It is a very finished car down to having AC. He used a 380V Tesla AC compressor that is mounted in the smuggler's hole in the front trunk. AC is almost a necessity in this part of the world, especially the past few days. It has good headlights, good brakes, and he had all of the stock 911 gauges re-programmed to work with the electric motor. The temp gauge shows the motor temp, the fuel tank gauge shows remaining charge, etc. He lives about 50 miles from the show site which was the longest drive for he car to date.

The body shop guy had the car this week to do a final polish on the paint, to have 3M invisible bra installed and the windows tinted. Matt picked the car up Friday and left his 700hp 1979 El Camino at the shop. Yesterday, he and his 18 year old son Garrett went to pick up the El Camino in the 911. On the way back, he let his son drive the Porsche. When they came up to a stop light, Garrett slotted the 911 into the opposite lane, and looked over at his dad with this huge grin on his face. Matt tried valiantly with the El Camino, but the 911 left the him in the dust.

And the saga continues. Last week I visited John and found that nothing had been done on the engine. More excuses. Today I performed an intervention and brought everything home!! I hooked up my utility trailer to my Audi Allroad to haul the engine and transmission. Everything else went inside in various tubs. A call to AAA soon had a roll-back there to take the car to my house. The car had been at John's for five months!!!

















Once I decided that I wanted to do this I began thinking about where I was going to take the motor. Because of the fuel injection I wanted someone working on it who understands that system. The obvious choice would have been Richard Clewett but California is a long way from North Carolina.

Then I remembered talking with my 40 year plus buddy about his PCA race car while we were in Florida this past winter. He has basically this identical motor in his car with Richard's injection system. And it was built by a 30 plus year friend in Elkhart, Indiana. I called my friend with the race car to see if my other friend was still building motors. Turns out he had just rebuilt the race car motor this past spring. And I also discovered that my engine builder friend had built another engine with this configuration for another friend of mine.

So I called my engine builder friend. After some get acquainted talk, we got down to business. At one time he was the lead technician at the local Porsche dealership. That job was followed by him owning an independent Porsche repair shop. When I lived in Indiana, he used to come over to help me on projects and taught me much of what I know. In 1989, he built a 944 motor at my house that I ran in a track car for five years, followed by my son having that car for another four years. Never had a bit of trouble with that motor.

His path to working on cars began with the vocational school he attended while in high school. That vocational school had asked him for some advice and he ended up volunteering there while had he his independent business. One day the school asked if he would be interested in becoming an instructor. He wasn't making all that much money with his shop and the new job came with great benefits. He has been there for fourteen years now...and loves it.

He was more than willing to build the motor. And then he asked if I would be OK with him using the motor in his classroom. He has eight seniors this year who would be thrilled to work on a Porsche motor. My friend would be overseeing them to make sure everything was correct. I agreed. He is very excited about his kids working on the motor as it isn't likely they would be working on this type of motor in their future careers. They normally build a small block Chevy so this would be quite different.

I am taking the car and motor to him next Monday. We are leaving on a nearly two month motorhome trip just before Labor Day so they can work on it while I am gone. This won't be a quick turnaround but the motor will be with someone that I trust. While he is working on the motor, my other friend will be storing the car in one of his buildings. I just may get this thing back together!

My boat guy who was going to apply new gelcoat to the fan shroud also did not work out. John owes me some money and, as partial payment, he gave me a fan shroud. I drilled out the rivets and painted the shroud and the metal part separately.





The carburetor hats had a few scratches before I took it to John. There were a few more when I got them back. Nothing terrible but enough that I blasted them and took them ot my powder coater yesterday. I picked them up today with a cost of $20.




The fins on the alternator housing were rusty. After doing some sanding, I painted them with a high temp paint.




I did an inventory yesterday and found that the only part that was missing was the band that retains the fan. I drove over to John's this morning and got it. Now that it was apart, I blasted it and painted it gold.



Now all I have to do is pack everything to prepare it for transporting in the truck next Monday.

Hope it works out for you, at least you pulled the trigger and got your stuff back.

BTW, who's cabinets did you use for your workbench.

