Intro from Montana: '73 2.0L rustoration thread Options

[bbrock]

My name is Brent and I’m new to 914 World but certainly not to 914s. My 1973 2.0L has being lying dormant and neglected for over thirty years now and is long overdue for a resurrection. The path to where I am now has been a long one so forgive me for the long introduction, but some of you might be able to relate.

History

I wasn’t much of a car guy as a kid growing up in NE Kansas. I liked cars, but I didn’t LOVE them. But when I saw my first 914, it spoke to me in a way that no other car had before… or since. My first ride in a teener didn’t come until my senior year in high school when a co-worker took me for a spin in a 914 he had borrowed from his dad’s used import car dealership. The car did not disappoint and I was hooked! I knew I had to have one.

The year was 1981. I was 19 and beginning my second year of college at Kansas State when I took out a small loan to buy my first car. I found a barely road-worthy 1970 1.7L in Missouri for $2,300 and was beaming with pride when I rolled up to the college dorm with my new, but rather shoddy looking, prize. But being as I was 19, and that organ that would eventually become a brain was not yet developed, I managed to shove the nose of my new Porsche under the tail end of a pickup truck at an intersection the very next day. Devastated; I had the car towed to a little one-man body shop at the edge of town. The front left corner was toast. I had enough money left from my loan to buy a partial front clip from AA. I got a call from the body shop the day the clip arrived and was told there was a problem. I went to inspect and saw that AA had sent a wrecked clip. The fender was smashed and the cost to hammer out the panels was 3X the cost of the part. I got in a heated argument over the phone with AA when I was told that sort of condition should be expected with used parts. What a bunch of BS! Surface rust and a few dings is one thing, but this part has been smacked hard enough the turn signal opening was half the width it should have been. Pointing out that their own advertising promised used parts would be collision free got me nowhere. In the end, I had to pay return freight and a restocking fee to get rid of the shitty part. That was the first and ONLY time I’ve done business with AA and I’m still pissed 36 years later. Luckily, a 914 had arrived at a junk yard 60 miles away and I picked up the parts, minus the lid, for a fraction of what AA had charged and hauled it myself.

But my woes of fixing my 914 were far from over. The body shop guy told me he found a trunk lid and that if I prepaid for parts and labor, he could put my car back together, shot with primer, for $400. Like an idiot, I believed him. I took out another small loan and wrote him a check. Every time I stopped by to check out the progress, there was a different excuse. The lid was at another shop getting MIG welded to repair minor rust… things like that. Then the guy just disappeared. I spent a few weeks stopping by almost daily to find an empty shop. Finally, one day a crusty looking old guy was there. “Are you looking for Joe?”, he asked. “Join the club.” Joe had been bilking lots of people out of money and had skipped out of the country. The guy telling me this had recently entered partnership with Joe and had lost thousands of dollars. We would both shortly receive a bankruptcy letter listing us as creditors and leaving us with little recourse to recoup our losses. It was my first hard lesson in trust. The silver lining was that the new guy had another shop and took pity on me and completed the work that was promised at a very reasonable price. I know he lost money on the deal.

My now patchwork-colored teener was back on the road but I wasn’t any smarter at 20 than I was at 19 so my car would again suffer the consequences. It was a cold, snowy, Kansas winter when I was home at my parents for Christmas holiday. I had learned from experience that if I put the 914 to bed in that weather without adding a bottle of drying agent to the gas, she was not going to start. But I wasn’t alone and shop after shop was sold out of HEET. On the fifth stop, I finally found a few bottles and was heading home to my parents when I hit a patch of black ice at low speed on possibly illegal balding tires and wrapped the front neatly around a fire hydrant. Well shit! Here we go again. I was done with body shops and con-men so decided it was time to learn to weld. I found donor parts at the same junk yard as before and set about cutting out the damage and replacing using my brother’s oxy-acetylene torch. Amazingly, I managed to get the car back together in drivable condition. I won’t pretend it was a good repair job, but adequate. I learned a lot about working on 914s because just about every week, something new broke – clutch, torsion bar, struts, and the constant battle with bad wiring in the FI and ignition. I’m sure there is a part on a 914 I haven’t removed and replaced, but I can’t think of what that would be.


