Some photos of my 914 being fitted with a WRX transmission. I'm sorry, we replaced bushings, adjusted and aligned three times and that 901 never even got close to being acceptable. The WRX motor was such a huge improvement over the VW that it only seemed logical to make the transmission just as modern. And "while we're in there" the air-to-air intercooler is being replaced by a water to air. You just don't get the air flow in the back of the car you'd want to make big power, and the next step with this car will be an STI motor. Power is addictive. Yes, I know better and you've been warned.

Anyway, the WRX five speed with Quaife gets introduced to engine.



The forest of jackstands as positioning is worked out.



The WRX transmission axle outlets are a little closer to the flywheel than the 901, which meant the engine had to be moved back to keep the axles aligned with the stubs.



Flipped manifold. Enough space in there now for an EZ30 six, easy. Nice looking hellhole too, don't you think? Still needs detailing of course, but first things first.



But moving the engine back meant he had to box a small part of the rear trunk. That's OK, this car isn't for hauling luggage anyway. Or lawn tools. Or groceries.



Cable shifter at the transmission. Beautiful work.



And inside the car, the modified MR2 shifter. Feels notchy, accurate, and good, which is what this is all about. That and more strength, especially in first.



A video of the shifter, still in the prototype stage, showing the action in the front and the rear.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncmaxYd1WNI


Ask Abby what she thinks of Grandpa's car. She likes to show off those pretty new teeth.



The water-air intercooler. It will go just ahead of the engine on the driver's side.



In the car, you can see part of the new cradle, just tacked for the moment.



Axles are aligned.



Business end, seen from the rear. It looks so good we'll probably go without a valence, it's gotta be seen. I can't wait until in the rearview mirror I see another 914 guy who's pulled up behind and is trying to figure out what all happened back there.



This work is being done by a wizard at a shop called 40-Thirteen in Modesto, CA. Quality of work is unmatched. If you're curious there are a lot more pictures of this transmission project, the engine cradle, what the car looked like with just the WRX motor before these changes, or more pictures of that beautiful granddaughter in an album at: http://photobucket.com/Corinthiano

More to come later. It was a monster before, but you had to be real gentlemanly with the shifter. To hell with that. I can't wait.

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Hmm... anyone know how to embed a video, or am I going to have to just use a link?

The FAQ knows ...

Andy

Wow, that FAQ really does know! Thanks, Andy, now I feel so .... smart!

That is one sweet looking engine and transaxle mount. Nice work.

i swear i have seen that "kinda" mount before....wait its under my car and its dark brown...

Yeah i would love to see more pics!. Oh by the way, your going to LLLOOOVE that water to air intercooler. Boost levels possible on pump gas are amazing!

what brand of intercooler are you using? i am also in the middle of putting a wrx engine with subbie trans (wish it was an sti) into my 914. and i was going water to air as well.
p.s. very nice mounts mine did not come out nearly as well (first fab project)

Really? I'm sure yours is still there... we didn't take it, I swear!

I don't think I've seen yours but we didn't copy, honest. I've also been told it's like Renegade's, but it's not a copy of theirs, either. The engine/transmission cradle concept originally came from Red Dawg's V8 version, but I think once you see any cradle it's obvious and hard to imagine doing it differently. It's easy and effective.

By the way, you can see the previous cradle in that link to the Photobucket album. We incorporated what we learned from that one to make this one better.


Thanks, Rick. That's high praise coming from you and Alien country.


Sorry, I don't know what brand it is, it's a generic from e-Bay.
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Hmm...that almost looks like there's room for a radiator in the engine compartment. I wonder if electric fans would move enough air through one there.

no way turbo engines make lots and lots of heat. your better off with the radiator in the front. it could be done with side scoops on the car and 2 custom made radiators to fit the sides of the engine bay, but thats way more trouble than its worth.

What's involved in flipping the intake manifold? Our EJ22 motor's throttle body is literally an inch away from the front of the rear trunk area. Would it be less work to just cut out that area and box it in or to flip the manifold?

that looks great man!!

if you look closely his manifold has a small section below it and the head thats about and inch and half high. His flip is a lot easier than mine and a ej22. I dont think you have that spacer. My manifold goes all the way to the head itself.