Those cabinets are from Harbor Freight. They have held up well. They have these on sale from time to time.


https://www.harborfreight.com/tool-storage-...inet-64165.html

I am sure your new path will work well. Marty will do a great job!

Isn't it amazing how many miles this car has traveled without even being assembled.

Let me know when you plan to go for a test drive and maybe I can stop by and catch a quick ride to celebrate.

All the Best,
Ed

I have an update. As a refresher, the engine came out of a Euro Carrera and began as a 3.0 liter. Marty told me to order a SC basic rebuild kit with standard bearings. I also ordered ARP studs and rod bolts. When Marty began to assemble the bottom end, he discovered the bearings were too small. This is the bearing that came in the kit.



This is the bearing that was in the motor.







I bought the kit from Vertex. After getting together with Vertex's owner, he and Marty came to the conclusion that the engine, while a 3.0 liter, had 2.7 rods. Marty knew there were some differences between the Euro Carrera motor and a SC motor, but did not know about the rod issue. The Euro 3.0 has the aluminum case rather than the magnesium case of the 2.7. Marty now has the correct bearings.

When Marty inspected the pistons, he discovered one had bolt thread marks on the top of the piston where a bolt had been squeezed between the piston and the head. I did read where the guy who built the motor dropped a bolt into the engine and had to disassemble the part of the motor to get to it. Evidently the engine was hand cranked before the bolt was removed. Marty also noticed that it appeared the cylinders had been honed. He is concerned that the Nikasil lining had been compromised.

The pistons and cylinders were sent to EBS. This is their assessment.

"Just a quick note to let you know that we have received your pistons and cylinders. The JE pistons are very old. No job number stamped on the inside of the piston. Without the job number it's impossible to know exactly what they are. JE has significantly improved their 911 air cooled pistons and ring pack since then. I would recommend going with a new set of JE pistons 98mm 9.5:1CR. They will be correct for the application, a slight bump in compression ratio for a bit more performance, coated piston skirts and lightweight wrist pins. Cylinders have had something done to them. I would recommend plating the cylinders to make sure that everything is 100% correct. They might be within spec but I do not know what process they used to hone the cylinders. We can have them inspected and measured, cost is $100/set. Attached is a copy of your quote. Let me know if you have any questions. If you would like us to measure and inspect the cylinders allow 7-10 days."

I will be calling EBS later today to give them some money. And that is where I am at to this date.

Never give up.

Pretty sure those were 9.5 / 1 pistons. Funny thing is I'm pretty sure the pistons and the cylinder work was done by/through EBS, but that was all arranged by the customer. Unfortunately I don't have any records for that build.

early euro 3.0 used 2.7 crank and rods,,,Very desirable engine case for the guys who want to build short stroke engines , 66mm crank..direect fit...6 bolt flywheel aposed to the usa 78- 8 bolt ,

I'm told the trick is to have good flywheel bolts and then over torque them so they stay tight.

all cylinders can be honed , but each type reguires a different method, hone marks in the cylinders , in nycasil is good ok....EBS is great but as you see they outshop the work

I'm pretty sure they send it to US Chrome.

I've always wondered if it was US Chrome or Millennium Tech. Interesting.

engine runs no power, odd vacum ..right cam was 180 out of time

Btdt

When John had the car, he supposedly checked the cam timing and said it was correct.

I had a message from the engine builder that the main bearings were also different from a SC motor. The incorrect ones have been exchanged.

Yes,,, just 180 out....main bearings,, yes ,,early rare 3.0 case...

Covid-19 update.

At least for now, the school where my friend works is having students back in class next week. The heads have been sent out to be redone. Once everything is back, the plan is to finish up the engine build. As part of their training, the class will install the motor and tranny. They now have a dyno at the school. Once it is back in the car and running , my friend will tune the car on the dyno.

As we all know with this pandemic, nothing is certain. If they have issues and transition to online learning, my friend will finish the build on the motor. I will probably head up there to help him install the drivetrain and we will put it on the dyno to tune it.

@jerhofer any updates?

