Well as you all may remember I was rear ended on 8/26/11. Thread is here.
'71 w/ 70K original miles totalled by the insurance company.




Its been a LONG 6 weeks of wrestling with the other guy's insurance company, and I'm actually in the process of creating a thread on my experience(the injury side being completely seperate). It should be up in a few days.

Anyways a few days after the accident I had my eye on this V8 car in Michigan. I fully blame the desire for a V8 car on Scotty B's build thread for Jim Kelly. Regardless, I think a water pumping teener is the way to go, whether its V8, subie, etc. If Jake Raby is convinced, so am I.

I picked this jewel up in Michigan the sunday before last for a song. Towed it home via Uhaul and Dolly since I couldn't get it started to drive it home. Dropped it off @ Scotty B's shop ( Kahiko Customs ) on the way home and he diagnosed it as a bad injector shorting out the entire TPI system. (Scott you can elaborate if you'd like...) As you all know, he does amazing work. As in, he deserves your first born child, although that may be more of a burden dependent on inbreeding.

I picked it up from his shop last night and drove it about 75 miles home. The fact that the intake of the TPI bulges through the firewall pushes the seat forward and kind of causes the backing to sit straight up and down when pushed all the way back. I noticed on the ride home that this keeps my back very straight. Since theres a V8 RIGHT behind the seat, its also a bit of a massage as well. Not the kind that makes your pants go from 6 to 12 noon, but feels good regardless considering the killer back pain I've been dealing with since the accident.

Hence, the term: V8 Therapy.

I'm still getting used to the car, as its an absolute BEAST, but its my new daily driver and I'm happy with it.

Its a '75 w/ a 305 Chevy TPI w/ '82 911SC front suspension. The car will eventually go back to Scott for backdated bumpers, flares, 8in and 9in fuchs front/rear as well as a repaint back to the original Palma Metallic green paint. Its also going to need an Evil Tranz.





Here you can kinda see the position of the seat that I mentioned above and how far the intake comes through the firewall.



The girlfriend and I are planning to head up Route. 10 to Williamsburg this weekend to see Jamestown and hit a few Wineries as well. Pics to come.

Ooooo another Palma Green!!! Cant wait to see it!!
-JB

Very Cool....congrats....I was wondering if a TPI would fit...guess now I know...How much clearance is there between the top of the injector plenum and the engine grill? Where does it get fresh air from?

Thanks and congrats again...sorry for your loss of the original blue car though....Hope your feeling ok?

Steve

Congrats!

BTW I see a modification to that intake that would make it fit... It involves welding aluminum though.. (JB weld might work...)

I have a couple of pics of the system both installed and during teardown that will show you guys just how intrusive the TPI setup is. I'll try to get them downloaded tonight. I'm having camera issues as of late.


And yes, the car is a beast

I forgot I took the pics with my phone

Adam, please let me know what computer is running the TPI for your car. I am going to need to domsomething similar.
Zach

that was a quick fix : )

now we need to find some BRIGHT 3rd brake lights to install in our cars.

jim

I love that Palma green color! Its strange how accidents have unexpected silver linings. I hope the V8 continues to soothe your back pain!

Hah someone else with a v8 that comes into the cab. That looks very familiar to me. Although my drivers seat can go all the way back. In the middle & behind the passengers seat is similar. I'm short anyway at 5'8" so I have my seat up some anyway. It is really nice having access from the front though. A must with some of the v8 conversions. I just need to make a nice removable 1 piece firewall

Oh yeah & Congrats on the new ride! Nothing like a v8 in a 914. Instant smiles driving

Zach it looks to be an OE GM OBD I computer that uses an EPROM. That would be in line with what year the conversion was done and the year of the donor engine.

Ok...I might have said or asked this once before? But Im old...so...Anyway someone told me it might be possible to turn the plemum around so it faces the other way (opening toward the rear)...I dont have my TPI where i can actually look...but if that was possible then it would help alot....you might have to use a different distributor/ and or cap...(I think MSD makes on called a "crab cap" but not sure...worth checking out..

Steve

You could machine the top of you plenum and move the throttle body. Blank off the old hole. In fact you could switch to a Ford 5.0 throttle body with a round 65mm opening then use aluminum tubing to make a cold air intake...

BTW, nice score!

Cheers and I am glad you are happy with a Porshe powered by Chevy. I was asking the board a while back for thoughts of a TPI motor. I guess I know now that it can be done. It seems sort strange having the engine so close behind you. Does it get very hot inside the car?

This was my thought as well! Actually I was thinking of just cutting this material out and welding it back together.

Good idea Andrew. You might even be able to mount it to the side without cutting.

This pleases me

Looks like a nice car. I'll be looking forward to learning more about your car and perhaps some thoughts on your TPI once you have a chance to drive it for a while. It appears you have iron vortec heads as well.

My v8 conversion is a 305 as well but carbureated. I looked into the tpi since they are dime a dozen in the junkyards, but didn't want to modify my firewall. I'm curious how the tpi effects your engine's performance. I can't be happier than my carbed motor...but then again you have to wonder.
Mark

Zach - I'll get back to you this weekend with detailed pics and/or any numbers that are on the computer itself.




