Returning Barn Find BB To The Road Options

[DBF]

I posted earlier about finding this survivor BB and I am working to get it back on the road by spring. I was asked to post more photos, and I’d also appreciate some advice on a couple items.

The first regards the engine. The car has 100K miles, and my experience with VW Type 1 motors is they are ready for a rebuild, at least a top-end rebuild at 100K. Is that true for Type 4's as well? I have the engine stripped down to the bare case/cylinders/heads since I want to clean off 100K worth of old oil/dirt, replace all the oil seals (yes all leaked), and to replace the fuel injection/air intake seals and vacuum lines to help ensure good drivability. Does the mileage say it’s time to keep taking it apart?

The second regards the fuel pump. It is still in the rear of course, but I plan to pull the gas tank to replace the old fuel lines, including installing stainless steel lines. “While I’m at it”, should I move the fuel pump to the front? It changes the originality of the car, but I plan to autocross and attend DE events with the car, so looking for safety and reliability.

Here is the car on the lift a friend gave me when he closed his auto repair shop this fall. It is a tight fit, but works for my small cars and old jeeps. I was sweating as the lift was being installed, hoping that all my calculations were correct, and was relieved when the 914 fit as planned. I was so anxious to see if it would fit that we lifted the 914 before we cleaned up the garage after the install. It will also allow me to store two small cars. Lastly, while on the lift I can still open and close the 914’s doors with one finger.

[DBF]

Glad many of you enjoyed my "You know you own a 914 if..." post. In the spirit of the post, the 914 has sat quite a bit as I work on other projects, and my wife and I and friends took a trip south to get away from the Wisconsin winter. Also, in the spirit of the post, progress is in the opposite direction of getting the car on the road. You can continue reading or just scan down to see the photos to see where this story goes. I stripped the engine down to the long block to replace seals and clean it up, but "while I am at it", I decided to pull the heads and pistons/cylinders because, well it's just a few nuts that hold them on. The cylinders and pistons look good, and I have them soaking to get the carbon off so I can make more accurate measurements, but I'm optimistic they will be usable. I don't need a dial indicator however to tell me the valve guides are shot. Good news is I don't see any cracks in the heads, and the seats look like they will clean up. BUT the "while I am at it" syndrome raised its head as I now have 4 connecting rods just looking at me begging to get checked out. It's just two nuts to pull the number three connecting rod, and sure enough, there is some scoring. So that means I split the case, and it looks like someone dumped some pine needles and a pinecone in the engine judging by the remnants in the screen. Fortunately, even though the rod journal is scored, the crank doesn't look bad. I'll learn more when I get everything to the machinist, but it does go to show the "while I'm at it" that we all do very often is a blessing as that engine wouldn't have lasted with just a top end rebuild. The car is also earning its nickname "Some Assembly Required" even more so! BTW - anyone recommend a good machine shop in the upper mid-west? The shop I used years ago is no longer in business.