Hey Guys,

I'm new to the board and forums in general so please forgive the technical stumblings I am about to put you through. I've attached a couple of photos of my project. Brad R says the BBS is messed up so I can't really preview the pics, I hope it works, Ha Ha he says. the car is a 1974- 914 that died early in it's prime from an engine fire. The car bounced around for many years as a v8 conversion project when I found it in 1991. As with most of this projects it started out as a 1-2 year minor project and grew into something much more. The car is more street rod then authentic Porsche, although I have always respected German engineering, and the Porsche name, I wanted to create my own car.
Here's a couple of highlights,

Body: The body kit is an "American International Racing (AIR)" fiberglass kit which I had to cut way down. The original rear fenders had the overall width of the car at 84"-86"s wide. After I cut 4"s off each side the thing still looks like a Testerosa from behind. The car is painted Maytag White and looks more like a race car and less like a modern day Porsche.
Engine: The motor is a 4 bolt 350 with a 400 crank i.e. stroker motor 383 cubes, Trick Flow heads, loopy cam, and a recent purchase, soon to be installed, 4 48 IDA Webers with a Moon Racing manifold. I will get the car on the road first, then install/tune the Webers (which seems to be the number one reason these carbs ever get sold, they are very hard to tune but once perfected, the throttle response of a nitro car. They must be tuned by a professional with a dyno and lots of spare jets?.

Cooling, I am running two 1" copper lines down the center tunnel inside the car with 16AN bulkhead fittings at both firewalls and braided 1 1/8" OD hose connecting the motor and radiator (I am worried about the ID of this hose), large aluminum racing radiator with two powerful "Scotts" electric fans, I have extensively cut into the front inner fenders but have reinforced all the suspension tie-in points with sturdy roll cage downbars/xbars, the car probably has 75'+ of 1 1/2" steel tubing. The water pump is Rod Simpsons cast AL housing with the Chrysler impeller. The front air inlet/opening is about 160 sq. inches, the
exit somewhere near double the inlet. If that doesn't do it, I'll install dual oil coolers and Renegades Radiator.
Tranny: Pantera ZF, any knowledge of the ZF tranny/installation would be very helpful (shifter, linkage, gearing, ect...) The car has dated Centerline Champ 500 wheels, Tires are 345's out back and 285's up front on 15" rims. Need bigger tires/rims and brakes. I can't find a tire wider then a 335 in a larger rim size (17"-20"). Any suggestions?.


Chris Julian

Photo #2- Chris Julian 74-918

Photo #3_ Chris Julian 74-918

OK resized images

74-918

Resized motor image 74-918

Wow! Very nice! That thing will fly. What type of tranny are you using? How much horsepower do you estimate you'll be laying down? Very impressive, keep us updated on your progress.

WOW
When do you plan on completing that project? I want a ride
Very nice.
Ferg

Now that's What I'm talkin about!

Mmmm, Mongo LIKE,,,,,,

Way cool project! That thing looks like it will fly like a rocket sled on rails, and welcome aboard. PS you gotta take me for a ride when done I love a good adrenaline rush. AL

HOLY CRAPOLA

it scares me, mommy

Chris,

Glad to see your input here. Looks like you just raised the bar. Great job!

John

Hey Chris,

First of all, welcome to 914world.com
That's quite an introduction you made!
I hope it's an inspiration to other (lurking) new members (hint, hint)

Now, give us all the dirty and intimate details on your car

cheers,

Jeroen

looks slow, I'm sure my stock 1.8 can blow him away, LOL

very nice......it's not going to be easy to find steamroller tires wider than what you want........

Welcome aboard !!!!!

A few of the Pantera BBS have some decent forums for the transmission, at least last time I looked a few months ago.

Welcome ! I`m afraid very afraid!

Wowsers..........

I saw it suck Billy into the carbs!



Nice job -- I really like the exhaust!

Holy shit.........I think I am leaning toward a V8 now

BBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDD AAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome Chris. You have stumbled into a wealth of knowledge. I wish I could assemble "clean room" cars, but it would take me FOREVER...LOL (oh wait.. how long have you been working on this one ??)

Mueller.. he wants/needs a set of the roller bearings (we discussed this a few weeks back here at the shop)



B

For us V-8 wannabe's, give us a heads up on total dollars in thus far and those to the finish.

Really nice. oh yes. I need to sit down now.

Trekkor

DAAAAMMMN!!

yaaowzzza!!!!


ot: that's the wwiiddeesstt thread i have ever seen.

kevin

Chris, Thanks now I have V8 envy..and I have a V8 914.
Beautiful car, I hope we get to see it sometime soon on the street.
CCLINANDYOUTOCANHAVEAV8

Nice car! But yank those Webers (sell them to club members) and put the Q-jet back where it belongs!

Very nice Chris! Welcome to the board.

HOLY MOTHER OF PEARL!!!!
Half the car and twice the motor.
Welcome to the club Chris.
We all will be awainting your update.
Any way we can help, let us know.
I do hope you realize, that the best way we can give you the BEST information is following sitting in that front seat for a few laps.
L. McChesney

Chris,
with as much money as you you presently have in that motor, you might consider
going with a proven cooling system.... (the RH rad, shroud, pump etc...) I know
it's an extra $1000-$1300, but how much would a blown head gasket, and a set of warped heads cost on top of that? (Total of about $2500 + labor?)
If you research this forum, and the porschev forum, you will probably see that the
general consensus is that the other systems don't work -

By the the way, your car looks AWESOME -

Thom

- Garold

Hey Guys,

thanks for all the positive feedback. I guess I was expecting more of the "that's a sacrilege" comments.