Covid-19 strikes again. About two months ago, Marty and I decided that we should have the heads ported to 46mm and have them done. To that end, we sent the heads to EBS. EBS uses a local machine shop that had a number of Covid-19 cases. Enough that they had to shut down to protect the rest of their employees. They were shut down for quite while and are now just getting back to work. They were already behind from an earlier state wide shutdown and are now further behind. Last week we were told it would be 4-6 weeks.

The good news is that Marty's school has been relatively Covid-19 free and they are attending classes. They are assembling as much of the motor as they can.

I have certainly learned patience with this car!!!

I did buy a one owner, 79K mile, 1989 944S2. As I have seen before with cars with long time ownership, some deteriorating items are not noticed as they deteriorate so slowly over time. I just finished installing new motor mounts and new struts and shocks. I also replaced the cam chain guides and the timing belt. And I have actually driven it!!!!

There wasn't room to open the ports to 46MM. The max would have been 43mm. It would have cost about $1500 to open up the ports. Since I am not building a race motor, I asked Jon at EBS whether the gain in HP would be worth the additional cost. He didn't think it would, so we are leaving the ports at 40mm. We finally got the heads back the first part of January.

So Marty was all set to proceed. And then things turned around in a hurry. Marty's wife had a bout with cancer about five years ago. She was due for her annual checkup back in November but, due to COVID, that checkup did not happen. She was feeling poorly the first part of January with back issues. They saw a doctor who thought she had a slipped disc and was medicating for that. But her health deteriorated to a point that Marty took her to the emergency room last month. The cancer had come back and her kidneys were shutting down. Three days later she passed. As you can imagine, the last thing on Marty's mind is building a motor. And that is the last thing I am concerned about as well. I feel so sorry for Marty. He was devastated.

Better news is that my son has taken a new job. He has worked for Toyota Racing Development for the past 10 years with his latest promotion was to head of vehicle dynamics. About a year ago, he was approached by a head hunter. Great Wall Motors, located in Baoding, China, primarily builds SUV's and trucks. They want to get into racing and were looking for someone to build a racing program from scratch. Matt was their choice and, had it not been for COVID, he might have moved to China last spring. They are paying him big bucks and furnishing him with an apartment.

As it was, he flew out of Charlotte to LA on January 24th where he had to pass a COVID test before flying to a port city in China. He then was quarantined for 14 days in a government owned hotel. After he flew from that city to Baoding, he had to quarantine for another 21 days in another government owned hotel!!! They are super serious about COVID in China!

Last week was his first week of work!! He is very excited about the opportunity to build a race program from scratch. Long days as they go in at 8:30 and leave around 8:30 in the evening. However, they do have nap time in the afternoon. There are mats spread out and everyone lies down. He said it reminded him of kindergarten but it is refreshing. He says the people are super nice and very polite. So far, so good.

We visited with him just before he left and the told me that I was not to sell the 914 until I gave him a chance to buy it. He has always loved 914's and wants to own the car. His contract is for three years with renewal options, so it will be awhile before he is back. So no pressure to finish the car.

Very sorry to hear about Marty's wife, may she rest in peace and hopefully he will take comfort that she is not suffering. Horrible way to go.

Great news re your son and his new job in China. Sounds like a dream job. He will hopefully be home before you know it- 3 years can fly.

My good friend Dave and I both turned 75 abut three weeks apart this spring. One of Dave's two sons bought four tickets to the vintage races at Road America and rented a four bedroom house. They asked me to be the fourth person. As you can imagine, I said yes to that proposition. That all happened this past weekend and we had a great time. We also bumped into our old friend Ben whom we had not seen for some time.

After accepting, I called Marty to let him know I would be in Indiana and wondered how he was coming on the motor and if I could be of assistance while I am there. He said he was close on the motor and that I should bring work clothes.

This morning we picked up the car from my friend Harry's building and took it to the Elkhart Career Center. I hooked up the alternator and installed the other shroud wiring. Marty then did the cam timing. We are meeting tomorrow morning to button up the motor and may put it in the car if all goes well. Progress!!


