Tore down a bit more. #4/5/6 pistons, cylinders, and heads all in equal shape to 1/2/3 that I pictured above, no terminal damage so far. To be honest, to me it looks like a pretty good rebuild by whomever did it.

Not pictured, but the chain wheels look almost new.

Went to inspect the head studs and found something...



Looks like someone installed case savers already. Judging by the fact that all of the cylinders and heads came up with no issues, I'd say they're straight. The one on the left is slightly proud of the surface, where the right one is flush.

All of the studs on this case half have them, didn't even think to flip it over and check the other side, I got called away right after I took this pic.

Again, no history on this motor. Complete unknown. So it's nice to see this when I very well could have been looking at toasted valves, heads, chains, and much more.

Hard too beat the sound and feel of the flat six.


Since your buying new pistons consider larger barrels and pistons (if possible). EBS racing at least used to have many options. When I did my motor I could have up'd the liter size by .2 for only a few hundred dollars (I was buying barrels anyways). and this will increase horsepower and overall value. Also fyi Henry at Supertec has a good oil pump rebuild program if you are doing the bottom end.

I get all my parts from Henry and he just did my oil pump as well.. Looks like you have time certs and not case savers not that it really matters. Click to view attachment my case has case savers that Henry installed.

Did you find any chunk s in the sump screen?

screen is clear of any/all chunks.

Yeah I have time serts looks like, real case savers are larger.

So, given that it's not going to be a high compression motor, I think I'll just keep these and not drill for case savers. Especially since these are all straight and no boogerage. What do you guys think?

What would be considered high compression? I have a 2.7 with what looks like time certs (look like yours), and I plan on running 9.5:1 JEs. Wondering if I can get away with these as well...

On the Carrera tensioners. When I asked my engine builder why we did not go with the oil fed tensioners he said that even though Porsche used them on the later cars rebuilding the old 930 tensioners was very low in price and that they work for a super long time.
Plus he said they are like shock absorbers and as they may go out at some time it does not just fail without some noise giving an owner a notice that they are not working right,

Now the complete failure of one of the tensioner could mean destroying you engine. I feel that I will be fine. Keep clean oil and who is going to put 150,000 miles on there 914? The last set of oil fed tensioners was $500. I guess the price keeps going up.

Bob B

Since I am far from an expert, I'd say you should either do the research and decide for yourself, or talk to someone that would actually know what they're talking about. Lots of threads on Pelican about the topic, and good ol google searching.

I would agree and to be honest on a "low" hp engine time certs or case savers just are not needed.. Now 2.7s well most need it.

I would be quite happy with what you found on the inside of this /6 engine. That looks like a nice start, and you have saved some money in that it isn't all fu*ked up like a lot of "unknown" or "it ran great when pulled" engines can be.

Looks lucky thus far. My previously rebuilt 2.7 core engine was rebuilt by someone that didn't know what they were doing.
Now I know why they didn't feel it was making the power they expected.

It'll be fixed right this time, but you should be able to reuse lots of those parts when they're cleaned up. You could always build up your case to Henry's 2.45 combo if you have budget

Case split, nothing scary!

Nothing scary but minimum $2k just to make it bolt back together again. I wonder if anyone has ever been lucky enough to put a mag case back together without needing machining. Keep up the good work.

I had read that all mag cases need machining.

I did on my last 2.7 just put bearings and and bolted back together. Ran great. Still does last I heard. Though it was out of a 60k 74 911 with no thermal reactors.

I took the easy way and had Henry rebuild my 2.7, and would follow his advice on anything with these engines. I had a Timesert pull out, so had them replaced with the Casesavers.

Be sure that the internal intermediate shaft stud is at least timecerted as well. Henry also modifies the idler arms with a longer bearing surface (like the later Carrera design) to help avoid binding of the arms. Definitely use the stop collars if you retain the original style tensioners as well.

A properly assembled 2.7 is a wonderful motor in a 914!