To answer a couple of the questions.

Completion time frame:
I would love to have it on the road within a year. Iv'e said that before but after watching monster garage and junk yard wars I guess it is possible to build something up in a weekend. It really hasn't taken 13 years to get this far. Maybe 12-15 months spanned across many years.
The electrical system is next. Custom dash and fusepanel.

Drivetrain:
The engine is a balanced and blueprinted 350 four bolt with 400 crank. Balancing was a little tricky. The 400 motors were externally balanced so we had to balance the complete spinning assembly as a unit, this caused a little problem with the grooved harmonic balancer which is required with the v8 swap. The aluminum heads are Trick Flow with the 1.6 x 2.02 valves. Cam is comp cam 280H, I think? I will toss the Corvette rams horns (past smog concerns) after the car is running most of the gremlins have been worked out. I think the Supertrapps will also have to go?

Cost:
Most of the custom work was fabricated by myself so that cuts down on the labor cost and most of the components were purchased over 10 years ago. I think I have between 18-21K into the project to date and will probably need to spend another 2-3K to finish the car. Not including the Weber setup.

I am currently looking for some of the interior components, upper moldings @ rear window door panels, ect... Any suggestions would be great.

I'm also looking for oil cooler information, I want to run twin oil coolers behind the air ducts in the rear quarter panels. I do not want to fight the cooling issues. I would immediatly jump on the RH radiator setup if I knew for sure I wouldn't have to deal with the cooling issues, but I have heard of overheating problems with the RH system, actually I have witnessed them.


Chris

Hey, Chris. That is beyond neat! My single quad 3/4 SBC scares the shit out of me, so don't even want to know (OK, maybe a little) what that sucker will run like.

Do you have a paint code for 'maytag white'? PO painted mine the same color and paint shops look at me like I'm nuts.

Chris,
You need more closeups to show your design and fabrication details.



I hope you're not referring to witnessing my car overheating up the hills. I have a kink in the return line from my Simpson pump that I haven't fixed yet...it never had a problem on the flats. I don't think the RH radiator would fit with your cage bars through the trunk. Yeah non-RH rads can be made to work, it just takes alot of time and R&D which can be bought for ~$1.3k. As Thom noted, you may not want to put your nice motor at risk.
Felix

It's all been said.

I'm speechless.

-Rusty

I highly recommend a Ron Davis radiator. Tell them you have a 1000hp Hot Rod and give them the dimensions to fit in your car. Tim (used to handle custom sales) has a 914-v8 with a custom tube front end. He's a cool cat. Ask for pics.

Oh, RH had a bitch'n 400 crank counter balance made once that bolted to the harmonic balancer, kinda late for you but something to keep in mind. There should be a pic on the website with one on the demo engine.

Chris

I've been skipping a few threads including this one 'till now. Wow, this car looks bloody sweet! Well, since I started my 914 addiction with a six, maybe my next one will have to be an eight. After all, I do have an desire to own a rod.

Nice car, welcome to the nut house.

Well it don't look like no "cruiser"
Whatcha gonna do with it when it's "done"?

ok, that's it...... gonna start piecing together the pars for a v8 conversion. a little here, a little there and before you know it..... BAM!! a pile of parts and no money!!

damn you chris and your nice car!!!!!

really, keep us up to date on the progress. take pics. set up a web site. sell vidoes of the make over. sell a parts list with distributors. if/when the 4 popper dies, this looks like the way to go.....

OMG! What a beautiful work of ART! AND you can drive it!Jesse James,eat your heart out!This car ROCKS! and a Rocket! Just BEAUTIFUL!

I personally would run twin 964 oil coolers with fans in the rear fenders. Worst case scenerio..dont turn on the fans/and or remove them. Mount one cooler in one side and one in the other. Stainless mesh in front of the coolers that is removable for cleaning.


B

Chris, chek out the classified, HPH or PM me I have a
mission to clean out my shed.
PS its hard for evan purists to bag on your prep. Nice work!

Chris,
How's progress??? Will it run in time for our summer GTG?
Felix

Nice webbers...

I don't see the white BBR car. So... make some room.

Mar7ck

Ok it’s been long enough and it’s time for an update. I have been busy it’s just that all the custom pieces take time to fabricate. So here are a couple of the highlights:
Front Compartment
The front compartment is almost done. Pictures tell the story!
Pretty much just wiring and AN fitting/hoses to go. Anybody have any tricks when installing AN fittings? My cooling system has #16’s they are the worst to install.

Dash
The dash is in, yes you do see two water temp gauges, tuning the cooling system is critical and my setup is unconventional to say the least so I have one sensor up front just past the radiator so I can monitor it’s cooling effect and one at the motor to monitor the temp as it exits the motor.
Anybody have a competent fiberglass guy in the SF Bay Area? My plan to glass the upper and lower dash is still in place unless I can upholster it without too much trouble? Any thoughts?


Chris

Dash2





Chris

Center Console
The center console bracing is mocked up and the cardboard helps to show it’s final shape
The center console will house the fuse box, brake proportioning valve, parking brake (hydraulic valve), cooling lines, fuel line, hydraulic clutch line, and a lot of high temp shielding to ward off the heat.


Chris

Rear Compartment
The rear compartment is almost ready to accept the drive train. Most of the systems are in i.e. Cooling, brake lines, clutch line, battery able, and fuel layout, ect….


Chris

And lastly, the aluminum grill work. Lots of opening to close up with custom grill panels. Should I anodize them or powder coat?


Thanks for looking,

Chris

Chris,
Send them to me if you want and I will pull some strings at my plater.
Patrick@peridot

Front Compartment Resend- can't get the first image to display