I doubt it. That's a pretty sheltered location without much airflow, which is why we're changing to a water-air. This is where we had the air-air before:



Not enough airflow there. One thought was to put a scoop on the bottom of the firewall, forcing air up, and if we found out we needed to we could compliment that with a ducktail spoiler at the back of the roof to create some low pressure over the engine lid, plus fans, of course. But wait a minute, take a step back and think how silly that is, to do all that just so you can put your radiator in that particular location, where it will still probably only work half-assed anyway. So we just put the intercooler radiator in the front in its more natural location. Done and dusted. Better aesthetically and more functional as well, so win-win.

This is where it will be, cute little thing, hidden in front of the engine radiator in the front of the car. An engine radiator where we originally had the air-air intercooler would be even more problematic.





It's pretty easy to flip the manifold. It's symetrical, so just turn it around so the throttle body's on the front, solves a lot of problems. You may have to grind off some bosses, I don't know about yours. Play with it. You'll also have to adjust the plumbing and cables, but it's not a big deal.

The new intercooler plumbing layout:



Seen from car level:



More later.

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Damn are you reading mind? That is almost exactly what I have planned for my mounts - mine will be hard mounted to the engine and trans and then soft mounted to the body. Any pics of the flanges and axles installed???
BTW we have a nice thread on Subaru transmissions here The thread it would be nice if this was part of it.
Steve

No, I didn't, I swear. In fact I used to be married, where it was proven that I'm a really REALLY bad mind reader.


Not yet, maybe next week.


Sure, not a problem. That thread is already over thirty pages, a lot of reading for someone who's just curious. We're getting close on this one, so I started a new thread that's just one project, start to finish. Thinking was that it's easier to digest this way if someone wants to cut to the chase and see what's involved and how well (or not) this works. But I could certainly post this there as well.


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Wow! Whoever does the welding on that stainless does a nice job!

Very cool project! That is going to be a fun car with the new trans!

Hi,

How much hp can that transmission take?

Hi DB.

Your car is looking great.

Do you have some contact info for 40-Thirteen, in Modesto?


thanks,
Bno

I think the Subaru guys start breaking them at 300-350 hp, but that's dumping the clutch drag racing with four wheel drive. With a lighter two wheel drive car we should be good, even with the Quaife. One way or another we'll be finding out pretty soon now.


Thanks. Sure, PM me. But understand that he's not really in business to do this, does it mostly for pleasure, projects that he thinks would be cool.

OK, I’ve been traveling so haven’t posted, but some serious progress has been made.

We’re now officially past the jack stand stage. Those boxed in areas in the trunk are now painted.



And the intercooler powder coated:



It will look good with all the stainless steel inlet tubing. The manifold was re-painted after the bosses were removed:



How the flipped manifold will look on the engine, pretty clean:



The inlet pipe so we’ll recirculate instead of dumping it out:



Nice welds. I grew up in vineyards so when I was younger and thinking about what I wanted to do with my life one of the ideas was to be a cooper. Honest work with good people around good wine. I still think about that sometimes, what if, but if I’d known about welding stainless steel I would have had other ideas. This is extremely cool and I wish I could do as well myself:



The Tilton fitting for the clutch slave:



One of the adapter flanges. A little concern here because it fit a bit loosely on the splines compared with the stock Subaru. We’ll see. Hopefully we won’t break them (my son is a specialist in destructive testing) but if we do we may have to try custom axles:



A broad view of the cradle:



Genuine OEM Subaru motor mounts ought to keep things in place:



The rear of the cradle on the transmission end, with the cable shifter brackets:



And the rear mounts, looking really good with the black powder coating:



What’s nice about using a cradle is how easy it is to remove the whole assembly. Not that we intend to do that a lot, but when necessary it’s nice to have thought ahead. Quick waterproof connectors on the wiring looms:



And the water connection in the front:



Then the axles, throttle cable, clutch hydraulic, gas lines, and the whole thing drops as a unit. Almost as easy as it sounds. I know Jeff ought to be pretty good at it by now, he’s aready had the thing in and out so many times.