About a year later, my then girlfriend and now wife of 30+ years needed to replace her aging Honda and a nice looking 914 appeared for sale. It was a ’73 1.7L and looked much prettier than mine. We shouldn’t have bought it because it had been wrecked and not put back together right. It had a barely detectable sideways crab as it rolled down the road that a 4-wheel alignment couldn’t fix. But it made a good daily driver and was nice enough that when Elizabeth and I were married, her cousin hid the car for us so my original patchwork 70 got the traditional “Just Married” treatment.





Around that time in 1984, I spied an ad in the college paper for a 914 for $500. Always needing parts, I thought this was my chance to get a big pile of parts at a bargain price. After talking with the owner, I discovered this was a 1973 2.0L. (my dream model and year). It had suffered the dreaded hell hole and the RR suspension console was dangling free. The PO (the car's second owner) couldn’t get a shop to even quote her a price on fixing it, and I was welcome to go have a look. I found the car in a parking lot next to the local import car parts shop. I couldn’t believe what I saw. Not only was it my dream ’73 2.0, but it was metallic silver with 4-spoke Fuchs, center console but not appearance group (black bumpers and no targa vinyl). This is exactly the car I would have ordered at the dealership. I knew that the wheels alone were worth the asking price. From 30 ft., the car looked gorgeous. From 10 feet, it looked really good but you could see it had been repainted, and not well. The interior was complete and clean. The only thing wrong with this car was a rotten battery tray and suspension console. And even that rot was limited and hadn’t spread to other bits of the hell hole. I finagled another small loan and didn’t quibble on the price. THIS would be my car.

Back at the junkyard I found a console from the same donor I had taken the front for my 70 from. I spent a weekend in my parent’s garage welding it in and spent the next several years enjoying the hell out of that car. In the meantime, I rebuilt the engine on the old 70 to donate it to a VW bus and sold the chassis for parts. My wife’s ’73 became my project car and I earned my label as a DAPO botching an outer long replacement by overheating the weld and using poorly placed door bracing. The result was an increase in the sideways crab and a passenger door that didn’t close as cleanly as it should. I continued my assault on the car by stripping it down to respray in black lacquer – a purposeful choice to reveal all of the flaws. It was a lot of work and there were many goofs to be redone, but the end result was actually quite stunning. It didn’t last long though since I didn’t have a garage at the time and black lacquer is no match for the Kansas sun. But it did convince me that I could prep and spray a car with respectable results; better than the job on my 2.0L anyway.

I don’t remember the exact catalyst that caused me to tear it apart, but as much as I loved driving the 2.0L, it didn’t always love me and I was frequently stranded – and this was pre-cell phone days. The problem was almost always some damn thing with the FI. Plus, the car was leaking oil badly and there were rust issues that needed repair. I convinced myself it was time for a complete tear down and rebuild, and I commenced to do just that. I was in my mid-twenties and Reagan was President.

Restoration Begins… and Stops… and Stops Again

I made a rookie mistake and started with the engine. I did a complete teardown and had all the bottom end parts machined and balanced at the local machine shop. Although I am kind of regretting it now, I decided to ditch the D-Jet that caused 95% of my reliability woes and opted for dual 40IDF Webers. Carb conversions were all the rage back then and I had lost patience with the FI. If I were to start this today, I’d probably keep the FI which I still have in storage. But to complement the carbs, I installed a “street grind” cam from Automotion. I’ve tossed my old Automotion catalogs and there are no other specs on the invoice. I only remember that the folks there recommended this grind to get the most from my carbs while staying close to the performance of the FI. The other mod I chose for the engine was a new set of OEM euro spec (8.0:1) Mahle pistons and jugs. I’ve always had this crazy idea that the euro spec cars were how Porsche intended and American spec was a compromise. As part of that rebuild, I stripped and repainted all of the tin with high temp paint and replaced the little hardware. Heads had not yet been touched, and Reagan was still the President.

Then life intervened. Elizabeth had put her college on hold while I finished mine, and it was while she was finishing her degree that I tore the car apart. Then it was my turn to go back for a graduate degree so the project went on hold. Time was in short supply. Clinton was President by the time I got my grad degree. Now neither time or money were as much of an obstacle, but having adequate shop space for the restoration was. All I had was an open carport that was not up to the task although I was able to turn it briefly into a makeshift plastic spray booth for the last car which we had since given to our nephew (kicking myself now). So, Elizabeth and I set about building a two-story barn with plenty of space for a large woodshop, mechanics shop, and spray booth. When I say build, I mean we picked up hammer and nails and built the thing. I must say; the thing was a work of beauty. All that was left was to install windows and then my restoration project could resume in earnest. And then I got offered a job in Bozeman, Montana which had been a long-time dream for this wildlife biologist. So without so much as ever rolling a car into the new shop, we packed up and headed to the mountains. That was 13 years ago and I’ve gotten a lot of grief for hauling my little project 1,200 miles across the continent. And she has weathered through many Montana blizzards sitting neglected in my driveway; waiting for me to come to my senses.