Henry has done all of my machine work and provided all of my parts including oil pump mod, bearings, rods, arp rod bolts, ported my heads, p&cs .. He is realistic about builds.

Initial inspection and measurement taking tonight. Made up a few sheets to keep track of measurements to compare them to spec. Also so I can note installed stud height, hole condition, presence of inserts, etc.

yes. the early cases often don't need machining. and there are ways to tighten a case so that you can bring it back to true and have the crank spin smooth. you have to tighten the case bolts a certain way. That kind of stuff isn't in the rebuild books. Its the experienced engine builders that know the tricks. A lot of the guys on Pellican just parrot what many people say about every build needing $2K of machine work. Ollie's doesn't mind.

This is very interesting. I have a 2.0 and a 2.2 long block and I was debating on selling off both to get a later aluminum case 911 motor. But my 2.0 motor may only have 25k miles on it and may not need much machining other than a reseal. I have read that putting a type 1 VW motor in an oven while torqued together can also help minimize some of the machining needed for alignment issues.

Good news! Crank journals are all perfectly in spec, almost all right down the middle.

Need to machine up an adapter to check crank runout. If that checks out then I'll find some place to inspect for cracks. Is magnaflux still the standard?

Crank to intermediate shaft gear, as well as the distributor gear. Few nicks in the soft gear, but nothing bad IMO, I'll clean it up a bit and reuse it.


All of the big end rod bearings have significantly more wear than the crank main bearings.

Rod #1


Rod #2


Rod #3 (probably the worst of them)


Rod #4


Rod #5


Rod #6


Finally, I didn't clean this part up at all but wanted to snap a pic of the cylinder markings.

Good news is that rebuilt rods are fairly inexpensive..

Ps I would not hesitate to het those cast cylinders nikisiled I did (actually Henry did) because he said by comparison I am running a much more mild engine then allot of people did. Also said stock headstuds are fine with cast cylinders.

Ok, been a long time without an update.

Picked up a new set of Micrometers, and a dial bore gauge. Micrometers measure down to .0001" and bore gauge is metric, measures down to 0.01mm.

Remeasured the crank, all measurements are verified. it's well within spec on all accounts. I will be getting it polished and magnafluxed at a local place on the recommendation of Aaron.







I machined up this bracket to hold the dial gauge, works pretty well.


Went to a local car show, man I'm glad that it's running and driving. having the 4-cyl in there is good for morale. Took some photos on the hour long drive home.

1st stop - Afton


2nd stop - St.Paul


Then I got on the road and headed for Minneapolis. While I was driving I noted that the hwy surface was terrible. At one point I looked in my mirror to see some object bouncing down the road behind me. It was headed right for a Prius, who swerved but still took it right in the kisser. Unsure if it was from the 914 or not I was pulling over to see what the damage was to their car but they just drove away... ok then. I pulled off to check out my car, nothing seemed off, must have just been some road debris that I hit.

3rd stop - Minneapolis




And that's when I noticed it. The mystery object tumbling down the highway that smacked the Prius? It was my exhaust tip. It was rusted right at the exit of the muffler and the bumpy roads must have shaken it loose. Looked back at my photos from the day.

Cornfield: it was there, in it's usual location and angle.
St. Paul: it was starting to give, tilted down.
Minneapolis: gonzo.



Started tearing down and seeing what I'm dealing with on the carbs.



From my research these Zenith 40 TINs are pretty great carbs, just not a lot of room to hop them up for more power. i.e. getting different venturies and jets might be a chore for non-stock configurations.

So I have two sets, I can mix and match parts to get one good set and return the leftovers to Aaron.

One set had a detonation through the intake which started a small fire, the venturies melt easily and a few were beyond repair. This set of carbs is complete, but in poor shape. It's also the set that came with the engine.

The second set is in much better shape, but it's not complete. I'll be rebuilding the second set, and pulling needed parts off the first set.


This brings be to something I'd been thinking about since I got the engine.


There's a constant battle between two sides of who I am. One side is saying more power, bigger pistons, forged everything, high compression, go big or go home. While I'm in there might as well do PMO carbs, and dual plug it.

