Welcome to the slippery slope..., Porsche 6-cylinder conversion Options

[Optimusglen]

15 months ago I bought a crusty old 1971 914-4 that had been sitting in a garage for 20 years getting peed and chewed on by all sorts of creatures.

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I started the project with a plan of it being driveable at the 1 year mark. Since then I've done an engine build, carb rebuild, brake rebuild with 5-lug swap, fuel system rebuild, interior rebuild, suspension rebuild, and some general freshening up. Oh, I forgot to mention that my wife and I had a baby too, safe to say it's been a pretty busy 15 months.

Here's the build thread if anyone's interested.
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...=277349&hl=

Anyway, the result is good. It's running and driving, the 1911 is strong and runs well. Handles great considering there are no sway bars. Tail shifter is as vague as you imagine though, and the engine is still sub 100hp so it's not incredibly fast.

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It's first real public appearance was at the June C&C that I attended with a good friend in his 911.

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Exiting a cloverleaf he pulled away like I was standing still. To add insult to injury a minivan pulled away too. This lit a little spark, I wanted more power. I started crunching numbers for building the type 4, goal is around 150hp. Can you get 150hp in a type 4 that's home built? Sure, lots of people have done it. But there's an even better, more expensive and headache inducing option...

A friend of mine owns Flat Six in Minneapolis, MN. About 40 minutes from me. Sent him a message inquiring about core 6 cylinders and ended up coming home with this.

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It's a 2.2 from a 911T, the 125hp version. On top are a pair of Zenith carbs that will work fine for my purposes after a complete rebuild. It turns over smoothly and you can feel when it comes up on compression. Good signs for an otherwise unknown engine. If you had followed along in my build thread you'll know that I got some amazing deals, both for parts and for the car itself. The 6 does not disappoint in that regard, but I wont be sharing the details here.

Perhaps the best part of the deal is that he said if I get into it and find that anything is FUBAR, I can get a no-charge replacement from him since he has Parted several 2.2's. Again, this is a friend, I don't expect him to do this for anyone.

With his help we laid out a build plan. Going to get the T cams reground to the E profiles paired with higher compression pistons. Cylinders are iron so I can bore those. Goal is around 150ish hp. It'll be a "budget" build in the sense that I'm not going for huge power and will be doing the assembly/cleaning myself. I won't be cutting corners with machine work and inspection though.

I will be mating it with a side-shift trans using the early 911 flywheel. flywheel and bulkhead weld-in mount already on order. It's not likely that I'll be doing a conventional 914-6 oil tank, it just seems like so much money for what you get. We will see though, as time progresses I may change my mind.

This will be a driver, not trying to make it a show queen or original to a real 914-6. I want to keep the utility of both trunks but I want the mechanicals to be functionally excellent.

Time frame is significantly longer than the original build. Planning at least a year or two considering the work and money involved. I'll update this thread moving forward and not my original build thread, kind of a new chapter if you will.

Fortunately the 914 is perfectly driveable while I collect and rebuild. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

So here's to the next chapeter, however expensive and time consuming it may be.
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[Optimusglen]

Ok, been a long time without an update.

Picked up a new set of Micrometers, and a dial bore gauge. Micrometers measure down to .0001" and bore gauge is metric, measures down to 0.01mm.

Remeasured the crank, all measurements are verified. it's well within spec on all accounts. I will be getting it polished and magnafluxed at a local place on the recommendation of Aaron.

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I machined up this bracket to hold the dial gauge, works pretty well.
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Went to a local car show, man I'm glad that it's running and driving. having the 4-cyl in there is good for morale. Took some photos on the hour long drive home.

1st stop - Afton
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2nd stop - St.Paul
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Then I got on the road and headed for Minneapolis. While I was driving I noted that the hwy surface was terrible. At one point I looked in my mirror to see some object bouncing down the road behind me. It was headed right for a Prius, who swerved but still took it right in the kisser. Unsure if it was from the 914 or not I was pulling over to see what the damage was to their car but they just drove away... ok then. I pulled off to check out my car, nothing seemed off, must have just been some road debris that I hit.

3rd stop - Minneapolis
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And that's when I noticed it. The mystery object tumbling down the highway that smacked the Prius? It was my exhaust tip. It was rusted right at the exit of the muffler and the bumpy roads must have shaken it loose. Looked back at my photos from the day.