It looks a little weird, but the exhaust should outlet in the “normal” place in the valance, if we use one. I don’t think we will. Normal on the right hand side anyway. When the turbo gets through chopping up the exhaust sound it’s actually pretty quiet before it even gets to the little Magnaflow. I describe the sound as the healthy half of a V8, pretty quiet to 5000 rpm’s but then it begins a seriously nasty howl.

Like I said before, Jeff does some really beautiful work. This is going to be fun.

It runs again! Doesn’t roll quite yet, waiting for the axles, pedal assembly, and some last details, but we’re getting pretty close. Here’s a video:



Sounds good at idle, doesn’t it? It got dark at the end so it's difficult to see the shifter work, but it’s precise and notchy, exactly what we wanted. This is the view of the engine compartment after powercoating, polishing and assembly:



Still needs to have the rest of the engine compartment detailed so it looks as good as the engine. You can see the little Mazda battery, now hidden down under the air cleaner. And now the ECU is in the passenger compartment inside the car where it'll stay cool and dry:



We'll build an armrest/storage compartment to cover it. But now with everything out of the trunk there's a big open space for the obligatory ‘pretty girl draped on the car’ shot:




Oops.

Engine bay seen from the other side, with the de-bossed and now re-painted manifold. We'll leave the stock overflow tank on the aircleaner side of the manifold, so those bosses are still there.:



This next shot shows the shine on the powdercoated intercooler and polished tubing, but also gives you an idea of the clearance from the engine to the rear firewall:



The engine had to be moved back from where it was with the 901 transmission, to get the axle outputs from the transmission more or less in line with the stubs in the trailing arms, so that clearance is important to anyone thinking about this conversion. The starter and clutch slave also needed clearancing, as seen from below:



If you look at those pretty girl in the trunk photos you can see those new bump outs from the top. You can also see them in the background here, with the new fitting on top of the slave cylinder that gives some help with clearance. Here, this fitting:



The shift cables under the car, plenty of room and as long as they aren’t lying on top of the axles the routing isn’t critical:



And how the muffler fits under the rear, with the new exhaust exit:



It’s all looking really good. Jeff was going to have to make some major changes to the stock pedal cluster to fit in a clutch master cylinder, so we decided just to go with a Tilton pedal set. Very sexy, proven function, no lack of options or spare parts, and lots easier in the long run.

If you want to see more detail, especially more of that pretty girl, there are lots more photos HERE: http://photobucket.com/Corinthiano

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Some delay because the Tilton pedals were backordered. They're now in, though not yet plumbed. At the end of the day this is easier than modifying the 914 cluster to add a clutch master. Not only that I just plain like Tilton pedals.



Not too far from driving it now. Only bummer is in the background of every one of these photos I see clean-up and finish work that still has to be done. That's cool, get it running the way I want first and then go back through everything to make it all pretty.

OK folks, it’s party time!! It runs and drives, and we can now confirm that we have we have indeed found a cure for the SLAP. It shifts like butter and should be more than strong enough now, even in first gear. We haven’t gained any weight so it still handles Like a 914, but with the WRX transmission it shifts like a modern car, and with the WRX motor it runs like one, too. Like a very very fast modern car.

Kind of a dark photo, sorry, but the new view from the back:



Underneath, the shifter and cables.



See the axles and those nice flange adapters Steve? You need to be proud! And thanks, Andy, for letting us borrow that camera!



A closer view of the flanges:



The Tilton pedals in place. Still some work to do on that interior. It should have been done already, but once that WRX motor was in it was so much fun to drive I yielded to temptation every time and headed up into the hills instead of working on it.



The shifter, cables and ECU. That will all be covered with an armrest/storage cubby.



Going to get rid of the gauges on the console where they're hard to see, so will just need one quad gauge.




Engine compartment, now complete.




Miata battery hiding under the air filter. Smaller and lighter than a stock battery, with that lighter weight located down lower, too.



Talk about attention to detail, look at this powder coated muffler hangar. With nylock nuts even!



And the blowoff routed back into the intake instead of being vented. I can live without the “pfffttt!” sound, don’t feel the need to impress no ricer boys.



The forward intercooler heat exchanger, and still enough space for an A/C condenser in the future.



And the prize at the end of all this work? The car key.