The other side of me is saying to rebuild the stock engine, keep the pistons and cylinders since they're in good shape. New rings and a cleanup hone maybe, then button it all back together with new bearings and gaskets after any case work is done. I'm unsure what to do.

Going big, I'd have a really peppy motor with a ton of money into it. It'd be fast, plenty fast for the street. Realistically to build it bigger it'll be 2-3 years since I don't have a lot of cash to throw at it all at once.

On the other side, I could have a 2.2 six in there and running next spring. Sure it'd only have 125hp, but that's still a huge jump over the 4-cyl. To add weight to this option, I've always been more of a fan of driving a slow car fast. Being able to wring out a car on backroads is a blast, with lower power cars you can do that without risking tickets/arrests/lives.

I'm not really concerned with adding value to the car, at this point I think the sum of it's parts are worth more, and I don't see that changing with either build option. Plus, my wife has expressed that I'm not allowed to sell the car. Which is ok, I want to keep it around.

Started cleaning up the pistons and cylinders.


Tore down one of the heads, didn't grab any measurements but there's definitely more play in the valve stems/guides than I'd like. I assumed I would be doing valve guides and everything that goes with it but inside I secretly hoped that they'd all be tight and perfect.


Family news:

Things are pretty crazy right now. My wife's sister is moving to Maine. She had been our childcare and it was working wonderfully. She lives just a few miles from us and is right on the way to work for each of us. We did pay her, but it was much less than what a typical childcare center would charge, and we had the benefit of Wren being with someone we know and trust 100%.

She gave us 2 weeks notice. It's hard to blame her though, they need to get moved and settled before school starts for their two kids. It's just a crappy situation.

Even worse, my wife went in for an ultrasound to check on the stents. They clotted back up. This is clotting through the blood thinners, and she's been at the high end of her INR range for weeks. Just bad bad news. She'll be getting a CT scan tomorrow to see if there's anything going on that the doctors hadn't seen before. Then meeting with the hematologist later in the week to see if there are other medications or options that could stop the clotting. Praying that we don't need to do Lovenox (shots) every 12 hours for the rest of her life. She's 29 years old.

In the short term, we'll be going back in to the hospital for 2-3 days for more procedures. Many of which are the same ones she's had before, i.e. ultrasound catheter in her leg over night, sucking out clot, balooning up veins, etc. They'll check the stents and see if they need to be replaced or if they can be salvaged, and hopefully there will be some good news somewhere in there.

Baby is healthy, for the most part. She has a bit of a cold currently. We're constantly in awe of how lucky we got with her, she is a great little squirt. Awesome sleeper, super chill, and rarely has meltdowns.

Thank you all for your positive thoughts and prayers, we appreciate you.


So, back to the car/engine...

Been talking with people that have much more experience than I on these motors. Based on everything so far, I'll be bolting the case back together with the new bearings and the crank, torquing to spec and seeing how it turns. I'll only be sending it out if there is binding of some sort. I'll check bearing clearance with plasti-gauge for a little piece of mind as well. If all looks and feels good it'll get reassembled with new bearings/seals/gaskets and run as-is. I'm sure I'll get some flac from some, but that's ok. With current budgetary limitations (yay childcare!) I wouldn't have this thing built for years to come, in which time I would surely loose interest.

I'd love to stop in while your slapping it together, might learn something..

haha, don't you have the 930 turbo 914-6 with flares? I feel like I should be the one learning from you.

I'm pretty good but not great at body work, and painting, and fabricating and figuring things out and making it work. But I have never assembled a porsche engine case up, 4 or 6.So always excited to learn. Matt Johnson built my engine with Henry Schmidt of super tech consulting him on the engines unique build using offset rod bushings and such.

Running stockish 2.2 T headers and upgraded ignition,
30mm vents .
125 mains,
52 idles,
air correctors are stock,
going really well as per last tune,not hard to set up if you do bench tuning before,set up pump jets and general setting first.
You can get more power from these carbs ,lots of parts for them now too.

