Eric Dysart's V8 re-conversion, Conversion release 3.0 Options

[ewdysar]

So my car is finally going back under the knife.

A little history: I bought the 1975 2.0 in 1988 as my daily driver. Drove it like I stole it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif) for a few years until I could hear the rods starting to loosen up. Started pricing stock rebuilds and was trying to figure out how to make that work on my late 20's single guy budget. I read an article about Renegade in VW/Porsche and realized that I drove within a mile of their Santa Fe Springs shop every day on my commute. I stopped in and went for a ride in their 500hp shop car. I got back in my car and floored it on the way up the freeway on ramp. Right then, my car's fate was sealed. I scraped together the cash for their basic conversion kit with cooling (nothing like the product that they sell now). Three years went by and I was able to make the car barely operational, but my fabrication skills weren't up to snuff and I started spending my time screwing around with electric car conversions (including a 914 conversion).

Fast forward to 2004. I'm now married and have a better job. The wife suggests that I need to "make it go or make it gone." It makes sense. I send the car to Renegade's new shop in Las Vegas (new owners too). The old cooling system has rotted away in the mean time and the new system is much more effective. I go with their new cooling system, their trans, new adapter and clutch package, build a new 327 with aluminum heads, a 911 front end, convert to 5 lug rears, get a set of 6x15 fuchs, etc. etc. The car comes back in a month and costs a small fortune. The car drives great, but I immediately start thinking about what's next.

The gearing is great, but as a 4 speed, it always feels like it needs one more gear for freeway cruising. I eventually find a 915 gearbox with 3:10 R&P. I had it flipped with new gears, reinforcements and LSD. The new box has the same gearing in the first 4 gears as the Renegade box with an extra overdrive that drop the 70mph rpm to about 2100. I keep an eye out for other deals and find a set of steel flares (probably from the original group buy), a set of 7" and 9" Fuchs 16's, MAF fuel injection for the V8 and a bunch of other small parts. The pile of "upgrades" slowly grows over the years.

Fast forward to 2011. At some point, I need to empty the 16' box trailer in the driveway to move my 1916 Model T. I haul out an amazing hoard of 914 goodies. Why is all this stuff in a trailer and not in the 914? I need to get off my butt again...

Last week I delivered the car to Sean at SD Autosports in San Diego. There's been a few leaks in the last couple of years and I infested rust into a relatively rust free car (IMG:style_emoticons/default/slap.gif) .

The pics are: under the driver's seat, under the passenger seat, and the same area before removing the tar. I thought that the passenger side looked OK, but it appears much worse once the tar was removed. It's actually not as bad as it looks, wirebrushing, rust treatment and new paint and that area will be good to go. The driver's side might need some new metal...

[ewdysar]

Here's the highlights for this round of work:

Rust repair as needed.
Install Engman inner long kit
Install GT+ rear chassis stiffening (with Sean's extra effforts)
Install steel GT flares
Install polybronze bushings on all corners
Install in-body front sway bar (remove underbody 911 sway bar)
Upgrade brakes to S-caliper fronts and vented 308 caliper rears (keeps the e-brake)
New drilled vented rotors ('cuz they're sexy)
Install MAF fuel injection (Mass-Flo) with new stainless fuel lines
Install 915 with LSD and Wevo side shift
Install Rennshift with new shift linkage

That's it for now. I'll see what else turns up while the car is in the shop.

[Andyrew]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

Looks like a pretty stout round of work! Lots of money going into it this time!

Looking forward to seeing the progress

[ewdysar]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

Looks like a pretty stout round of work! Lots of money going into it this time!

Looking forward to seeing the progress

Thanks. Your car is one of my inspirations.

Most of the money will be going towards labor, almost all of the parts have been sitting around collecting dust for a few years.

There will be some conversion parts coming up for sale as the project progresses, including a low miles Renegaded side shift 901 with shift linkage and the SBC adapter plate with 9" clutch assembly and flywheel. Hopefully that will offset some of the labor costs.

Stay tuned...

[Mike Bellis]

Cool! Make sure you post lots of pics!

[pdlightning]

So my car is finally going back under the knife.

A little history: I bought the 1975 2.0 in 1988 as my daily driver. Drove it like I stole it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif) for a few years until I could hear the rods starting to loosen up. Started pricing stock rebuilds and was trying to figure out how to make that work on my late 20's single guy budget. I read an article about Renegade in VW/Porsche and realized that I drove within a mile of their Santa Fe Springs shop every day on my commute. I stopped in and went for a ride in their 500hp shop car. I got back in my car and floored it on the way up the freeway on ramp. Right then, my car's fate was sealed. I scraped together the cash for their basic conversion kit with cooling (nothing like the product that they sell now). Three years went by and I was able to make the car barely operational, but my fabrication skills weren't up to snuff and I started spending my time screwing around with electric car conversions (including a 914 conversion).

