Hello 914 World!
I figured it was about time to finally say hello and give a big thanks to the 914 World community!
I joined this site almost a year ago and have been here pretty much every day using it as a resource to get my car ready for the 2013 AX and DE season. I can honestly say that I have learned more details about my car from this site over the past year than I did during the prior 13 years that I owned it. I have also had the pleasure of doing business with many vendors who are either active in this community or who were recommended by someone here, and I was impressed with everyone I dealt with and the quality of products they provided. This is a great community, thanks for letting me lurk here and soak up so much awesome information!
I guess since this is an introduction post I should say a few things about me. Sometime during the mid 1990’s a 914 owner friend of mine got me interested in autocrossing and let me co-drive his car one season – I was hooked. After a careful search process, I found and bought a ’74 914 2.0L in 1999 and it was already well sorted for Autocross. I quickly became very active with the local Maverick Region PCA, and before too long I was doing AX, TT, DE’s, Instructing, etc. That all came to an immediate halt in 2006 when my wife and I had our first son and that took priority over driving. Now that my boys are a little older, I am getting back into things. Having this site as a resource really has been amazing!
Here is a pic of my car at the AX last weekend, it's running great with the new engine!
Click to view attachment
I was planning to get a list together of everything I did to my car with the help of this site, but that is going take some time to put together!
Thanks again to everyone who contributes to this site, it feels good to be back in the madness...
Cody Sears
Full Version: Introduction
Welcome! We expect a lot of pictures!
Cody! Cool, glad to see you on the site!
--DD
--DD
Nice looking 914!!!
Though I guess you're not a newbie to World, just a newbie to Posting on World...
Either way, beautiful car, and happy to hear you are doing what they were made for....DRIVING!!
Glad to see ya!
Nice looking car. I'm in Houston. Let me know if you ever run down here. I work part time at MSR Houston as an instructor. It's a great track for our cars.
Nice looking teener!
A belated welcome
Well it's about freaking time Cody! 
He's been kicking all the other 914's butts at the autocross for quite a while now. I'm glad you're officially here... it's a great place!
He's been kicking all the other 914's butts at the autocross for quite a while now. I'm glad you're officially here... it's a great place!
Welcome Cody. I love your car. Please tell us more about it. Get working on that list.
QUOTE(Betty @ May 3 2013, 07:15 PM) 
He's been kicking all the other 914's butts at the autocross for quite a while now.
Hey, it was only by eight seconds or so....
--DD
Thanks for the welcome and nice comments about my car, I'll share some more info and a few more pics. I have done so many things with my car since joining the site, its hard to know where to start - I'll just throw some things out and try to add to it later!
I found this site when I was doing some research on possibly rebuilding my spare disassembled 2.0L FI engine to something a little bigger. I had been running a "stock" engine since I owned the car and I decided that if I was going to get back into driving, I wanted more HP!
I knew I would also need a better way to flat tow may car to events, and the search feature on the site pointed me to rennenmetal.com for very cool tow bar. This thing just bolted right on and works great.
Click to view attachment
Also featured in this pic is the very nice new front air dam from 914rubber.com. The tow bar hooks right up with the air damn in place. Fast and easy towing!
Since I got this nice new air dam, I also wanted to install my fiberglass bumpers that came with the car but were never used. I needed advice on the correct rattle can color to paint them. Satin Black was recommended here and it was a perfect! I did the rocker panels too while I was at it...
Click to view attachment
I was also going to install some new Koni rear shocks that I had won in a raffle at the MUSR back in 2001, and thanks to this site I found out about "helper springs". I cant remember if I got them from Paragon or CFR, but they work great.
Some other stuff I got from info here:
New rubber pedal covers (914rubber.com)
Rain hats for the carbs on my new engine (914rubber.com)
Weber Tech Manual - (Amazon.com) great recommendation for a carb newbie like me
Porterfield brake pads (pmbperformance.com) properly bedded per Eric's instructions and they stop great with no squeal
Toyo RR tires (tirerack.com) Trying these out - did well the first event
Delrin Steering Coupler (CFR - still need to install this)
Bell Sport Helmet SA2010 (helmetcity.com) awesome fit!
Optima Red battery (FLAPS)
I also had my headers sand blasted and painted while I was swapping engines:
Click to view attachment
I'll put some more info up later, including the best part - my new engine!
I found this site when I was doing some research on possibly rebuilding my spare disassembled 2.0L FI engine to something a little bigger. I had been running a "stock" engine since I owned the car and I decided that if I was going to get back into driving, I wanted more HP!
I knew I would also need a better way to flat tow may car to events, and the search feature on the site pointed me to rennenmetal.com for very cool tow bar. This thing just bolted right on and works great.
Click to view attachment
Also featured in this pic is the very nice new front air dam from 914rubber.com. The tow bar hooks right up with the air damn in place. Fast and easy towing!
Since I got this nice new air dam, I also wanted to install my fiberglass bumpers that came with the car but were never used. I needed advice on the correct rattle can color to paint them. Satin Black was recommended here and it was a perfect! I did the rocker panels too while I was at it...