And Now…

Maybe I am having my mid-life crisis but the itch to get this car back on the road had gotten too strong to ignore. Over the years, I would periodically cruise the Web for 914 news, but would quickly put it aside with the resignation that I’m back where I was with no good space to work on the car. But then I read Darren Collins’ amazing odyssey on this forum. Not only is it inspirational, but it also gave me an epiphany. The bulk of the work in a restoration is in cleaning and refurbishing small parts. I don’t need a big-ass shop for that. In fact, we do have a 2-car garage but half of it is filled to the gills with woodworking tools and the other half has to remain open for the daily driver so we don’t have to scoop and scrape several inches of snow off every morning, and to protect the car at least a little from the horde of deer mice that plague every vehicle parked outdoors in the mountains. But I have a plan. I purchased a set of 10” pneumatic castors at HF and will build a rotisserie on them. That will allow me to roll my chassis over my gravel driveway and in and out of the garage as needed. That will still leave the challenge when it comes time to paint (I don’t have the means to farm out a $10K paint job). But it will get me through strip, patch, and primer. We have planned on building a detached garage since we built our house. Maybe I’ll figure out how to fund it.

Determined to make progress, it was time to take stock of what I have ahead of me. The car had been mostly stripped prior to our move, but many of the parts that had been carefully stored in sheds wound up strewn haphazardly in the trunks and cockpit during and after the move. The old pitted windshield had been removed long ago and donated to the other car. The plexi I had installed to seal out the rain had cracked to shards and only the tarp over the car kept out rain and snow. The old tires turned to dust years ago, leaving the belly of the car only a few inches above the damp earth. Not the treatment I intended to give my car but it is what it is. I was prepared for the worst last week when I began excavating to survey the damage of years of neglect. The car wreaked of weasel piss and I actually found a weasel skull in the front trunk. But that weasel piss probably accounts for the surprisingly low amount of rodent nests found in the car. Considering the abuse, things could be worse.













Thirty years ago, I had all kinds of plans to modernize this car. But history gains importance as we age so now I want to keep it mostly stock. That’s also the easier and cheaper route given that the car is disassembled, but nearly complete. My rule for mods is to do nothing that can’t easily be reversed to original stock. The biggest sacrifice is that I won’t be blanking out the side markers as originally planned even though I really hate them.
Mods planned are:
Engine: These have already been done. Otherwise I might rethink them.

• Euro 8.0:1 compression pistons
• Weber 40IDF carbs
• “Street” cam grind for carbs.
• Dizzy – I have an unused 050 on it now, but will probably replace with an SVDA 034. My carbs already have vacuum ports.

Chassis

• Euro lenses
• Black windshield and targa trim. I already sanded and painted my dinged-up trim when I tore down the car. I like the look so will keep it for now.
• Relocate fuel pump to front and replace fuel lines.
• 2-stage paint on exterior. Still not completely married to this but think it will be easier to do and less maintenance than 1-stage. Open to comments though.
• Modern radio or retro radio with modern BT module.
• Hand throttle lever to operate carb chokes.
  

Workplan

1. Stabilize engine – It has been stored in an unheated shed. Checked on it last week and was horrified to find the pistons stuck. Luckily a half hour soak of the pistons with PB blaster and some light taps with a softwood drift freed them up. Cylinders had a little rust crust at the bottom where the rings were sitting. I pulled the worst looking cylinder. Rings look fine. A few seconds with a hone and the bore was shiny like new again. Will do the same with the remaining cylinders and will refresh the assembly lube on cam lobes and lifters. I have a 3-arm engine yoke from VW Alley arriving Wednesday and will move the engine into my heated garage where I can keep a better eye on it. Once inside, I’ll clean it off and brush the case with tectyl, spray Stabil engine fog on the piston tops and cylinder bores, and bag it. I’ll turn the crank once a month to make sure it doesn’t seize again. Open to suggestions on how to protect it until it is ready to go back in the car. I’ll probably go ahead and get the heads rebuilt sooner rather than later so I can get the engine completely assembled and not have a bunch of loose parts laying around.
2. Build a rotisserie and start on rustoration. Here’s what I know I need to do:
   1. Replace front trunk tub.
   2. Repair rear trunk lid.
   3. Repair both door sills.
   4. Repair lower sail panels.
   5. Repair or replace RH engine tray in hell hole.
   6. Replace RH outer long. Won’t know about inner until outer is cut off.
   7. Misc body sheet metal patches, mostly lower edges.
3. Inventory and clean parts. I’ll develop a plan of attack after I have a better idea what I’m dealing with. But this will keep me busy for a while.

