Hello ive thought about doing this for a while but lately ive had an itch and lots of questions and little want to open 1000s of threads so here it is. Subydoo i bought a 1970 914 from a one legged guy in my home town who bought it from a crip in a neighboring city. straight off the bat i knew i was gonna ej turbo swap it.Click to view attachment

When I bought it i was told it was crip blue, this I didn't like. this picture is more of a glamour shot, someone went to town with bondo and fiberglass but on the other side. same day i bought it i began stripping down the interior, and finding rust holes . From this point i began the .

Within a month i had cut out most of the rust and got a repair panel from Pelican Parts welded it in and began sanding the car in my moms garage. Note; never sand inside EVER! it makes everything always dusty forever dont do it! Anyway i cut the fenders glassed on the flares. this part took forever but hopefully you're not as unlucky as me and find a half inch of crip bondo on your doors! (no joke)

Welcome to the Dark Side.

Or is it the side of light? My car has seen more sunlight since my Subaru swap and far less jack stand darkness. Hehe. As Kent stated " Welcome " Just be warned once you go Subaru you never go back.

I believe ive already hit the point of no return

Next the painting stage. After many days of sanding and dust filling the ground and everything the light does and doesn't touch I cleaned the garage with an air compressor and a garden hose. my street was stained blue from all the dust. I decided to paint my car at home. im not the type of person to rattle can it so i built a paint booth. i put on my custom garbage gag painting suit and started laying down the orange

Suprised you didn't paint it Blood Red!!!!
But in all serious looks like it's going to be a awesome 914 when your done.

Nice! You still have 4 months to finish & bring it down to Medford for WCR. You'll be in good 914 suby conversion company

that would show this crips!

now into the good bits; the engine! I purchased an ej205 off ebay for 1200$ with only 50,000 miles. The turbo has no shaft play and is ready for boost! This engine should be enough to kick ass at autocross, track days and the street. Ive replaced the timing belt switched over the usdm stuff and is ready to be mounted to my subaru 5 speed.

Handling: For the rear of the car I purchased bilsteins and autoX springs. All around i got 17"x7" wheels and a good set of tires for autoX. Finally on the purchased list was bmw front calipers and new front rotors. what I plan on buying is swaybars on all corners and new rear rotors.

Now finally the final catch up post:Transmission I purchased a 5 speed Subaru trans from a town far away for 60 or 80$. It was of unknown condition, found in a storage locker. I strapped it into my baja bug for the most uncomfortable hour an a half ive lived Since then it's been sitting in my garage hasn't leaked except when its upside down (lets hope that isn't ever a problem) Yesterday i got the bremar 2wd converter yesterday and i cant wait to install it because it's pretty!

That pix of the paint glowing under the light caught my eye,you should so share the paint code,a fine flake citrus,very beeyoutiful,a ton of work.

TBH the paint is burnt metallic orange from duplicilor paint shop, i liked the color too much!

You might want to save your money on the rear sway bar and spend it on adjustable perches for rear springs or the front sway. Since installing the shocks and springs for autocross the rear sway bar has been disconnected. Not needed with 200# springs.

Update: installed the bremar 2wd converter and it looks sexy! The 2wd swap was easy the hardest part was taking off the nut on the inside of the trans, nothing a little impact gun couldn't fix. all i need now is a clutch and throwout bearing +fork and the trans and engine can

What year is your transmission? I have a 1995 5mt in my conversion. I am not happy with the way it shifts. It is sloppy and the shift gates are hard to find. After a little time on the net, I discovered that pre-1998 the 5mt used an external shift return spring. I modified my coldwater 914 cable shifter to include a return spring to mimic the stock Subaru setup and I did see an improvement but it is still not great. I am now on the hunt for a replacement transmission.

I tossed the spring and mine shifts like a new one. I'm not using Ian's set up so it's difficult to compare. Have you checked the throw and shift gates on the tranny with the shifter disconnected? Should be crisp with definite detents.

its a 98-99 legacy trans, don't know much about it as I picked up for $60 no metal shavings and seems to shift easy

It is funny, the transmission shifts fine when you find the gates. It is just really hard to find them . The tranny is smooth and it makes no noise. No grinding and no whining? I am not sure I have my shift cables adjusted or hooked up correctly. It takes a lot of throw left and right to get all the gears.

I have shifted it by hand with the cables disconnected the problem is I don't have anything to compare it to. It seems fine with definite detents. I am at a bit of a loss.

Good News! I talked to ian at coldwater 914 and he said he's starting another production run in about a weeks time. So break out the radiators, antifreeze and wallets because Watercooled 914s are coming

quick update. ive been applying truckbed liner to the floor pans and interior because i don't want to deal with rust again. also i have a quick question: what do i do with the hoses on the turbo water over flow tank, theres two hoses that would normally flow into the radiator and some where else

Update!Ive finished lining the interior and floor pans. In much more cool news after many attempts, two different clutches and, two flywheels my engine and transmission are together! (kinda like pandas, many attempts to get them together) soon i will have the trans hangars from ian and a new motor mount welded in.

Looking good bud! Glad you got your clutch setup figured out. Keep it up & bring it down to WCR in a couple months

The plan is to have it done by then!

I almost forgot i also welded in radiator mounts and im in the process of mounting the radiator now

updates! my radiator is mounted, ive bent and welded some swish coolant tubes, I bought ss fuel lined from a member here cant wait his ads are under member vendors. the entire middle section of the car is truck bed lined and almost all insulated. Ive also been painting parts writing up a to do list on a piece of cardboard repainted the dash and put on vinyl as you will see in the post below!

