Back in the saddle again, What to do next Options

[Bill Shaw]

After 2 bouts with the Big C, loads of chemo and enough radiation that I glow in the dark, decided to get down to some really serious business. After realizing that my ‘74 had too many tinworm issues (hellhole, right long) for me to handle, looked around and found a reasonable ‘76 race car to convert to street. Odo reads about 42K and condition of car seems consistent. Have to transfer my street equipment, but that’s no problem.

Now for the question.

In a fit of optimism about refurbishing the ‘74 I bought a 2056 engine kit from Jake Raby. Just had it put together with Webers when I found the tinworm so it hasn’t been installed. The ‘76 engine seems to have had some work done to it and sounds strong but it has the original Djet, I have no idea what’s been done to the internals and can’t contact the PO.

Thought I’d run compression and leakdown tests on the ‘76 and run it through a local chassis dyno. Anybody got any better/other suggestions to find out the condition? I’d hate to spend the $ now to change to the Raby engine if I’ve got a good one in there already. On the other hand I’ve lunched enough race engines (ok, they were British) to know not to trust them completely.

Any help would be appreciated!

[Bill Shaw]

Damn. 2003? It’s hard to believe we’ve been traveling the yellow brick road that long.

Chris, reading yours and Gerald’s notes brought back a whole lot of memories- of the first meeting at Hooters and of the 914 Owner’s Group meetings in Michigan. I think I still have some pictures of The Alien (for those outside the midwest, that was a 914 with a 928 engine.

It’s been a bit of a fight for a long time - almost 10 years - but I think I’ve finally got the thing licked.

Did a compression check on the motor that’s in the car now and it turned out pretty well - 120, 116, 118 and 120. I’ll take your suggestion, Chris, and give Original Customs a call tomorrow. From their website they seem to have done a fair amount of work on 914s.