Thanks for reading.

[bbrock]

This Tranny is Ready to Grind

Finished up the transmission today. Still not sure how my backup light switch ended up in St. Louis but the vendor refunded my $ since they didn't have anymore in stock and I ordered from another source. So that was first on the list this morning. Here's the switch and a new pin from Porsche.



Pretty straight forward. First clean out your bunghole.



Insert pin.



Torque the switch to 23-29 ft-lbs.



And done.



Next up was the speedo drive. Luckily there was a recent thread on this or I would have been scratching my head all day on how to get that little seal out. The solution is genius. Pop out the special metal washer with a pick. Then thread an M14 or 9/16 bolt into the old seal. Then knock it out from the other side with a drift. Easy peezy.



A thin coat of Vasoline on the new seal and it pretty much goes in with just thumb pressure. I did use a 12mm socket and a couple light taps to fully seat it.



Then the special little washer goes back in. it goes in with thumb pressure and then I use the back side of a pick to make sure it was seated.



Now a new O-ring. Here's a tip. When you get out your bolt organizer to find a bold to pull the seal, don't accidentally toss the O-ring in there when you stow it away. I don't want to say how much time I wasted today looking for that little dickwad.



Nestled in nice and snug.



Last thing was to add a new VDO angle drive.



All new seals on the tranny now. Only thing left is to protect the case Porsche-style. Those who have followed this misadventure from the beginning may recall this from There are a few threads on this here and on the Bird. Apparently the engine and trans were coated with Tectyl when they left the factory.



Tectyl is a lot like Cosmoline but if Porsche used Tectyl, that's what I use too. My hunch is that it was mainly intended to protect the mag during the trans-Atlantic trip and not much more, but someone on Pelican claimed there was a tech bulletin suggesting to refresh the Tectyl on transmission cases every couple of years to keep them protected. It doesn't matter. I'm after the new car experience so whatever toxic stench this throws as it bakes off, I want it.



It was apparently sprayed on originally but I just daub it on with a cheap sponge brush. Over the next few weeks this will dry to a semi-hard waxy service with a light amber tint that says, "I'm loved by a crazy person."

[oldie914]

Porsche's advice on Tectyl was correct. The Germans used an unblievable amount of salt on the roads in the early 1970's and cars on the autobahn were in a salt bath all winter long. Rule of thumb was two windshield washer water tank fillups per tank of gas.

[Superhawk996]

Pretty straight forward. First clean out your bunghole.
I'm after the new car experience so whatever toxic stench this throws as it bakes off, I want it.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif) It's funny because I hate new car smell.

Thanks again for your leftover Tectyl from summer -- it will go to good use on the 911 mag case one of these days when it get's final assembly.

[bbrock]

@914_7T3

A couple pages back I mentioned a problem with one of the distributor vacuum hoses.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads/post-20845-1608516367.jpg)

This clearly needs to be fixed if I'm to have ANY hope of a smooth running engine. Ah yes, much better (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)



AFAIK, colored vacuum hoses are NLA. There is at least one thread asking if anyone had tried bleaching black braided hose and re-dying it the right color. The answer to that now is yes, and the answer to whether it works is NO! I tested a small scrap of new German Continental (OEM) hose in some bleach left overnight. What you get is a bare naked rubber hose with a bunch of still very black braid cloth fibers floating ghoulishly in the swill. Absolute fail.

I started exploring fabric paint. Most of them are very translucent and intended to go on a white, or very light fabric. The consensus is that you can only make things darker with it. Then I found Jaquard Neopaque opaque fabric paint.



Reviews sounded promising. I ordered a small jar each of green, red, and russet. The manufacturer web site has online color chips that suck so it was really hard to tell what color I would get between red and russet so had to order both and figured I might need to mix paints to get the right color.

