a crossover tube running a single GM MONO jet carb.

The body is being heavily nodded, but plan on keeping the running pretty much stock for now.

Thank you in advance,
Mark

Posted by: ripper911 Sep 1 2011, 04:36 AM

I would say dual carbs (maybe 40IDFs) and exhaust would be the easiest improvement.

Posted by: mark21742 Sep 1 2011, 05:13 AM

I'm sorry, it does have an aftermarket exhaust on it too.

I was looking at carbs, but had no clue what size carbs to go with and won't mind spending the money on them after I get the car done and running

Posted by: mark21742 Sep 1 2011, 06:33 AM

As for the body, full fiberglass flatnose wide body kit, I cut the rear window section out and building a custom double humped rear deck, one price front end and using new VW bug headlight globes with custom projects beam lights and full hand made tail section with all led lights.

If it isn't needed, its not going to be on the car lol no roof, no door glass, exterior handles, trunk floor are all gone

Posted by: rnellums Sep 1 2011, 06:36 AM

If you are going carbs, go with dual single barrel or get weber 40 idf's with the smallest venturis you can find.

Posted by: RobW Sep 1 2011, 06:39 AM

A 1.7 is tough to improve on. The best thing you can do is be patient and find a twisty road.

IMHO a used 2056 or 1971 would be a good use of money for improvement.

Posted by: RobW Sep 1 2011, 06:40 AM

Oh and

Posted by: RobW Sep 1 2011, 06:41 AM

This sounds cool. Any picts?

Posted by: nsr-jamie Sep 1 2011, 06:55 AM

Sounds interesting...simple is best !! The lighter your car the less weight to move which improves performance....

Since your car is already carbed, you are probably better to get twin or duel 40 mm carbs either from Weber or Dellorto...that would be better than the single carb setup which I think is not really that good.....

Or you may be better off, just finding a good used 2.0L engine from a friend or someone if you have some connections and can even use your stock 1.7L exhaust set up as well....

What kind of budget are you on? 1000 dollars or so? More? 4,000 - 5,000 dollars? If so, you can build up the 1.7L motor to 2.2L with nice heads, cam, big bore pistons and have a really fun car....but better to start off easily first I think...lots of people recommend driving lessons and sorting the suspension out.

Posted by: mark21742 Sep 1 2011, 07:32 AM

Here is a pic of it and where it sat for 10+ years



Here she is sitting in the driveway after we pulled it out of the bushes


Tore the engine down, cleaned it, painted and got it back together




The new tail section

Posted by: RobW Sep 1 2011, 07:39 AM

Its a 914 rat rod!!!

A-W-E-S-O-M-E !!!

Posted by: rnellums Sep 1 2011, 07:44 AM

It looks like that carb ha a single runner to each bank, I haven't seen that before... Love the shortened windshield look.

Posted by: vtursi60 Sep 1 2011, 07:50 AM

Thats the same body kit as my 914 .Its looks like the windseild fram is cut .

Posted by: mark21742 Sep 1 2011, 08:00 AM

I quickly fabbed up the single cross runner and dropped a monojet carb off of a GM strait 6 to get the car running...later I'll dump money into a set of carbs.

4"s was chopped out of the windsheild frame, but I'm probably going with a Ford Escort windsheild and making my own frame so the bottom front edge of the windsheild is lower and farther forward than stock to give it more of a rake and modern look

Posted by: mark21742 Sep 1 2011, 08:02 AM

What is the kit, and do you know who makes it?

Posted by: poorsche914 Sep 1 2011, 08:18 AM

Have never seen this kit before. Looks like a fun project.
Are you going to keep a "rat rod" look?
What wheels do you plan on using?

Posted by: mark21742 Sep 1 2011, 08:55 AM

I ordered a set of 4-5 lug adapters from so cal performance and bolted my stock 17" wheels from my 04 GTO on the car....they look perfect, so I'm sticking with them for now.

In the I'm not sure what it will be considered.....maybe a nice looking sport rat rod? Lol

It will definenatly because minimalist car....door are sealed shut (thinking of keeping them like that). No roof, no side windows, no heat or a/c, just a street legal gocart lol

Posted by: Tom Sep 1 2011, 06:20 PM

One fairly inexpensive way to increase low end performance is smaller circumference tires. Say 50's or 45's. yes the speedo and gas mileage will suffer, but the low end will be better. Don't know what 17's have done to your overall gearing, but if you need tires, it may be beneficial to go smaller. If you are driving a lot, the gas mileage may be very detrimental. At 60 MPH, the RPM's will increase also, hense the gas mileage downgrade.
tom

Posted by: stugray Sep 1 2011, 07:02 PM

I like the look of that body! nice.