Click to view attachment Click to view attachment Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

We have the engine all buttoned up. We were about to remove it from the engine stand when we noticed the pilot bearing was missing from the flywheel. It must have been knocked out when the flywheel was removed at John's shop. I needed to get back to NC. Marty is ordering one. His students will be there in a couple weeks and he will have them help him with the grunt work of attaching the tranny and installing everything in the car.

My wife's mother passed last December and, because of Covid, we did not have a service. Sharon's sister has organized a memorial on Labor Day weekend. We will be traveling to Indiana in the motorhome so I will be able to check everything out then. Hopefully, it will be running. But, if the past three years have taught me anything, it is to not assume!!

These are some photos taken when the motor was apart by Marty.

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Since I've been absent since before this thread started, read through the whole thing. Wow! What a story!

Looks like a happy ending is in sight. Keep at it, so close!

Man, I am so looking forward to seeing this car on the road and you with a huge smile on your face.

As an aside, Marty has built one other motor for me. Way back in 1989, I bought a 1983 944 with the intent to make it a track car. It had 89,000 miles. After prepping the suspension and doing other things to make it track ready, my wife and I drove it that first year. At Blackhawk in Rockford, IL, one of the turns had a high curb on the outside. I got a little wide and straddled that curb. That resulted in wearing off some of the fins on the oil pan.

That winter I decided to replace the oil pan. However, the only way to get it off was to take out the motor. Marty helped me do that in my garage in MIddlebury, In. Since I did not have any records or much history on the car, once we pulled the pan, we did check out the bottom end. At this point, the while we have it out syndrome, hit. We decided to pull the head to check out the head gasket. One thing led to another and ultimately we decided to rebuild the motor.

I did the grunt work of removing the accessories and cleaning everything. It remained stock but Marty did make sure everything was exactly on spec during assembly and I did have the crank balanced and magna-fluxed. The result was a smooth, strong running 944. In fact it was strong enough to have someone question that it was stock.

In 1991, my friend Phil, who had a 928, and I decided to club race. This was the first year of club racing. The second club race was held at Summit Point. Neither of us had ever been there but we were game to race. I drove there pulling my 5x7 trailer with track tires, tools, fuel, lawn chairs, etc.

Come qualifying time, I was on the pole by 1.5 seconds for the class that the 944 ran in. As it was my first time racing, I predictably screwed up the start and finished third.

The next race was at Pocono. I had never been there either and would not go back as I did not like the course. However, i did again qualify on the pole for my class by 1.5 seconds. After qualifying, a fellow racer from Vermont, who was racing a 1987 or 1988 924S, approached where we were pitted and proceeded to accuse me of having a cheater motor. My wife was incensed at this accusation.

I asked him what made him think that I had a cheater motor. He replied that at both Summit Point and Pocono I was pulling him on the straight. So I asked him what, besides horsepower, determines the speed at the end of a straight. He answered correctly that it would be entry speed onto the straight. My reply to him was that, during practice when I was following him, I had to lift at both of those entry corners as he was going through them much slower than I was. So, I replied, before you accuse someone of having a cheater motor, you might want to learn how to drive your car better. (There might have been a four letter word in that reply!!)

While my wife never raced, she and I drove that car for five years at six or seven events per year. She was usually only a couple seconds slower than me so the car had a lot of fairly intense track time. When we were finished with it, my son drove the car for another four years. Due to time and money constraints (has had just graduated from college), he only did a couple track events but he drove it much harder on the street that I did. Neither of us ever had the first issue with that motor.

So I feel very confident that this will be a strong and durable motor in the 914.

https://jerryforthofer.files.wordpress.com/...ith-trailer.jpg

Progress!!

I got this message from Marty this afternoon. Today was the first day on the dyno.


"The preliminary pulls so far are 252- 255 RWHP"

I am feeling good about those figures. Should be sufficient in a 2200 lb. car. He says if you jump on it in second gear, it will break the tires loose. He says it is quick!!