I cleaned up the remnant of original red hose I had as best I could and ran some tests. The red was pukey bright. It would look great on a "My First Pony" t-shirt for a 6 year old girl, but not in a 914 engine bay. The Russet by itself looked pretty good to me trying, to account for 48 years of fade on the original hose. From bottom to top in the below pic is Red (air brushed), original remnant, Russet (sponge brushed), and the unpainted braided hose.



I tried to get fancy with my cheapo HF air brush but you have to dilute the paint so much it would take forever to build up the pigment. Instead, I applied with a sponge brush, working it into the braiding. It takes a 2-3 layers. The paint looks too thick when it first goes on but then soaks into the fabric and darkens. After it was dry (and even before), I used a stiff nylon brush pretty aggressively to smooth out the finish and pull up the cloth fibers so they weren't all stuck and matted. The end result was the cloth braiding a little stiffer feeling than the unpainted hose but close to the old hose that had seen plenty of heat cycling over the years. The hose itself is still flexible like new hose.

For the green, I didn't have an original sample so just went with straight green. I suspect it is a little brighter than the original but close enough for me.



Here are some pics of the end result. No doubt the engine will breath and run much better with the proper colored hoses attached. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[bbrock]

Pretty straight forward. First clean out your bunghole.
I'm after the new car experience so whatever toxic stench this throws as it bakes off, I want it.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif) It's funny because I hate new car smell.

Thanks again for your leftover Tectyl from summer -- it will go to good use on the 911 mag case one of these days when it get's final assembly.

@Superhawk996 , are you implying with your creative editing that my bunghole throws off toxic stench? Not true... because I cleaned it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)

[Superhawk996]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)

[Superhawk996]

Totally awesome work on the hose coloration. Very entertaining and practial too. Really will help make sense of the maze of hoses that can inhabit the 914 engine compartment. Even worse with FI.

The creativity and compulsion to innovate never cease to amaze. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)

[bbrock]

Totally awesome work on the hose coloration. Very entertaining and practial too. Really will help make sense of the maze of hoses that can inhabit the 914 engine compartment. Even worse with FI.

The creativity and compulsion to innovate never cease to amaze. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)

You are suggesting there is practical value to this madness? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

Try to rationalize this one, and tread lightly because you know you are an accomplice here.

With carbs, the bunghole (had to sneak that word in again (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif) ) for the CHT is unused.



This was bugging me because I may have a plan for that for a possible future project. I don't want it to be filled with crap.

With the help of @Superhawk996 , I sourced an M10x1.0 drain plug. I gooped up the head with grease to stick it to my socket, and put a smear of anti-seize on the threads.



I snugged it just barely past finger tight and that is one nice little bunghole plug.



Then the grommet.



If this isn't a cry for help, I don't know what is. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/screwy.gif) But it's the details that count. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif)

[raynekat]

The creativity and compulsion to innovate never cease to amaze. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)

I'd say that hits the "nail" in the coffin or on the head. Ha

Can't say in my wildest mad scientist dreams I ever considered dying the fabric braided lines in my car.
Brent ascends to such lofty escarpments that us mere mortals can only wishfully fantasize about....
He is definitely of a land of a "different height." (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[bbrock]

The creativity and compulsion to innovate never cease to amaze. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)

I'd say that hits the "nail" in the coffin or on the head. Ha

Can't say in my wildest mad scientist dreams I ever considered dying the fabric braided lines in my car.
Brent ascends to such lofty escarpments that us mere mortals can only wishfully fantasize about....
He is definitely of a land of a "different height." (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Ha! It might be your fault. I think you unleashed a monster with the flocking. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[914_7T3]

@914_7T3

A couple pages back I mentioned a problem with one of the distributor vacuum hoses.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads/post-20845-1608516367.jpg)

This clearly needs to be fixed if I'm to have ANY hope of a smooth running engine. Ah yes, much better (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)



AFAIK, colored vacuum hoses are NLA. There is at least one thread asking if anyone had tried bleaching black braided hose and re-dying it the right color. The answer to that now is yes, and the answer to whether it works is NO! I tested a small scrap of new German Continental (OEM) hose in some bleach left overnight. What you get is a bare naked rubber hose with a bunch of still very black braid cloth fibers floating ghoulishly in the swill. Absolute fail.

