Am I Welcome Here? Options

[dbledsoe]

I have two 914's, a 75 and a 76. I got sick and tired of screwing around with the valve eating VW Type IV piece of sh*t engine in them both so decided to replace both with Buick V6 engines, a fairly straight forward swap as engine swaps go in a 914 (no way I can afford any Porsche 6 cyl motor).

The red 75 was the first recipient of a basically stock 3.8 liter, only mods were an Edelbrock intake, small Holley 4bbl, MSD distributor and ignition, and headers. Plenty of power even in that basically stock configuration. The white 76 is awaiting an already built 4.1 liter (now 4.2 liter) Buick V6 with JE 9 1/2 to 1 forged pistons, cc'd and flowed heads, Isky cam, Manley stainless valves, Isky springs, retainers, lifters, etc. The White 76 will be basically gutted to reduce weight but will remain a street ride.

On the 914club.com forum that weird haircut Andy guy (IMG:style_emoticons/default/WTF.gif) hated Buicks and few people would talk to me. Is it any different here?

Regards,

Don

[dbledsoe]

Tonight I cut shrouding templates from corrugated plastic (looks like cardboard but is made of plastic) glued in place with 3M super adhesive to see if it makes a difference. If it does then I'll use the templates to cut the shapes from aluminum and put in place permanently. Foto attached of the templates (the screwdrivers and wood blocks are there to hold templates in place while glue dries).

[horizontally-opposed]

Tonight I cut shrouding templates from corrugated plastic (looks like cardboard but is made of plastic) glued in place with 3M super adhesive to see if it makes a difference. If it does then I'll use the templates to cut the shapes from aluminum and put in place permanently. Foto attached of the templates (the screwdrivers and wood blocks are there to hold templates in place while glue dries).

I would so love to see someone do a front-mounted radiator setup that makes better use of the space at the front of the 914 -- whether it would be as simple as a space-saver spare mounted upright on the bulkhead or as complicated as custom ducting to preserve a little of the stock trunk or even a fuel cell mounted low so a chunk of the upper compartment could be reclaimed.

Or, could the area in front of each wheel be re-worked for smaller radiators that could have straight-through venting from the foglight grilles and then into the wheel wells? That'd probably be a lot o' work, though... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sawzall-smiley.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif)

I've seen several conversion cars done really well at the engine compartment, but none with a truly space-efficient cooling setup up front. I suspect it wouldn't be easy, but it would vastly improve the useability and appeal of these cars... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)