As for the engine upgrades,

My first thought was exactly what rnellums had to say, but to not be outdone:

I have heard about a mythical beast that had a single 4 barrel Holley (modern) carburetor with a custom intake manifold.

I'm not sure what your fabrication skills are, but that would add to your uniqueness.
It would also make replacement parts simpler to source...

Otherwise,

Stu

Posted by: TargaToy Sep 1 2011, 08:40 PM

That is a 986 Style Slant-Nose kit from Rayco Inc with some mods to remove the roll bar.

Posted by: vtursi60 Sep 1 2011, 09:26 PM

Thats the kit i have on the 914 .

Posted by: mark21742 Sep 1 2011, 10:02 PM

Thank you! I like the way the kit changed the whole look of the car, but didn't know the name of it or who made it....I think someone started it and either got in over their head or ram out of time/money.....the poor car was given away to one person, then given to me.....time to get this baby done and back on the road!

I hope to get a bunch done on it this weekend since the kids will be away and I have three days off in a row....I see a few long nights of me burried in the garage lol

I did get more metal work done tonight and need to push it out of the garage so I can get some good pics.

Posted by: rnellums Sep 1 2011, 10:05 PM

I don't know. The nose is all one piece. The nose might be a different kit.

Posted by: mark21742 Sep 2 2011, 04:11 AM

Fenders and bumper are fiberglass, the hood is stock steel molded into the fiberglass parts. It has some stress cracks, but other than than some one did a very good job putting the front together and must have used the right adhesive for metal to fiberglass

Posted by: nsr-jamie Sep 2 2011, 07:18 AM

I don't see any doors...so I am guessing you just jump into the car...and how about the front trunk? How will that work? Will it all lift up in one piece like an Austin Healey sprite or something like that? I don't think I have ever seen a kit like that...its interesting though and I hope you will complete it. You really should get some nice dual carbs which will be much better than that set up...good luck to you

Posted by: vtursi60 Sep 2 2011, 08:08 AM

My 914 for a motor is buick G/N 3.8 S/C ,the same no roof and the windshild is rake down 7 inchs .

Posted by: aircooledtechguy Sep 2 2011, 08:16 AM

Welcome!!

This is EASY!! The motor is already out, right?? You already appear to own its replacement (circled below)

Posted by: r_towle Sep 2 2011, 08:23 AM

where are you located?
When you get ready to sell, let me know....I like that ratrod look you have going.

Rich

Posted by: PanelBilly Sep 2 2011, 08:26 AM

With a car so modified, I think you best option is subie

Posted by: Ductech Sep 2 2011, 09:10 AM

That car is lookin pretty neat

Posted by: BigDBass Sep 2 2011, 09:11 AM

Cool rat rod! Body kits are not usually my cup of tea but yours seems like a very fun and cool 914 project!

Posted by: mark21742 Sep 2 2011, 06:47 PM

Your right, no doors....just jump in. I'm going to clean the floors up and thinking of using truck bed liner for the whole inside with drains invade I happen to get stuck in the rain.


The front end is has cuts running from the back corners of the hood at an angle down towards the center of the wheel and the rear/lower price of the fender is molded to the door/ rocker panels. The more I look at the frontend I think I'm going to cut and drop the center of the hood line down so it starts its roll right at the frontend of the gas tank and drops down lower than the top of the wheels (think Lotus).

I finally made it back out here to the garage and getting ready to try and kick some ass on this thing. My new used Ford escort windsheild is standing up outside the garage and ready for me to start taking measurements.

Posted by: mark21742 Sep 2 2011, 06:55 PM

Lol I have plans for that 4.3, but after working on my 04 GTO I LOVE the GM ls motors......right now I'm running a 408 stroker with a little over 600 HP in it and getting a whopping 14 mpg, 10 second daily driver that weighs on at 3700 lbs lol so I don't need another insane one.

Posted by: PanelBilly Sep 2 2011, 07:29 PM

And welcome to our world

Posted by: mark21742 Sep 2 2011, 08:28 PM

Thank you!

Posted by: mark21742 Sep 3 2011, 10:08 AM

Waiting for some preices of metal I just welded up to cool down enough to handle. I took my Ford Escort windsheild and layer it up on the car last night, then lifted, latex it back, slid it forward and back......finally found the PERFECT position for it.....the front lower lip of the windsheild is going to sit down just inside of the hood gap and rake back a lot more than the stock glass.... Man it looks good!

I picked up a few sections of 4 foot long 1/2" angle iron and ended up cutting 50+ notches in them to fab up a few windsheild lip surround and tweaked it here and there till I got the right rolls and angles. Now i have three ready to be tack welded together after my break I am taking lots of picks, so I'll be posting them by the end of the weekend!