What attracted me to the Fuel Injection was the fact that my wrecked '71 had a single weber 32/36 progressive carb that I HATED. Winter is fast approaching and I honestly didn't want to be screwing around with carb adjusting in 30 degree weather on a daily driver. The TPI motor is simply turn the key and she fires. No gas pumping, no begging, no pleading, no screwdrivers and busted knuckles at 5:30am.

The torque in this car is absolutely beyond comprehension. It feels about as raw as an AC Cobra. At this point, I'm contemplating two sets of tires for summer and winter driving. I want to be able to keep this thing pointed in one direction.

I just walked into my office and realized that I smell like a Chevy 305. I've yet to decide whether thats a good or a bad thing, so unless someone complains, its a badge of honor.

..

some relevant pics

If you went DIS, you could just flip the plenumn around.

I don't see how cutting into the side of the plenum will work, Andy. Are you talking cut that area out and mount the throttle body on the side? I guess you'd have to fab a plate to block off the original throttle body location. I wonder how much, if at all, would performance be affected? I also wonder if there'd actually be enough real estate on the side of the plenum to mount the throttle body. It might be worth it to pick up a spare plenum(considering they are indeed a dime a dozen) to try. Hell, if you guys would like to fab something like that up, I'd be more than happy to test it on my car.

Aside from that, if I was any taller, (I'm 6'0) then I'd probably complain about the fact that I can't push the seat all the way back, but as stiff as the clutch is in this car, the seat sits perfectly.

If I can manage to keep my foot out of it for an entire tank, I'll post what kind of gas mileage that I'm getting. I'm going to estimate with a light foot that I'll see upwards of 25mpg.

In regards to heat in the cabin, yes, there is a bit that manages to make it's way in from behind the seat. Not really enough to heat the cabin, but i've found a cheaper solution to heating already.

.

Putting the t.b. on the side of the plenuim is a bad idea IMHO. It's not going to pull evenly into all of the cylinders. Flipping the whole assembly around is a possibility, the runners are offset on either side, and it appears you might could do that. The fuel rail might be the biggest problem there, but it too may work out not to be an issue.

Oh and btw, while these parts are plentiful, they are hardly a dime a dozen. They are very sought after by the Chevy guys for converting early carb'ed motors over to injection. 4WD crowd especially. Complete used setups are in the 400.00 range

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It'd be cool if someone else tried flipping it. I'd imagine you could do something simliar to Chappy's setup w/ his intercooler integrated into the ducktail as a cold air setup. Theres also still the worry of the distributor cap. I'd be interested to see how low the "crab" setup sits.

While its a cool idea, I don't want to lose the rear trunk space to intake tube and box, for now.

You wont get over 20mpg, RPM is the limiting factor here. Those v8's need to cruise at 1500rpms to get over 25mpg, and we cruise at 3k rpms...

My thought was to cut that area I highlighted out and reweld throttle body plate on. However if you can, a block off plate then machining a new throttle body area would work.

The performance impact would be minimal due to the vertical runners design. The perfomance is in the runners. The plenum perfomance is based on volume more than shape.

Here are a couple of solutions I think might work....

one is for use with a crank trigger ignition and the other is a "front distributior conversion"

This inconjuction with a "flipped plenum" might work?

http://www.msdignition.com/Products/Distri...istributor.aspx


http://www.msdignition.com/Products/Distri...istributor.aspx

Lets keep this going...the curiosity is killing me...LOL

Steve

I had an engine with a pretty TPI on it. I had to think this out for my self

The idea of putting the distributor in the front may work. I did not look at that and now I am set in my direction with the Hot Cam Kit from GM. The idea of the TPI injection is plug and play. No dicking around. Great if you have the room in the car but I live in Los Angeles and the car will run fine when tuned right.

I have a TPI that I pulled from my 1987 Corvette engine that is powered coated in a chrome like finish, Freshly done on my rebuild engine. I went through this and decided to go with a 750 crab to make the big Horsepower and torque with the factory hot cam kit from GM.

If someone wants to get a TPI full injection all you would need is the computer and the EZ wire kit. I have one with All the parts that Jim is showing on the top of the posting.

I am 6 ft tall and I can just fit in my 914’s having the seat any amount would not work for me

Bob Burton

For the price, it looks like the "crab" cap is the way to go. However, I don't see a replacement rotor under the replacement parts tab. Does it not have one inside?

$600 for that remote front drive is entirely too much!

Also thinking a little farther into the whole flipped plenum and rear trunk intake, it'd be fairly tough to retain enough room in the rear trunk to be able to stick the top in it should you want to remove and take it with you. In all honesty, I'll be sticking with what I've got.

I'm sure most of you know Bobby Smith.

I just let him drive this car and he thinks it might be faster than his 3.2L 914.

His 3.2L /6




His 2.8L /4 AX Car

The girlfriend and I took the Ferry over to Jamestown in Williamsburg, VA this past weekend.

A few pics of the car....

Getting ready to hop on the Ferry from Scotland to Jamestown..



Squeezed onto the Ferry...


Overlooking the James River....Jamestown is about 1mile north.




Butt shot.....she doesn't know about this.



Parts arriving....new shift bushings and locking lug nuts.