It's been a slow process this fall getting to this point. Marty was having a starting issue. The computer showed a crank fire fault. While Marty could not see anything physically wrong, he speculated that when the engine was pulled at John's shop, they may have forgotten to unhook the crank sensor. That could have damaged it internally. I called Richard Clewett to order one and discovered that this is another part affected by the general shortage of parts. He sent one as soon as he received one. This time it is a Hall Sensor so it had to be wired to a 12V ignition source as well as to the computer.

Since Marty is a teacher, teacher stuff also entered the equation. Like a week off for the kids, parent teacher conferences, etc. While the progress has been slow, I trust Marty and feel everything will be done correctly. They have a dyno at the career center, which is handy!! The guy who runs the dyno owed Marty a favor, which is why the car has been placed on it.

Marty has promised to take a video of a dyno run. I will share that when I have it.

Great to hear progress has been made. What a journey..

Earlier in this thread, I mentioned that my son had taken a job in China to start a racing program from scratch. He had been there about fourteen months when he decided he did not feel comfortable being in China due to the current world situation. TRD, his previous employer, had been wooing him to come back, and that is what he decided to do. He had some issues getting out of China due to Covid lockdowns, but, with the help of one his Chinese employee, was able to make a run for it to a smaller airport where he could fly to Singapore and then home. He got back late last week.

Marty had been having starting issues with the 914, to the point that it would not start al all. Once I knew Matt was home, I arranged to have the car shipped to Matt's house, as he is buying the car. The transporter picked it up on this past Monday, it arrived at Matt's house on Tuesday and yesterday he sent me this video.


https://discord.com/channels/@me/6703677223...403439910092890

As you can see, he got it running in a couple days.

Bad fuel was the main issue. He used his fuel injector tester to make sure all of he injectors were working properly. While doing that, he did not notice a strong fuel odor. I had only put about four or five gallons in it prior to taking it to Indiana. So that fuel was old and probably accumulated some water as well. Marty did add fuel to it but probably not enough to dilute the bad fuel. He also found one cylinder was cold. It was getting spark. He pulled the injector plug off and the idle did not change a bit. He put it back on and wiggled it and the revs increased. He pulled on the yellow wire and it came right out of the injector. He replaced the plug and it is now running on all six cylinders. Now he can begin tuning it.

Matt has always loved 914's so this is his dream car. Unlike me, he keeps his cars for very long times!

We are currently in Bryce Canyon, UT at the national park in our motorhome. We left on April 12th and will be home at the end of this month. I may actually get to drive it then!!

That video link may not work unless you log in to Discord. This Youtube link should work.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Rzov319xQws?feature=share

Sounds so sweet.

Matt went over to our house today to pick up some 914 parts. I had the targa bar trim refinished but it won't go on until we are finished working in the engine bay. I also had a carburetor synchrometer that Matt is going to use to check that the throttle bodies are all the same. I had some custom heat shields made for the exhaust. He picked those up as well.

So progress is being made!!

Loving that flat six sound

Matt, with the help of son Garrett (who just graduated with his bachelor's in computer science), have been fine tuning the car. When I installed the jWest shifter and rods (three years ago, believe it or not), I was having a problem engaging all the gears. I could adjust it to get third but not fifth or I could get fifth but not third. John Forbes worked on this as well but he also had the same issues. So he yanked the jWest gear out and installed a stock shifter...and still had the same problem!! Upon further investigation, he discovered that I had used too long a seat belt bolt on the inner belt for the passenger seat. The shift rod was hitting the bolt, thus impeding the throw. The jWest shifter never made it back into the car at that time.

Fast forward to the past week when Matt has finally been able to drive the car. The shifter was beyond terrible. Matt discovered a defective bushing. When that helped but was still not what he was looking for, he went over to my house and picked up the jWest shifter assembly. After receiving one bushing that had gone missing, he got the shifter installed...and was still having the third/fifth gear issues. He solved it be taking some metal of the bottom of the shifter so he would have more throw. Now it is staying engaged in all gears and is shifting about as well as a 914 can shift!!

