Projects on my new, to me. 1974 914-6 Options

[jerhofer]

Sounds great! Love the sound of carbs.

It may look like carbs, but those are PMO throttle bodies with electronic fuel injection. The goal was to have it look like carbs when one looked into the engine bay.

[jerhofer]

We will be home tomorrow but Matt has been steadily working on the car. Here are some of the comments that he recently sent me.


"Garrett and I tuned some more on the car. We found that the wide band ego sensor calibration was wrong. We fixed that and it is running better and better.

Garrett is a big fan of the car now since he drove it.

Targa bar chrome is on. We also replaced the left side header gaskets. The exhaust tick is gone!"

I had sent that trim out to have it re-finished. It looked better than new.

[mepstein]

Car looks amazing! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[Cairo94507]

Indeed- that is a great shot. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[mate914]

Car of the month winner? Not a real 6 but looks nice.


Matt
Pro American energy.

[Root_Werks]

I bought pretty much all new trim for my 914 after paint. It was a good investment. Your 914 looks amazing!

[jerhofer]

After four long years, I finally got to drive the 914 today! It was fantastic. The motor runs strong and smoothly throughout the rev range. It handled well and rode surprisingly well. And it sounds fantastic with the BB exhaust!!

The only negative is the shifter, which may just be a 914 thing. It has been a long time since I last drove a 914. The jWest shifter isn't very sloppy but the engagement is tricky. It is a fresh transmission and it feels like the synchros are very tight. Maybe some use will free it up a bit. Ed had gears installed such that you can take off in second gear. His purpose was to reduce the stress on the weak first gear. I didn't drive it for a long distance, so some of the awkwardness might go away with familiarity.

Matt has some plans for the interior as he is not fond of the light gray. He is thinking some sort of brown leather with matching door panels. He was very satisfied with the work done on his 911 Tesla and will be taking the car to their shop to see what can be done.

I will be storing the car for Matt in the near future. He and his son are going to install a LS1 engine in Garrett's 1987 944. They are accumulating the necessary parts and he will need some room for assembly. They are coming over this weekend for a cookout and he may bring the car at that time.

[mepstein]

I was told by our expert trans rebuilder that a fresh trans rebuild can take a couple hundred miles to smooth out.

[Cairo94507]

@jerhofer - First, your car looks amazing and I absolutely love it. I am so glad you got to drive it. There is nothing like the first drive.

I had the same issues with my RennShifter. I had a fresh transaxle rebuilt by Dr. Evil and the shifting was tight. Took effort to shift the car. Yes, I am old, but when Jim (Banananose) drove the car he said it was tight too. He suggested putting the stock shifter in it. Of course I would not hear of it. I believed it was just tight due to a fresh rebuild and would loosen up...

Over the next 6K miles I fought the shifter constantly. I had it adjusted by a RennShifter "Pro" recommended by JWest. It was a bit better but still tight. He had another completely fresh built car in his shop with a RennShifter and I sat in it and it shifted just like mine. He said, "That's how they shift".

The big change came when I had Hollerans Performance look at it and drive the car. John pulled the rear shift rod out of the car and made a new one from scratch, eliminating one joint. He then adjusted the mount on the transaxle to an ideal angle. Then he looked at the RennShifter and adjusted that- it was way off. Then he drove the car and declared it "done". It was so much better now that I considered calling it done too. However, in the back of my mind was Jim telling me to put the stock shifter in the car...

Fast forward about 2 months later and I had the stock shifter arm welded to a Weltmesiter short-shift (side-shifter) kit installed in the car and it is perfect. Added bonus, my hand throttle is back. Real bonus plus, it looks 100% stock. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

If my car did not appear so stock I likely would have left the RennShifter in place as it did shift nicely once dialed in. The moral to the story, work through all of the linkage/bushings and look at the RennShifter rear mount on the transaxle to make sure it is at an ideal angle to eliminate any binding. Shifting should be enjoyable, not a chore. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[jerhofer]

@jerhofer - First, your car looks amazing and I absolutely love it. I am so glad you got to drive it. There is nothing like the first drive.

I had the same issues with my RennShifter. I had a fresh transaxle rebuilt by Dr. Evil and the shifting was tight. Took effort to shift the car. Yes, I am old, but when Jim (Banananose) drove the car he said it was tight too. He suggested putting the stock shifter in it. Of course I would not hear of it. I believed it was just tight due to a fresh rebuild and would loosen up...