Edit more to add;
My research indicated these were more of a emissions carb hence the small stock venturies and matching small main and idle jets,a quick calculation got me to use 30mm venturies which are pretty much spot on for 2.2 litre capacity.
Main wear points are the spindles themselves,the bushes seem to hold up well enough,the ends of the pump rods wear in the pivots as do the throttle cam roller pins.
Be very careful with the small steel air bleed screws,if seized they can break very easily,PO of my carbs had broken one off so I had to drill it out...rather scary.
The accelerator pump spray jets can be blocked ,I found 2 were that way on my left carb,found that out when I bench tested with full fuel bowls.
Buy the PMO made float level tool as it is handy for checking bowl fuel levels and needle and seat operation.
You can pretty much buy all the parts but looks like you have a few spares ,good luck .

I've been collecting parts, i.e. all the bearings, new rod bolts, gaskets/o-rings/etc. No real work has been done on the engine otherwise.

Also been 3D modelling the engine, but I have a different thread for that.
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...=315481&hl=


I had the car out for the annual Eurowerks fall drive (Saturday) and car show (Sunday)
I put about 200 miles on the car in all and it was great.

Update time, been holding off on moving too far forward until I get a chance to 3D model the case, but I did get something done.

Swung down to a friends shop and stuck it in a big parts washer he has.



The inside is pretty clean so I stuck the two case halves in lightly bolted together.

Pic is a bit blurry, thanks potato phone, but it's mostly cleaned up now.



I'm going to go over in by hand and clean a bit more, but now it's ready for more inspection and for me to model it.

Been awhile since I've posted any project news for this, it's been cold here in MN and my garage heater isn't set up. On top of that I've had the 3D model project and the baby keeping me busy.

I've been collecting parts and planning though. New valves and springs, heads are ready to go to the machine shop to get rebuilt which will probably be next month at some point.

Also scored a set of MSDS headers. Went with the 1.625" O.D. headers. Wanted to be able to increase the displacement in the future if I want to, and these shouldn't be too big for the 2.2.



I've got the engine case half 3D models and the carb 3D models pretty much done, so that means it's getting to the point of assembly. Or at lest further checking... my next step is to assemble the crank in the case, torque, and check for binding.

Awesome score but 1.625 is going to really be large for anything less then 2.7 .. You will see that when running carbs the signal at idle will be very weak and hard to tune.. Had extensive conversations with Richard at Pmo as far as that he begged me not to sell any headers or heat exchangers to anyone running carbs on an engine less then 3.0 in displacement in 1.625 thus the reason why I started making 1.5" heat exchangers and headers.

Sorry if I am a downer..

In your experience was it 1.625 I.D. or O.D. ?

When I chose these I was discussing the size with Marty at MSDS and he didn't seem concerned with them on a 2.2.

Tubing is always measured O.D. so 1.625 O.D.

It will run just fine above 2k but below you will run into issues.. Factory heat exchangers for a 911 are 1.5 O.D. from 65-74 and ssis were the same for a reason. Even the larger 3.0 and 3.2 ssi sets ups were 1.5 o.d. that though was because thats what John from the original ssi had on hand..

Personally have built and sold 1000s of exhaust over the years and semi recently learned of the signal issues after PMO called about issues with one of my customers set ups. He was running a hot 2.4 with PMOs and couldn't get it to idle right after multiple jets, venturies, emulsion tube changes Richard par was stumped amd called me up all kinds of upset. This was with 1.625 OD. We then switched the customers set up yo 1.5" and everything tuned perfect..

Just trying to save you some frustrating moments..

Thanks for the feedback, I have some messages out to a couple people on the issue. Might need to exchange these since they haven't been mounted or coated yet.

edit: heard back from Aaron over at Flat Six, the guru I try to run everything through. He agrees that 1.625 is probably too big. Now to see what Marty thinks and if I can swap these. I'm guessing I'll have to pick up the shipping charge both ways, so that sucks...

