I have seen pictures of one car who went out the floor of the front trunk.

Several have gone out the hood. Out the hood seems to be the best method in my mind, from the perspective of aerodynamics at least. The wheel well method is usually chosen because it is proven and requires the least work. A hood vent requires a lot more fabrication...

-Tony

True...cutting out a hole in the fender well and trimming it out is easy. Only takes a few minutes, especially if you have a Plasma cutter to play with.

I'm in no hurry with the 2nd car, and I don't mind if I destroy the hood that's on it. I may give it a shot.

Ed aka W9R1

In general you want to take air from an area with high pressure and vent it to an area with low pressure. Right in front of the bumper is very high, and the front of the wheel well is very low. So these places make good sense. Below the car is generally somewhat high, but it can be reduced by adding a front air dam. Generally, that's a BAD idea for a 914, 'cause you want high pressure under the car to help with cooling. For a watercooled car it should work okay.

I've toyed with the idea of a trunk floor exit, since my trunk floor is mostly gone (car used to have A/C). But right now I'm leaning towards copying what Tony did.

It may be hard to see where you're going when you have a coolant leak.

I would think an air dam would do the same for the air pressure in the frontas the plastic air flaps do in the rear.

Ed, I'm with you on the hood idea. Not sure if you remember me but I got a quick ride with you at SEMA this past year when we all met at Renegade before dinner one night. Anyway.... my plan is still a combination of hood and inner fender vents to release air from the radiator.

(first pic) Example of my hood vents... they will require about a 1" lip that raises up around the leading edge to create a better low pressure zone.

(second pic) Instead of an open trunk to use as a big plenum for all that hot air, the plan is to create ducting that moves the air directly to the vent openings both top and bottom.

enough hijacking... if you wish to discuss this any further I have a progress / regress thread going, just search mrdezyne, suby, progress....

Sure I remember. Any thoughts/design on the ducting?

Ed aka w9R1

ok, one more tidbit on the floor idea. There is a member here on the board that has put the radiator in the floor and pulls air from under the car and exits out the fender wells. From what he states, it keeps his V8 nice and cool and has never had any problems... Anyone know who this is?

tony,

With your coolant tank, did you leave the top nipple open or did you end up installing a hose and connecting it else where? Just wondering, couldnt tell from the pictures.

thanks,
Andrew

Since I re-did the cooling system I ended up capping off the top nipple. Otherwise it wouldn't hold pressure...

-Tony

hi tony i have been reading your thread with a lot of interest i want to do a suby conversion on my 73 2.0 liter i already have the engine a 2.5 from a low miles 04 imprezza i would like to know how your car drive can you drive it evererday more like a modern car . iam concern you mention that next time you would go with the motor and the transmission do you have driveability problem with the stock trans also i was a bit disapointed with the fact that you moved the rad in the front maybe i wont have the temperature problem here in canada the wheater is colder a lot of vanagon run suby engine with the rad on the back bumper without problem. keep on the good work and the post comming

Only problem I can see with hood vents on the top is you lose front trunk space. I don't know about you guys, but I like having some front trunk space. I guess there's always the option of fabbing up something that blows out the sides of the hood behind the headlights... At least then you can keep some front trunk space.

I drive my 914 every day. In the full year that I have had the conversin done, only recently did I have a problem. When I did the engine installation I had neglected to replace a missing connector housing for the crankshaft position sensor. Eventually the sockets loosened up and I had ignitino problems. Since I replaced the housing it has run perfectly. So yes, this car is super reliable, much more so than with the stock (albeit unmaintained) engine.

Keeping the radiator in the engine bay is possible, and others have done it. Maybe I just needed a better radiator, or some minor tweaks.

The onyl reason I would go with a Subaru transmission is that the gearing is probably a little better, and its a heck of a lot cheaper to replace/rebuild than a 901 transmission.

Tony

On the reliability note... If you follow proper maintenance on a Type 4 and don't flog it like a red-headed stepchild, it will last quite a while.

Now, if you want reliability, go-fast fun and to shave a few pounds... Subie or Turbo-Subie is one of the best ways to go

hi guys thanks for the reply tony you convince me i start collecting parts for the conversion i will keep you post on the progress martin

If using renegades kit, how much additional fabrication did it take? Did you use the Suby trans and how did you solve the axle/cv problem?

I'm interested in using the stock ECU, a cat, an a 2.5l WRX motor with uses the DBW throttle vice a throttle cable. Do you see problems with that?

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=40733

see above

jim

--

It would seem to me that dumping that air to the fender wells would have the added benefit of cooling the front brakes.

I realize the air coming out of the radiator is warmer than the ambient air, but is it cool enough to cool brakes?

Tony,

Wat sup? did those lenses get finished? No hurry, they are sooo down on my list...

Well, there is some news to report. I think my starter motor finally gave up the ghost today. I had been using a normal old 914 starter for my motor and it has always had a hard time starting. The EJ25 has a 10:1 compression ratio to it takes a fair amount of torque to turn it over compared to the stock 1.7 motor. SO this weekend it looks like I'll be underneath the car for the first time in quite a while. I'm probably going to put in a high torque geared starter this time.

-Tony

Tony, my EG33 engine conversion, out of an SVX, is also 10:1 compression and I've found the high-torque starters to be necessarry. The $115 Evilbay ones work fine, just don't last very long. I had to shim my Evilbay ones, but some have reported they haven't needed to. Quality control?

I finally got exhaust pipes installed! Until now, exhaust had been exiting underneath the trunk. Now it exits near the license plate. I haven't seen an exhaut like this on a 914. It almost remind me of the exhaust on a VW bug!

-Tony

NICE!

I think it's great that you have followed this through from begining to end (never finished)

I looked acouple of times through the posts, I have not seen a current sound bite (U tube) to hear the exhaust with mufflers. What kind of mufflers did you go with.

a sound bite of inside the car driving around, top on and off would be great.

I have accumulated all parts during winter and I am now ready to do my 04' 2.5L Subi swap into a 74' 914 with side shifter trans.

Thanks

Westgl

I will definitely do some videos shortly! The mufflers are whatever generic thing the muffler shop had, probably some kind of flowmaster or equivalent.

Good luck with your conversion!

Hey Tony!!! I just got my car started last weekend!

Anyways, I just wanted to see how your car was doing, and if you had changed anything or had any problems. Also thought I would bump your thread up to the top in case there is anyone who hasn't read your insanely in-depth project thread. Let us know how she is running.

-Peter

Tony,

What did you end up using for the starter? You left us hanging.

Hope it's running well.

-- brett

have some videos you would like to share?


car looks great.

You did notice the last previous post was 8 years ago right?

Wasn't this covered in a Sandbox thread?!