Over the next 6K miles I fought the shifter constantly. I had it adjusted by a RennShifter "Pro" recommended by JWest. It was a bit better but still tight. He had another completely fresh built car in his shop with a RennShifter and I sat in it and it shifted just like mine. He said, "That's how they shift".

The big change came when I had Hollerans Performance look at it and drive the car. John pulled the rear shift rod out of the car and made a new one from scratch, eliminating one joint. He then adjusted the mount on the transaxle to an ideal angle. Then he looked at the RennShifter and adjusted that- it was way off. Then he drove the car and declared it "done". It was so much better now that I considered calling it done too. However, in the back of my mind was Jim telling me to put the stock shifter in the car...

Fast forward about 2 months later and I had the stock shifter arm welded to a Weltmesiter short-shift (side-shifter) kit installed in the car and it is perfect. Added bonus, my hand throttle is back. Real bonus plus, it looks 100% stock. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

If my car did not appear so stock I likely would have left the RennShifter in place as it did shift nicely once dialed in. The moral to the story, work through all of the linkage/bushings and look at the RennShifter rear mount on the transaxle to make sure it is at an ideal angle to eliminate any binding. Shifting should be enjoyable, not a chore. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

I passed this on to my son. Thanks.

[Freezin 914]

This makes me happy! Enjoy!

[jerhofer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WuV0Gy11co

[stevesc_us]

Sounds great! Love the sound of carbs.

It may look like carbs, but those are PMO throttle bodies with electronic fuel injection. The goal was to have it look like carbs when one looked into the engine bay.

I like the way you think! That's precisely why I chose the PMO ITB's when I did my EFI conversion on my early long hood as well.

[jerhofer]

[autopro]

Car looks and sounds great in the video, love the car (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wub.gif)

[IronHillRestorations]

Hey that's a pretty nice 914! It would look awesome with a tan interior (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[jerhofer]

Hey that's a pretty nice 914! It would look awesome with a tan interior (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Your restoration twenty years ago is the main reason it is as nice as it is. The paint still looks great after all of these years. And you did a very good job of preventing it from rusting. The reinforcements you installed have resulted in a pretty stiff 914. I was under the car earlier today and it still looks great.


There is a company in Cornelius, NC called Sonderwerks who, among other things, does a fantastic job with Porsche interiors. Matt will be taking the car to him soon to see what can be done. Dave does really good work. He has branched out into bodywork as well. The guy who runs his body shop is the same guy who painted Matt's 911 Tesla. Adam has painted cars to show at Amelia so he is very good. If the 914 ever needs some paintwork, Matt knows where to take it.

Matt is in full sorting mode, which is exactly what he enjoys doing. He would rather do that than actually drive the car. I told him yesterday when he was at the house, that, in some ways, I am surprised it ever ran. Converting the car to fuel injection was on the very edge of my capabilities. If I had read all of the instructions ahead of time, I wonder if I would have gone ahead. Drilling into the block and the end of a cam to install sensors was very scary, for me. Plus I had to make all of the wiring harness from scratch. So it is a minor miracle it actually runs.

[jerhofer]

Matt installed a Rennshift shifter and really likes it. He particularly likes the reverse lockout as that is a worry, especially if someone else drives the car. He has been tuning on the engine some more and is very happy with its performance.

I had some custom heat shields made for the exhaust about three years ago. Matt installed those and can tell a difference in the amount of heat going into the trunk. A byproduct is that they quieted the exhaust a bit as well. My reason for getting the heat shields was to protect the CPU, which is mounted in the trunk.

[Root_Werks]

Dang that looks nice! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/drooley.gif)

Such a cool story behind this 914 as well.

[jerhofer]

Matt had not been able to get the tach to work. He suspects that the CPU tach amplifier is not working. He called Richard Clewett about it and discovered that Electromotive is trying to sell their business and is not doing any service work on their equipment. So, getting the CPU fixed was not an option.

After doing some research, he ordered a Dakota Digital signal interface. He tapped into one of the coil wires that had a five volt output. Now the tach works perfectly.

We changed the oil today and then took a short ride. It is running great. Matt has a sport exhaust on order which will be the next project.