I started exploring fabric paint. Most of them are very translucent and intended to go on a white, or very light fabric. The consensus is that you can only make things darker with it. Then I found Jaquard Neopaque opaque fabric paint.



Reviews sounded promising. I ordered a small jar each of green, red, and russet. The manufacturer web site has online color chips that suck so it was really hard to tell what color I would get between red and russet so had to order both and figured I might need to mix paints to get the right color.

I cleaned up the remnant of original red hose I had as best I could and ran some tests. The red was pukey bright. It would look great on a "My First Pony" t-shirt for a 6 year old girl, but not in a 914 engine bay. The Russet by itself looked pretty good to me trying, to account for 48 years of fade on the original hose. From bottom to top in the below pic is Red (air brushed), original remnant, Russet (sponge brushed), and the unpainted braided hose.



I tried to get fancy with my cheapo HF air brush but you have to dilute the paint so much it would take forever to build up the pigment. Instead, I applied with a sponge brush, working it into the braiding. It takes a 2-3 layers. The paint looks too thick when it first goes on but then soaks into the fabric and darkens. After it was dry (and even before), I used a stiff nylon brush pretty aggressively to smooth out the finish and pull up the cloth fibers so they weren't all stuck and matted. The end result was the cloth braiding a little stiffer feeling than the unpainted hose but close to the old hose that had seen plenty of heat cycling over the years. The hose itself is still flexible like new hose.

For the green, I didn't have an original sample so just went with straight green. I suspect it is a little brighter than the original but close enough for me.



Here are some pics of the end result. No doubt the engine will breath and run much better with the proper colored hoses attached. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/pray.gif)

That is all!

[doug_b_928]

Wow, Brent. The hoses look fantastic. I didn't know they were supposed to be red and green; very cool.

[bbrock]

In case y'all haven't had anything to roll your eyes at lately, I should probably update on last weekends shenanigans. Had a non-Porsche project to work on so just did a few small jobs. First up was finishing a detail on the world's most awesome Type IV carb intakes. Last item was to provision for connecting the charcoal canister circuit and oil breather to the intake. There was already a port on for the vapor line but it was oversized. I thought it would be easy to source a 1/4" black plastic fitting to cut nipples from but I was wrong. I searched all the home improvement and hardware stores with no luck. Couldn't find anything on the Internets. Finally had to order it from McMaster. Even there, the selection was slim and I had to order a tubing that comes oversized with thick walls intended to be machined to size. I was looking for about 1/2" to fit the 12mm hose. Not have room in the shop for a lathe, I improvised by chucking the tubing in a 1/2" drill, clamping the drill in a vice, and sanding the tube down to get the right OD, and then drill out the ID. I should have gotten a pic to document what a dipshit I am, but here's a pic of the final product.



Similar "drill" (get it? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif) ) for the oil breather. The original air cleaner had the breather port attached to one of the side ducts. I assume these are separated from the filter to prevent the oily vapor from fouling the filter element. That port, of course, was lost when I swapped them for my custom jobbies. Of course I stupidly forgot to weld in a steel tube on one of the ducts so had to go to plan B which was to install a tube on the plastic part of the side duct. I put it in at an angle to direct the vapor toward the carb (just like the original) and attached it by "welding" it in with an old soldering iron and a scrap of black zip tie. Strong as hell.



Here's how much tube I had to buy for those two little dinkass nipples.



Next was finally fitting up the fuel pump. I've been waiting over 2 months for this NOS boot to arrive from Latvia.



The fuel pump wires I ran in the harness were about 4" shorter than I would have preferred but that 4" would have been pretty expensive so I decided to roll the dice. Luckily, it managed to work. I ran out of good omega fuel hose clamps so this will have to be just a dry fit. Before you say anything about not being able to run a factory pump with carbs... sure you can. You just have to design the system for it. That's all on that for now.



Everything fits nicely behind Door #1.



To make sure I don't forget about those missing hose clamps, I yellow-tagged the fuel filler so I don't start dumping fuel in the tank and make for a bad day.



Now for the eye-rolling... I don't know if you've noticed, but there is a little plastic bushing that the windshield wiper arm spring connects to. This is a horrible pic because I painted it black when refurbing the arms.



Mine crumbled to dust so needed replaced. I bought a Delrin rod from McMaster for stock and cut discs to about the right width and fine tuned the width by running them over sandpaper on a flat surface.



I used the wiper arm as a jig to mark the disc close to center with a hand drill, and then drilled the center hole on the drill press.