Click to view attachment

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Now that he had the shifter working, Matt could get on with the process of tuning the motor with the computer. To that end, he and Garrett took drives with Matt running the engine in various RPM ranges while Garrett monitored the computer. Matt sent me this video. I apologize for the wind noise but you will get the idea.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sriFx7jmTT...iew?usp=sharing

I will be home at the end of next week. Can't wait to drive it.

Matt said the engine was getting some blow by so he installed a puke tank.

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Sounds great! Love the sound of carbs.

Nice to hear that engine scream. Quick.

It may look like carbs, but those are PMO throttle bodies with electronic fuel injection. The goal was to have it look like carbs when one looked into the engine bay.

We will be home tomorrow but Matt has been steadily working on the car. Here are some of the comments that he recently sent me.


"Garrett and I tuned some more on the car. We found that the wide band ego sensor calibration was wrong. We fixed that and it is running better and better.

Garrett is a big fan of the car now since he drove it.

Targa bar chrome is on. We also replaced the left side header gaskets. The exhaust tick is gone!"

I had sent that trim out to have it re-finished. It looked better than new.

Click to view attachment

Car looks amazing!

Indeed- that is a great shot.

Car of the month winner? Not a real 6 but looks nice.


Matt
Pro American energy.

I bought pretty much all new trim for my 914 after paint. It was a good investment. Your 914 looks amazing!

After four long years, I finally got to drive the 914 today! It was fantastic. The motor runs strong and smoothly throughout the rev range. It handled well and rode surprisingly well. And it sounds fantastic with the BB exhaust!!

The only negative is the shifter, which may just be a 914 thing. It has been a long time since I last drove a 914. The jWest shifter isn't very sloppy but the engagement is tricky. It is a fresh transmission and it feels like the synchros are very tight. Maybe some use will free it up a bit. Ed had gears installed such that you can take off in second gear. His purpose was to reduce the stress on the weak first gear. I didn't drive it for a long distance, so some of the awkwardness might go away with familiarity.

Matt has some plans for the interior as he is not fond of the light gray. He is thinking some sort of brown leather with matching door panels. He was very satisfied with the work done on his 911 Tesla and will be taking the car to their shop to see what can be done.

I will be storing the car for Matt in the near future. He and his son are going to install a LS1 engine in Garrett's 1987 944. They are accumulating the necessary parts and he will need some room for assembly. They are coming over this weekend for a cookout and he may bring the car at that time.

I was told by our expert trans rebuilder that a fresh trans rebuild can take a couple hundred miles to smooth out.

@jerhofer - First, your car looks amazing and I absolutely love it. I am so glad you got to drive it. There is nothing like the first drive.

I had the same issues with my RennShifter. I had a fresh transaxle rebuilt by Dr. Evil and the shifting was tight. Took effort to shift the car. Yes, I am old, but when Jim (Banananose) drove the car he said it was tight too. He suggested putting the stock shifter in it. Of course I would not hear of it. I believed it was just tight due to a fresh rebuild and would loosen up...

Over the next 6K miles I fought the shifter constantly. I had it adjusted by a RennShifter "Pro" recommended by JWest. It was a bit better but still tight. He had another completely fresh built car in his shop with a RennShifter and I sat in it and it shifted just like mine. He said, "That's how they shift".

The big change came when I had Hollerans Performance look at it and drive the car. John pulled the rear shift rod out of the car and made a new one from scratch, eliminating one joint. He then adjusted the mount on the transaxle to an ideal angle. Then he looked at the RennShifter and adjusted that- it was way off. Then he drove the car and declared it "done". It was so much better now that I considered calling it done too. However, in the back of my mind was Jim telling me to put the stock shifter in the car...

Fast forward about 2 months later and I had the stock shifter arm welded to a Weltmesiter short-shift (side-shifter) kit installed in the car and it is perfect. Added bonus, my hand throttle is back. Real bonus plus, it looks 100% stock.

If my car did not appear so stock I likely would have left the RennShifter in place as it did shift nicely once dialed in. The moral to the story, work through all of the linkage/bushings and look at the RennShifter rear mount on the transaxle to make sure it is at an ideal angle to eliminate any binding. Shifting should be enjoyable, not a chore.

I passed this on to my son. Thanks.