Cornfield: it was there, in it's usual location and angle.
St. Paul: it was starting to give, tilted down.
Minneapolis: gonzo.

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Started tearing down and seeing what I'm dealing with on the carbs.

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From my research these Zenith 40 TINs are pretty great carbs, just not a lot of room to hop them up for more power. i.e. getting different venturies and jets might be a chore for non-stock configurations.

So I have two sets, I can mix and match parts to get one good set and return the leftovers to Aaron.

One set had a detonation through the intake which started a small fire, the venturies melt easily and a few were beyond repair. This set of carbs is complete, but in poor shape. It's also the set that came with the engine.

The second set is in much better shape, but it's not complete. I'll be rebuilding the second set, and pulling needed parts off the first set.


This brings be to something I'd been thinking about since I got the engine.


There's a constant battle between two sides of who I am. One side is saying more power, bigger pistons, forged everything, high compression, go big or go home. While I'm in there might as well do PMO carbs, and dual plug it.

The other side of me is saying to rebuild the stock engine, keep the pistons and cylinders since they're in good shape. New rings and a cleanup hone maybe, then button it all back together with new bearings and gaskets after any case work is done. I'm unsure what to do.

Going big, I'd have a really peppy motor with a ton of money into it. It'd be fast, plenty fast for the street. Realistically to build it bigger it'll be 2-3 years since I don't have a lot of cash to throw at it all at once.

On the other side, I could have a 2.2 six in there and running next spring. Sure it'd only have 125hp, but that's still a huge jump over the 4-cyl. To add weight to this option, I've always been more of a fan of driving a slow car fast. Being able to wring out a car on backroads is a blast, with lower power cars you can do that without risking tickets/arrests/lives.

I'm not really concerned with adding value to the car, at this point I think the sum of it's parts are worth more, and I don't see that changing with either build option. Plus, my wife has expressed that I'm not allowed to sell the car. Which is ok, I want to keep it around.

Started cleaning up the pistons and cylinders.
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Tore down one of the heads, didn't grab any measurements but there's definitely more play in the valve stems/guides than I'd like. I assumed I would be doing valve guides and everything that goes with it but inside I secretly hoped that they'd all be tight and perfect.
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Family news:

Things are pretty crazy right now. My wife's sister is moving to Maine. She had been our childcare and it was working wonderfully. She lives just a few miles from us and is right on the way to work for each of us. We did pay her, but it was much less than what a typical childcare center would charge, and we had the benefit of Wren being with someone we know and trust 100%.

She gave us 2 weeks notice. It's hard to blame her though, they need to get moved and settled before school starts for their two kids. It's just a crappy situation.

Even worse, my wife went in for an ultrasound to check on the stents. They clotted back up. This is clotting through the blood thinners, and she's been at the high end of her INR range for weeks. Just bad bad news. She'll be getting a CT scan tomorrow to see if there's anything going on that the doctors hadn't seen before. Then meeting with the hematologist later in the week to see if there are other medications or options that could stop the clotting. Praying that we don't need to do Lovenox (shots) every 12 hours for the rest of her life. She's 29 years old.

In the short term, we'll be going back in to the hospital for 2-3 days for more procedures. Many of which are the same ones she's had before, i.e. ultrasound catheter in her leg over night, sucking out clot, balooning up veins, etc. They'll check the stents and see if they need to be replaced or if they can be salvaged, and hopefully there will be some good news somewhere in there.

Baby is healthy, for the most part. She has a bit of a cold currently. We're constantly in awe of how lucky we got with her, she is a great little squirt. Awesome sleeper, super chill, and rarely has meltdowns.

Thank you all for your positive thoughts and prayers, we appreciate you.


So, back to the car/engine...

Been talking with people that have much more experience than I on these motors. Based on everything so far, I'll be bolting the case back together with the new bearings and the crank, torquing to spec and seeing how it turns. I'll only be sending it out if there is binding of some sort. I'll check bearing clearance with plasti-gauge for a little piece of mind as well. If all looks and feels good it'll get reassembled with new bearings/seals/gaskets and run as-is. I'm sure I'll get some flac from some, but that's ok. With current budgetary limitations (yay childcare!) I wouldn't have this thing built for years to come, in which time I would surely loose interest.