Fast forward to 2004. I'm now married and have a better job. The wife suggests that I need to "make it go or make it gone." It makes sense. I send the car to Renegade's new shop in Las Vegas (new owners too). The old cooling system has rotted away in the mean time and the new system is much more effective. I go with their new cooling system, their trans, new adapter and clutch package, build a new 327 with aluminum heads, a 911 front end, convert to 5 lug rears, get a set of 6x15 fuchs, etc. etc. The car comes back in a month and costs a small fortune. The car drives great, but I immediately start thinking about what's next.

The gearing is great, but as a 4 speed, it always feels like it needs one more gear for freeway cruising. I eventually find a 915 gearbox with 3:10 R&P. I had it flipped with new gears, reinforcements and LSD. The new box has the same gearing in the first 4 gears as the Renegade box with an extra overdrive that drop the 70mph rpm to about 2100. I keep an eye out for other deals and find a set of steel flares (probably from the original group buy), a set of 7" and 9" Fuchs 16's, MAF fuel injection for the V8 and a bunch of other small parts. The pile of "upgrades" slowly grows over the years.

Fast forward to 2011. At some point, I need to empty the 16' box trailer in the driveway to move my 1916 Model T. I haul out an amazing hoard of 914 goodies. Why is all this stuff in a trailer and not in the 914? I need to get off my butt again...

Last week I delivered the car to Sean at SD Autosports in San Diego. There's been a few leaks in the last couple of years and I infested rust into a relatively rust free car (IMG:style_emoticons/default/slap.gif) .

The pics are: under the driver's seat, under the passenger seat, and the same area before removing the tar. I thought that the passenger side looked OK, but it appears much worse once the tar was removed. It's actually not as bad as it looks, wirebrushing, rust treatment and new paint and that area will be good to go. The driver's side might need some new metal...

Sounds like you are doing everything first class.

Where did you find the 915 trans witha 3:10 r/p and which letter gears did you end up using in the tranny?

[sean_v8_914]

water sat in the pedal area. its already a fun car to drive but you would be surprised how well those 911 brakes hold back even 300 ponies. the brake pedal is so rusted it sticks like a line lock on a drag car.

used an air chisel to remove tar, scaling gun AKA needle vibrating gun on chinky rust

seam sealer removed with air chisel, finness, scaling gun, wire wheel use a face mask!

[sean_v8_914]

hvj

[sean_v8_914]

rty

[sean_v8_914]

etwe

[sean_v8_914]

something you rarely see in a 914

[sean_v8_914]

time to cover your face and blow out all the drain holes with compressed air. open the pinched ones. poke out dirt clots

[sean_v8_914]

before I Gt it up. I checked and set the rear toe and camber so any referece clearances are more true around tire area.

bolted up the 16 x 9s and checked inner tire to inner trailing arm clearance

[sean_v8_914]

265 45 16

[sean_v8_914]

right is too tight to the arm. must investigate why the rt hub rides deeper.
car looks straight, lets tape em on and see where they land

[sean_v8_914]

once I quit drooling, I marked them off and applied stripper
oh look, a 914 with a hidden treasure...golden bondo
heavy mid to low in front of A pillar at the base
mid to heavy around teh rt turn signal bucket

[sean_v8_914]

those fronts will get spaced out to fill the flares and back track width will increase to balance this out. as a bonus I cure teh terminal closeness of teh tire to teh rear trailing arm. once I measure, Ill post #s

[ewdysar]

Sounds like you are doing everything first class.

Where did you find the 915 trans witha 3:10 r/p and which letter gears did you end up using in the tranny?

I got the lead on the trans from Scott at Renegade. A guy was upgrading to a 930 trans and was selling of his old setup. The 3:10 gears were from run that went NLA around 2003.

IIRD, the gears that I went with are as follows:
AZ = 11:35 - 3.182
HX = 18:33 - 1.833
NT = 23:29 - 1.261
RP = 27:25 - 0.926
LT (f) = 29:21 - 0.724

The 265/45/16s are spec'ed to be 25.4" tall.

Using a 5500 rpm shift point, the shifts calculate to 42.5, 73.7, 107.2, and 146 mph.

[sean_v8_914]

original white car with only one red fender...hmmm? replaced.

[sean_v8_914]

with rear wheels in sag they camber out