Click to view attachment
I was also going to install some new Koni rear shocks that I had won in a raffle at the MUSR back in 2001, and thanks to this site I found out about "helper springs". I cant remember if I got them from Paragon or CFR, but they work great.
Some other stuff I got from info here:
New rubber pedal covers (914rubber.com)
Rain hats for the carbs on my new engine (914rubber.com)
Weber Tech Manual - (Amazon.com) great recommendation for a carb newbie like me
Porterfield brake pads (pmbperformance.com) properly bedded per Eric's instructions and they stop great with no squeal
Toyo RR tires (tirerack.com) Trying these out - did well the first event
Delrin Steering Coupler (CFR - still need to install this)
Bell Sport Helmet SA2010 (helmetcity.com) awesome fit!
Optima Red battery (FLAPS)
I also had my headers sand blasted and painted while I was swapping engines:
Click to view attachment
I'll put some more info up later, including the best part - my new engine!
It’s been a great first year back at driving/working on my car after being away for so long. I thought I would update my original post and share some more information about what I did with my car this year with the help of these forums and many vendors here. I’ll start where I left off, my motor…
The new motor that I put in the car is a Raby assembled 2615cc that I bought from a local Porsche racer/collector who had it setting in one of his stock 914’s which was rarely driven – the motor had less than 1,000 miles on it. The parts for the motor were collected in 2007 from a Raby kit, and then assembled by Raby in 2009. The motor has an interesting back story, but I’ll share that another time. The bottom line is that it is a beast! So much torque, and it’s a huge change from my stock 2.0L I pulled out of the car.
Click to view attachment
After getting the new motor in, I decided to continue the upgrades – both performance and cosmetic. Forum searches were my new best friend and most everything I did was the result of information obtained here at 914World. I installed a new carpet kit, race seats, and new 5-point harnesses.
Click to view attachment
Then I decided to try the “RSR look” rattle can DIY approach to making my Fuchs look nice. It is not the quality of Al Reed / Harvey Weidman and others, but I was very happy with my work.
Click to view attachment
I read Eric Shea’s thread on 5-lug conversions many times and decided to go with the 911T front end with M-Calipers. My car had the drilled and tapped rotors, but I wanted to do it right. After I found a set in decent shape, I wound up replacing the bearings, rotors, and I put in longer studs all thanks to “how-to” threads I read here. While I was at it I put in turbo tie rods and Elephant monoballs.
Click to view attachment
I also decided to drop the muffler that was attached to my European Racing Headers and I had a muffler shop weld a flange on to a Magnaflow muffler. It gave my car a whole new sound to go along with the new look. In an effort to improve shifting, I replaced all the bushings in the linkage and put in new transmission mounts – now it shifts extremely well. I also added a few new stickers
Click to view attachment
It’s been a great year working on my car, but even more fun driving it! I made it to a few autocrosses, a Time Trial, and a DE at Motor Sport Ranch in Cresson, TX. I am looking forward to next year which will hopefully be mostly driving and enjoying the car! Thanks again to everyone who contributes to the site and to the community!
Click to view attachment
The new motor that I put in the car is a Raby assembled 2615cc that I bought from a local Porsche racer/collector who had it setting in one of his stock 914’s which was rarely driven – the motor had less than 1,000 miles on it. The parts for the motor were collected in 2007 from a Raby kit, and then assembled by Raby in 2009. The motor has an interesting back story, but I’ll share that another time. The bottom line is that it is a beast! So much torque, and it’s a huge change from my stock 2.0L I pulled out of the car.
Click to view attachment
After getting the new motor in, I decided to continue the upgrades – both performance and cosmetic. Forum searches were my new best friend and most everything I did was the result of information obtained here at 914World. I installed a new carpet kit, race seats, and new 5-point harnesses.
Click to view attachment
Then I decided to try the “RSR look” rattle can DIY approach to making my Fuchs look nice. It is not the quality of Al Reed / Harvey Weidman and others, but I was very happy with my work.
Click to view attachment
I read Eric Shea’s thread on 5-lug conversions many times and decided to go with the 911T front end with M-Calipers. My car had the drilled and tapped rotors, but I wanted to do it right. After I found a set in decent shape, I wound up replacing the bearings, rotors, and I put in longer studs all thanks to “how-to” threads I read here. While I was at it I put in turbo tie rods and Elephant monoballs.
Click to view attachment
I also decided to drop the muffler that was attached to my European Racing Headers and I had a muffler shop weld a flange on to a Magnaflow muffler. It gave my car a whole new sound to go along with the new look. In an effort to improve shifting, I replaced all the bushings in the linkage and put in new transmission mounts – now it shifts extremely well. I also added a few new stickers
Click to view attachment
It’s been a great year working on my car, but even more fun driving it! I made it to a few autocrosses, a Time Trial, and a DE at Motor Sport Ranch in Cresson, TX. I am looking forward to next year which will hopefully be mostly driving and enjoying the car! Thanks again to everyone who contributes to the site and to the community!
Click to view attachment
Sweet!
Great looking machine
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