I haven't driven it yet, it's in California and I'm still in Texas, but we're going to meet up soon. The kids say it shifts like butter, and the Quaife hooks up just as advertised. Springtime in the Sierras, I can't wait. In the meantime Jeff of 40-Thirteen, the builder, and my son are going to be doing some serious shake-down testing. If anything can break those are the boys who can do it. I can hear Jeff saying "Let's just turn up the boost, that's all!!" and my son saying, "With the Quaife it won't get sideways when I powershift, right? We need to test that." They're destructive testing specialists, by training and practice, and they're good.

Suspension's not set up yet but I think they're going to try autocrossing somewhere next weekend, Sacramento or Alameda. They've promised videos.

If you want to see more detail there are photos HERE

Uh, Where is this shop at?

You realize IM in modesto? Are you going to be driving it back? We NEED to meet up when/ if you come out here.

Haven't seen you around much lately, is your 914 still running or are you a full-time Audi-guy now? Jeff's shop isn't commercial. He works in the Bay Area, was crew chief for Goodsport Racing when they won the USTCC a couple of years ago, is doing this just because he thought it was a cool idea.

My new grandaughter's there (isn't she a beauty?) so I go to Modesto regularly, was there full-time a couple of years ago when my mother was ill. PM me with an e-mail address or something. My son says the car is ridiculously fun to drive now and I encourage him to take it out, so you may see it on the street. Might be fun to run into your V8 car, see how they compare.

Eh, Im on here all the time, I just dont post all that often anymore..

The 914 is running (actually the new battery went bad so its not technically running at this second), but I am driving my Audi all the time now. Im gearing up for an Audi v6 conversion w/ an Audi FWD trani. I feel the 400lbs of tq on the v8 is just to much for the chassis and I want something that feels more like a sports car than a drag racer.

It would be really cool to run the two! What are your hp/tq numbers? We'd have to do a run from like 40 on up as I'll be spinning till about then anyways. My tires arnt that good and I feel thats the only thing keeping my trani in one piece.

Unfortunately I dont see that many 914's in modesto, in fact I cant remember the last time I saw one.

Lemme know when your in Modesto!

WOW!

Very nice job. Nice that you don't think a simple engine cradle is top secret - yours is a lot nicer than the 'professional' product. Can't wait to work on mine and I think I made a mistake in getting the put-put NA engine. Oh well it's still 2X the stock engine.

We tuned it a tad fat with max 10 pounds boost so I only have 205 tq/hp at the wheels, half a V8. We ran a 13.7 at 106 with the 901, babying the car off the line trying to keep it in boost and then shifting like old ladies. I'm guessing we'll be in the high 12's with this stronger transmission.



Really? Interesting. Starting at 40 would kind of make everything even and fair then, right? So why would I want to do that? Nah, I like the idea of a standing start. Run what you brung.

But it's OK, you'll be able to catch up, right?

Sooner or later... ?

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Amazing fab work is an art that goes un-noticed by many. So... thumbs up for both theory and very tremendous execution.

Wow, very cool project and it is inspiring to see such clean and well thought-out fab work and quality welding. Keep us posted with your progress!

Trapping 106mph is pretty damn respectable. I trapped 100 in my Audi a4 and did 13.55, but thats AWD for you, 1.80 60ft on rock hard winter tires!!!

Never had the v8 on the strip, WAY to scared of blowing the trani.

I dyno'ed at 245hp and 275tq at the wheels before I went fuel injection. The fuel injection and a timing change literally gave me another 50-75lbs of torque. Eh but this isnt a v8 thread.

Those are some solid numbers coming out of that car!! Very impressed!! Im planning on actually removing the v8 engine/trani and putting an Audi 2.8 FWD automatic engine/trani and all the wiring to be Audi.. Gonna make it a paddleshifter. Should put out about 200hp to the wheels with no cats, a better intake and a chip. If I so feel that its JUST not enough, then I might throw a 75 shot of NOS. The Audi trani's are REALLY strong, so I have no worries of it breaking.
I think THEN the two of our cars would be a great little match!! You'd probably nudge me out though

Saw this car today in Sac. Jeff does GREAT work -- very sano. It gave me some great ideas for my Suby conversion. I especially like his fabrication work for the engine & trans cradle; beautiful welds and very well thought out. His air-water intercooler solution is also top notch. If anyone is considering this type of conversion (and has the cash and/or lacks the fabrication skills), you should definitely contact Jeff.