I have done a thing! I redid the vinyl on the dash thats next to the window and it turned out pro! it cost $8 and looks pretty mint.
Step 1: get a 1' by 5' piece of marine vinyl from a craft store ( I know craft stores are foreign to car guys but trust me you wont be driving a prius by the time you get out)
Step 2: I had carpet glue for headliners and stuff, hanging around (if you don't its like $10 so you don't get to brag as hard). Spray the dash and the vinyl (the bottom side) with 3 layers of adhesive like it says on the can.
Step 3: apply the vinyl to the dash so you have a little on each side of the dash to work with.
Step 4: cut down the vinyl to shape with SCISSORS it will make a better product.
Step 5: marvel at your creation, laugh in the faces of premade things and people with inferior dashboards!

Your not going to hard mount it are you. You need some rubber at the mounts to account for flex. If not you will get cracks in your radiator & it's life won't be long.

Been a while since my last post but, the engine and trans are together! I received the trans hangars from ian and im now working on finishing the motor mounts. I have sent my axles out to get machined to what is hopefully the right length. The axles were cut down to 18 7/8" then resplined to the Subaru splines. im finishing my radiator shroud using metal from the original fenders i cut off for the widebody. I also received the muffler for my car, its a flowmaster super 10 and it's about as big as my hand, sorry neighbors.

I too bought the radiator with fans but no shroud in error. you'll probably need s shroud. I reused my renegade shroud but I am finding this radiator struggles to keep a sbc v8 at 190 degrees. as the summer temps start to rise, I expect problems I may put a fan on each wheel well opening to expedite hot air flow out of front trunk.

What cradle are you using? Are you using Ian's cradle with his transmission hanger? If so, I would like to see how you fit the engine in there. Most people who go the turbo route have to cut their trunk area.

Who did you use for your axle respine? If you are using Ian's cradle, you know exactly how long to cut your axles. I am having trouble with my angle being too excessive, so have to move the engine back another inch (which will be 3" of offset) reducing my angle down to around 12%. The maximum is 17% for the 914 CV's.

These are all problems that can be tackled in various ways. I will try flipping my manifold so I don't have to cut the trunk.

Interested to see how you tackle these problems.

i am just using ians hangars and i have the small car mounts at the front it should sit in the same spot still, im waiting to see if turbo hole is necessary

Are you saying you bought this radiator? im making a shroud right now and its not turning out too bad had a little change of plans at one point but it should work. i also have fairly big openings for exhaust air.

I now have my radiator shroud done for now. Later on im gonna properly paint it but im running out of time. Im trying to bring it to the pierce county skills center car show on the 21st of may. its on 160th and canyon in puyallup WA. The more teeners there the better. Id love to not be the only 914 there(considering i make it). Click to view attachment
Ive also been working on the shifter. i got the cable shift kit from ian at coldwater 914 and i am trying to prove that you can use the mr2 shifter and stock center console. so far so good!Click to view attachment

I've already done that

Nice!

installed radiator hose last night. it was flexible 1-1/2" hose and it fit perfect through the rack and pinion. a hole was cut and now it looks like a racecar!Click to view attachment

It has been a while and i have been busy. I now have installed the engine and i am now working on hooking everything up. Ive got some bad pics of the engine in the engine bay, but as a word of advice for all of those doing turbo engines: If you are using the stock intercooler put it on the passenger side, it makes packaging WAY easier.

Looking good. I like the placement on the intercooler. Probably about where mine will sit when I get to doing my turbo swap.

First off in the above picture i haven't cleaned up the hoses it will look way nicer. I have also completed ians cable shift install and man is it fun to bang through the gears of a stationary car!Click to view attachment Click to view attachment Another thing is i have installed the axels after having them resplined twice: a 150$ mistake But i will say this OFFICIALLY when using Subaru inner cv the axel is cut to 17 3/4" Click to view attachment

Its a good idea till u relize how close it is to the intake, packaging it that way is difficult but it will work, I used the stock mounts on the intercooler to mount it it to a piece of 1" square tubing that is welded to where the battery was.

One more hopefully awesome thing before i get back too it, because my car is low and I don't like things being ripped off, i will have my exhaust exit through the bumper, its a fiberglass one so no one is butt hurt. The exhaust is a 240z style attached to a flowmaster super 10!

It might not be the case but it looks like the tranny you have is for a non turbo car and those trannys use a lot lighter clutch from what I remember. Your car is light and 2wd so it may never be a problem. It is the old push- pull clutch arm thing. Also the turbo trans clutch slave gets real close to the floor and you didn't mention that so thats also why I thought your tranny is the non turbo one.

it is its from a 98 legacy but i got the slave from a 98 legacy on it and its fits pretty well.
it may just be how i have the engine positioned

so ive finally got my special exhaust done and its friggin cool. 110$ at austins pro max in tacoma. However tradgity struck while i was towing it, the front oassenger wheel came off but the only damage done was to the inner rim and it tore 3/4 of the flare off nothing rivits couldnt fix though, all involved were ok! back to the good stuff though the exhaust is about 2.5' long, leaving me with the certainty my neighbors will hate me more than they already do considering my other car is a straight piped bug but oh well I await their 911 calls Click to view attachment

This was the damage from the wheel falling offClick to view attachment

Holy crap it never thought this day would come but it runs! Sure it may throw 8 codes all of which are emissions related but thats ok! it totally sounds like a v8 with a huge turbo overall it was one of my greatest days in life

Nice work! Always a huge relief and adrenaline rush when it fires up.