Next, I mounted the disc on a Dremel cutting disc arbor and chucked it in the drill press. I "turned" the disc down to the right OD using sandpaper on a paint stick.



Now for the fun part - forming the groove for the spring hook. I tried several things that didn't work so well. What did work was a 6d finish nail, heated to my favorite flavor, cherry red.



After quite a bit of back and forth, forming and test fitting, I had a nice little pulley shaped bushing.



Here's one nestled in its home.



Now the not so fun part. Before trying to put the springs back on, eat your damn Wheaties. Those things were a Bee-otch to pull on. I'm could have rigged up some kind of lever jig to make it easier, but I manage to grunt those buggers on. And here they are.

[Van914]

Impressive!

[Superhawk996]

Everything fits nicely behind Door #1.

My pump is going up front for vapor lock reasons but I've never liked any of the front mount solutions.

For some reason that space below the head lamp buckets is just wasted space and begging for something to go there but then the hose routing get's all whacky. Getting the pump noise further from the cabin would be a good thing.

I don't know why, but, for some reason cuttting a hole in my front bulkhead rubs me the wrong way. But, the more I look at this it's becoming more appealing. Of course, the front bulkhead location was an OEM solution for obvious reasons (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

By the way do you ever sleep? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)

[bbrock]

Everything fits nicely behind Door #1.

My pump is going up front for vapor lock reasons but I've never liked any of the front mount solutions.

For some reason that space below the head lamp buckets is just wasted space and begging for something to go there but then the hose routing get's all whacky. Getting the pump noise further from the cabin would be a good thing.

I don't know why, but, for some reason cuttting a hole in my front bulkhead rubs me the wrong way. But, the more I look at this it's becoming more appealing. Of course, the front bulkhead location was an OEM solution for obvious reasons (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

By the way do you ever sleep? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)

I'm with you. I've had two 914s (including this one) with the fuel pump relocated to the steering rack area per factory tech bulletin. Neither was done with finesse but the location worked fine even though it looked like the after thought that it was. The one 914 I had with the fuel pump still in original location vapor locked quite frequently. Cutting a hole in the bulkhead was difficult for me, but in the end, I decided it was the right and proper relocation position.

I haven't decided what to do with the bulkhead carpet yet. For now I just left it unglued in that area so it drapes over the blister for a stealth upgrade. I probably should source the little carpet blister to add so I can glue the bulkhead carpet down properly and still access the pump.

[Dion]

Fantastic! Just fantastic work mate. Keep it coming. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[bbrock]

Myth Busting

I'm convince that Internet myths are impossible to kill, but it sure is fun to try. Today's myth is that you can't run carbs with a high pressure FI fuel pump. Nonsense. Lots of people do it and there are several good threads on it. The trick is to use a return line and bypass fuel pressure regulator. And no, it does not mean you are pressurizing part of your fuel circuit to 30 psi or whatever the pump is rated for. Pumps don't make pressure. Regulators do. For Webers, you install a bypass regulator that will bleed off enough fuel to make 3-4 psi and dump the rest into the return line where it feeds you reserve fuel reservoir the way Porsche intended. Do you have to set up carbs this way? Of course not. Are there benefits? Yes.

So this was my task today - installing the regulator. Low pressure bypass regulators are not very common. The most used unit is the PMO regulator which seems to be the standard for Porsche carb conversions.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/www.partsklassik.com-20845-1612144540.1.jpg)

There is also Malpassi which is Italian and seems to be pretty commonly used in Europe. Aircooled.net recommends this brand but did not have the bypass version in stock so I ordered one on ebay from Germany. The two regulators cost about the same once you figure buying a separate pressure gauge for the Malpassi. To be honest, my decision was based purely on aesthetics. The PMO is a nice unit but screams after market whereas the Malpassi seemed like it would look more native to a 73 Porsche engine bay.

First step was to modify the little bracket that came with the unit. I bent it 90 degrees. Then I drilled out the mount holes to repurpose my original MPS mounting grommets for an anti vibration mount. I don't want the regulator telegraphing fuel pump vibrations into the chassis.



The bracket bolts to the MPS bracket on the chassis. Here's the view of the regulator mounted from above.



And from inside the engine bay. The hose coming out of the bottom is the return loop. Still need to pick up some good hose clamps before the permanent installation, but I like how this looks. After trying a lot of different locations, I decided to mount the pressure gauge on the right carb with a tee fitting which has been ordered.