Looks excellent....be careful coming out of corners with your foot in it. Boost, small tires and turns can equal snap oversteer and a weedy experience.....

Mine is nuckin futz! After the 2.5 upgrade, it is monsterous!

That's a great execution on your conversion, and I know many aspire to do the same. A modern powerplant is alot of fun in this classic chassis. My 04 STI had a pretty low 1st gear, so I'd bet you could do a spectacular launch starting from 2nd given the weight reduction, and only two tires puttin it to the ground.
Congrats!

As part of their destructive testing program the kids took the car to a PCA autocross in Stockton.



Good news is that they didn't break anything. Bad news is that we're back at square one for suspension setup. They say the front end pushes badly at low speeds, and, surprise surprise, the back end goes liquid under power. Their suggestion is flares and big stickies, but that isn't going to happen. All I want is a narrow-body sleeper. So it looks like bigger 7 inch wheels on the front (it's now 6's and 7's) and learning how to drive it differently, moderating the power a little better. Then we'll tweak as we go along.

All in all it's great, a total success and a helluva lot of fun to drive.

This car has a Quaife limited slip dif, eh? I wonder if the limited slip and power-on while entering the turn and/or during decel is the cause of understeer. Could this be resolved by changing the driving style a bit? I am very interested in this issue, as I've installed an OBX LSD in my Suby trans...

That's the likely explanation. I had some of the push before and I'd already gotten those 7 inch wheels as part of the cure. We'll see what that does and go from there, but the message after the autocross was that we're going to need to learn to drive the car differently and especially use the accelerator more in steering.

It's not a big deal, it was the first time out to see where we were, a shake down and learning experience. The engine and transmission are in and good, so from now on it's going to be fun sorting the new car out. I'm not nearly as interested in how it does at autocrossing as I am how it does in the hills, but autocrossing is perfect for the sorting and learning how to drive it without ending up in the weeds.


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Yes but thats the kind of turn exit we all love!

I was debating going to this event!!! AHHHHH!!! Would have loved to see this car in action.


What are your rear spring rates? Front Tbar and sway bar size?


You know one of the things that My dad did on his highly modified 944 turbo is switch to really sticky hoosiers on the front and old hoosiers on the back, Wider in the front. The car previously had really bad understeer, now its is so neutral its not funny, and so controllible to drift! When me and him swapped cars at a autox school I had SOO much fun drifting the whole course.

Also tire pressures play a big part.. Is your front sway bar adjustable? Lemme know, I'd love to help you guys out setup that car!

I think rear springs are 140, Koni adjustables on full soft, no sway bar. Front struts are stock Carrera Boge inserts, stock 914 torsion bars, Tarrett sway on softest. Falken Azenis, I think 205-50-16, 7 inch rear, 6 inch front. I don't know tire pressures. They just got the car running, so I think they just drove it up without time to look at much. They didn't bring an air tank, and even forgot to bring the Koni adjuster.

There are videos of all five runs HERE.

This is the fastest of the day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yor2_4Acqlo


They were playing with brake balance during the day, and the first runs locked the front up some. The last runs (smooth and fastest in the videos) looked better. You can hear wheelspin down some straights on all runs, but the big sticker is the way they're just skating, limping around low-speed corners. My son said it was enormously frustrating, that it was so slow in corners, but just a touch more throttle and it would come unbalanced and plow straight. Really difficult to drive.

We suspect the front is too low and may be bottoming. They'll zip-tie the tops of the front before the next time out to see what suspension travel they have left, if any. The sway bar's adjustable, so we'll try that too, but I think the biggest improvement will probably be better rubber on the front with the 7 inch rims. Then it'll be 7 front and back, with full suspension travel and a little stiffer on the front sway bar.

They found out that the car's solid, which is what we were most interested in, now we just need to get it set up. This is the fun part, I think.

I found from my track days that yes you steer with the gas rolling on..I found out that one on a cold moring trying to coast through a difficult corner..car was pushing wide while going slow..steering didnt work, brakes werent going to do it... rolled on the throttle and it bit and turned!!! the ah ha moment came... also as much track and tire upfront that you ca get.... I know this is vastly simpified but brake and shift in straight lines, roll on throttle going towards apex....I dont autocross but I did a fair amount of track work..