Sorry about the bad news and ruining your day.. And sorry about the expense of shipping..

Looks like I'll be holding onto these until the engine is in and my tuner gets a crack at it, if it's bad I can send them back and exchange for a set of 1.5's.

I agree with your engine builder.
Use the 930 part number tensioners plus safeties and
you'll be safe and secure.
Ask him about the later chain idlers with the wider support.
They provide an additional insurance.

Update: Today I went out and did a test assembly of the case, bearings, and crank. The goal was to see if the crank would turn freely while the case was bolted together and torqued. Unfortunately it looks as if my case falls into the same category of so many other mag cases. The crank turned smoothly at initial torque of 15lbft. But when brought up to 25lbft it would not. For referenced the case and bearings were clean, light smear of regular engine oil on the bearing surfaces.

So it looks like I'll be saving more and then sending it out to Ollies.


On the bright side, the type 4 1911 is still there and should run fine this season. And I have everything to do a side shift trans swap to bring the driving enjoyment up a bit.

2.4 crank and rods.

I am sorry to hear that..

It's ok, it's what so many had said would be the case so I can't say it was a big surprise. At least now I'll know that it's all set when I do put it together. Again, I'm glad I didn't start stripping down the 914 and selling off the type-4. It'll be a strong runner for this season.

My experience is that main bearing bores ovalize and that is what squeezes the crank when torquing. Ollies will mill the case split line and rebore the main bosses. They will then measure the deck heights and will provide spacers to correct the cylinder heights back to factory. Very slick and puts you back at square one for the rest of the build.

Thought I should update the thread.

I got my heads back from the shop, seats were virgin so that was nice. New valves, guides, seals. Springs were low mileage units I had found else ware, all were checked and were within spec. He had one exhaust stud that he had to drill/replace.

I love new parts.



So now is where I am supposed to start saving for the case work, except I already had a few other things in the pipeline for the 914 so I'm finishing these off.

First things first, the front end needed a bit of an uplift. I liked the LE style front valence, and the non-foglight grills I had were warped badly. I found a page detailing the use of modern driving lights in place of the OE fog lights. It was good on my wallet so I went through with it.

Fit and finish isn't the best, but acceptable for a driver. Light output will be far greater than what I had. They are driving lights, so much brighter than fog lights. I will be aiming them so that they don't blind people.

LE replica valence is of great quality. I had to drill the mounting holes of course but it all lined up pretty well. Quick shot of satin black to tie it all in.





After that I pulled the meatballs (roundells, number dots) off. they were ok for a season but I wasn't feeling them anymore.

This bumper has seen far better days. New, or even good condition used bumpers are out of my price range with the 6 build going on. So I'll either leave it as-is, or I may try to pound out some of the dents and then paint it gloss black... project for another time I think.


Next on the list is the side-shift trans swap. Rudedude set me up with just about all of the parts I needed. Ordered a couple soft parts since I was going to be in there anyway and I needed the conversion bushing. I got it all stripped down and was ready to start reassembly and that's when I discovered that the new conversion bushing I had ordered was the wrong part. I looked online where I ordered it and sure enough it's listed as a part for an early-late transmission conversion. Turns out it's just a stock replacement for an early car... so a new one is ordered and should be here this week.

The trans and bar are in at least. I'll be rebuilding the axles with new boots and grease, and might try to do something about my muffler.



All in all, R&R of the transmission with the engine and exhaust still in place was easier than I anticipated. Using just a floor jack. To help line up the drive splines I grabbed both of the axle flanges and turned them back and fourth the same direction while simultaneously pushing the trans to the engine. Snicked right into place on the first try.

This weekend I am going to try and finish the swap and get the car tuned up. Might make it out to a local swap meet for another project of mine... a 2007 VW Passat...


Finally, next on the list is a new set of vinyl for the roll bar. It's been sitting in a box just waiting for it to be warmer. I have some new chrome trim I'll be mixing and matching with what I have to get the best possible set.