The other thing I did today was to shift shims around on my rocker shafts to offset the adjusters slightly on the valves stems. I'm still quite skeptical it makes any real difference, but can't argue with the fact many reliable engines have been built with the offset.



Just before quitting for the day, I snapped the pushrod tube retaining springs in just to get them off my table saw and discovered one of them looks pretty sketchy. It is worn right where it would contact the edge of one of the center blocks when snapped in place. Having that snap in a running engine doesn't sound like fun. I have a tub full of 3 engines worth of spare valve train parts but not a single retaining spring. How can that be? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif) I'll have to source a good used one.

[bbrock]

Ground Hog Day

I spent this weekend redoing crap I've already done. I started a separate thread about my trailing arm bushing saga, but just to recap... Early in the build I bought 914Rubber's solid SS pivot shafts and poly/graphite bushings since that was the only option I could afford at the time. Then when 914R introduced their new rubber rear bushings, I jumped onboard. In the process of tearing down the trailing arms to install the new bushings, I decided the solid SS pivots were too damn heavy for a street car so swapped them for a pair of OE shafts. Then I discovered the fit of the bushings was not acceptable. I wound up doing what I should have done from the get go which is ti buy Elephant Racing bushings. Comparing Elephant with 914R, you can see that the walls of the 914R bushing (left) and the ID larger than Elephant. Measurements are on the other thread.



It took a lot of cranking on a pipe clamp to get the Elephant bushing in, but I managed even though my arm has been feeling it all weekend.



The result is a super tight fit just like OE.



While the trailing arms were out, I installed the rear axles too.



Between the rubber bushings that don't allow the outer mount bearing to pivot and the axles in place, reinstalling the trailing arms was quite a bit harder than before and required a copious amount of swearing. This won't look any different to you, but it sure does to me. So happy to have good OE style bushings in place.



Next up was to lift the front onto jack stands to tackle a project I've been dreading. After filling and bleeding my brake system to a nice hard pedal, I was sickened to see my fluid reservoir slowly drain dry. I was fairly certain it had seeped past the MC grommets so I ordered new OEM grommets from Porsche a couple months ago. The inside of the gravel pan confirmed my diagnosis. I'm so happy I get to sand that down and repaint.



I was suspicious of the grommets that came with the 914R MC from the beginning because they were not nearly ad difficult to install as descriptions I've read. I also noticed when bleeding the lines that if I pushed the supply lines sideways at all, fluid would come out of the grommet. I should have stopped right there. Oh, and yes, the MC does have new metal washers from Porsche in it. A comparison between the 914R grommet with the OEM version raises concerns. Overall the 914R grommets looks to be a close replica of OE except the ID is considerably larger. The ID of the OEM grommet measured 7.16 mm while the 914R version measured 7.5 mm.



I can't say if the larger ID was caused by being installed for almost a year, but the OEM grommets took noticeably more force to slip over the flared steal fittings which I did after lubing them inside and out with brake assembly lube.



I used an 11mm flare nut wrench to pull the grommets down into the MC. The connection seems MUCH firmer and secure than the old grommets did. So far, no leaks. I'll leave the car on jack stands with no gravel pan for a week to monitor, but I'm optimistic.



I'm curious if anyone else has had issues with the 914R grommets leaking. I'll be honest, I was in a bad mood most of the day over this. Anyone who has done this can attest it is no fun to do once, let alone a second time to replace shitty grommets. Worse, keeping brake fluid in the system is kind of important so if there is a defect here, we need to know. The OEM grommets are not expensive so I don't see any reason to use repops anyway.

There was something good that came out of this though. While under the car I found this fuel hose hanging free and the connection is is supposed to connect with.





I had completely forgotten that I ran out of hose clamps working on those lines so left that last connection undone. I use those yellow tags to make sure I don't forget things like that but they only work if you actually used them (IMG:style_emoticons/default/slap.gif) Proper hose clamps were installed and the connection made.



Those 3-port fuel pumps do make a mess of the fuel line routing, but a hundred bucks for a new pump seems unnecessary when the one I have functions well. I may wind up regretting that, but it's how I'm going to roll.

Anyway, not the most fun weekend on the project but a bad day today with the MC grommets may have averted a worse mess in the near future. Here's hoping the brake fluid leak is fixed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/hands.gif)

[Superhawk996]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

Getting so close to having a functional vehicle.