I can't wait to take it out autocrossing again! We did play with tire pressures and brake bias, but it felt like fine-tuning something that needed bigger adjustments, if you know what I mean.

You said it, the car was just plowing no matter what we did. In the videos, you can see where we were trying different things to try and get the rear end to turn, but it just wouldn't do it. Sudden off-throttle while jerking the steering wheel didn't even do it. I was literally TRYING to spin the car off-throttle but i couldn't. In the end, what worked best was braking harder before the corners, then holding it at about 1/4 throttle through the turn, just like d914 said in the previous post.

There's one other thing to keep in mind here though. There are lots of things we could do to the car to make it much faster in autocross, but that's not really the point of the build. It's really just supposed to be a fast, fun, comfortable and SAFE car to have fun with on mountain roads and on track days. And it does that beautifully. If we stiffened the rear suspension, added a sway bar in the back, added some camber up front, bigger stickier tires, etc... it wouldn't be as predictable and safe to drive on mountain roads. I'd rather have a car that will not ever oversteer (until you ram down on the throttle) than a car that could come around backwards if you're not careful with your driving.

So at this point, I think we should figure out if it is bottoming out on the front and fix that if it's true. And maybe a couple of other things, but I don't think we should go too crazy with adding too much oversteer to the way the car handles. I want to autocross it again with the rear Konis set to full stiff, more braking force added to the rear, and try to change the driving style even more, like d914 described. And then just go from there.

That engine and tranny are just phenomenal though. It just feels like a modern version of a 914. It still acts like a 914 with the way it is nimble and low, but there's plenty of smooth power, and there's no concerns whatsoever with the drivetrain. And downshifts are no longer necessary to pass people on the freeway! haha The car is just awesome to drive.

The point of the car is to have it neutral at most speeds, However its very apparent that you need some more front grip. Check the tires pressures and report back, I'd say start at 25 front and rear and work up from there. Even swapping the front tires to the back to give you the bigger stick up front might just make it handle that much better. Let me know next time you take it for an autox, I'd love to see if I can help you guys out make it a more balanced car! A rear sway bar might not be a bad investment, Its very easy to disconnect a linkage and reconnect a linkage if you decide that autox is the thing for you.

When I built my Audi I built it to be a really balanced car and one of the most important things I did was add a really big rear sway bar, This gave the car so much balance I could toss it in any corner and make it do pretty much what I wanted. I've had it at the track and at the autox with the same setup and it simply worked amazing (1.04G's on street tires). I know exactly what you guys are talking about when you want to have a car that is just comfortable fast and safe.

Looks Car looks great out on the autox BTW!

Andrew

Hey Thomas, welcome! That's my son, the Industrial Designer and our destructive testing guru. Kid has skills, and is a hot shoe who usually has FTOD in our group.

Thanks, Andyrew. This was literally the first time it was on the road after all the work that was done, with huge changes made to every part of the car. The autocross was just a quick way to see what we had and where we were. The results aren't posted yet, but even with no setup work done their times will probably be pretty good among the cars that were there, and not bad at all for a brand new car. Jeff, the guy who did the work, among other things was crew chief for the Spoon USTCC series Evo that won the national championship, so has a good racing background. He has setup suggestions we'll be trying, and he's really good.

What we wanted to do most of all was prove the engine/transmission combination, and we did. Not one hiccup, but unfortunately it looks like the whole day was spent in second gear. I'm sure the kids would be happy to let you know about the next autocross, but don't know that there'll be another. I don't really want an autocross car, so we'll be aiming at generally neutral at higher speeds in the canyons and for track days, but not so much lower speed autocrossing. So if they do go out again it will be just for fun.

2nd gear? Welcome to AX.....I haven't seen 3rd since I quit going to San Diego. You won't see 4th until you graduate to Driver's Ed events.....

Nice build.

Which axles are those?

With all that power, you should get flares in the back. I am not sure how many here remember BJ (Crazyhippy). He had a WRX motor in a narrow car, and tweaked it good. Thankfully he wasn't hurt, but he had the boost turned up high! Even stock 230+ HP is a lot for these little cars.

Nice build, keep posting!