Another milestone today.

I had the car professionally aligned. I say professionally because pros get paid and have nicer tools. That's something I haven't had done in probably 15 years. I guess it's a pride thing.

The best thing is that it confirms that the car is square. Yeah, I don't get enough neg camber up front, but that seems to be pretty common. I have some ideas on that.

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I love this car and was so glad to see it back on the road.

Thank you, that's the plan!

Actually I updated my signature to that effect.

Come and see the car (unfinished as it is) and me at WCR 2019

Buy my parts! I'll bring them to WCR. (Oh, nevermind, I just realized who you are. My parts aren't worthy of your awesome build)
but the rest of you,,, Buy my parts!

Yeah, I'm trailering. I can't convince my wife to go 20 miles in the 914 much less 1400.

............what an effort!

Well another major goal accomplished.

Unless you were living under a rock (or had a life), you know that WCR was last weekend. Although I didn't drive the car 1400 miles to attend, I did trailer it and drive it on a couple of the mountain drives. It performed very well with the exception of a slipping clutch which only held back the speed exhibitions. Not entirely a bad thing.

I met lots of great people, saw some old friends and some amazing cars.

I went early to help Andrew cram to get his car ready. (it's the Orange 1.8t Audi motor) His car did well too and he made great progress getting it ready for lots of future road use.

This week is Medford Cruise week. Which means lots of weeknight shows and the weekend show and cruise. Last night I took it to the Sports Car show. I parked next to a sweet 65 356. The last of an era. I had a great time talking to numerous people that wanted to know all about the car. Medford is a low population area so the car count is pretty low. (Modesto Graffiti had 1400 cars last weekend) Anyway, there were some great ones and lots of variety. The Judges came around and were talking it up quite a bit. I imagine if I had the paint done I could have won something that night. But the finished cars won the night. I also parked next to a young guy with a grey suby. I loved his paint job and trim, but it turns out he wrapped it. And did a fantastic job.

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Sat night is the midnight drags for the cruise people. So I got to work on the clutch. I pulled the trans out and inspected the clutch. It all looked fine. I called Kennedy and they recommended the stage 1 clutch that came loose with the car for better clamping force with 500hp. And also pay better attention to the clutch adjustment. If I can get it to hold in second and third I may try to run it down the ¼ mile.

Many thanks to my Son @andyrew for his hard work in getting his ready for WCR. And also to his wife Jerika for allowing this to trump other activities. It was a great week for Becky and I.

A couple more of WCR. I kinda glazed over it and it was actually a big deal for us. They gave me the Best Debut trophy and Andrew the Best DIY. (cool trophys BTW!)

Having both our cars there and mostly finished was a momentous task and felt really good. I have to say his sounds really good. There are 2 WCR threads and lots of pictures and videos there.

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This video doesn't do either of our cars justice, but his sound and my visual. It was a great week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rlm-4iVpzXI

An all time great "Father & Son"! I'm so happy for you both - what a great trip this must have been for you and Andrew.
Congrats on your builds and thanks for sharing.

Looking good!
Both father and son have fat asses

Wider is better...

Both cars are incredible and it was a pleasure to be able to see both.

Great pics of both yours and Andrews car.

Just finishing going through the entire thread... amazing restoration. I too was one of the many dreamers when this was in the classifieds. Seems it made its way to the absolute correct person.

I love it. Enjoy the fruits of your labor

I had the pleasure to see both cars.Well deserved and there couldn’t be more perfect winners for each catagory. Can’t wait to see the finished product,although there never ever finished. Congrats!

Thanks everyone for the kind words. We hope to do much more of this in the future once they get dialed in.

Thanks for the ride Dan. I know the clutch was slipping but I know the potential there. Sweet sound to be sure. Tough to beat the growl of a v8 when your on the throttle. Was great to ride in both yours & Andrews. Saturday was a Dalen limo day. LOL!

Dan,
I believe the stage 1 clutch will cause extreme pedal effort. We reverse engineered the clutch system and went with the lightest clutch that will handle the torque and hp the car makes. I would be very careful about changing the clutch to a stage 1.

something to read ,,clutch experiences.....double disk

https://shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=139906

Actually I was able to try it and it seems ok. In the link that 6not4 posted it stated that it released quickly. That might actually help. I will be able to move the slave cylinder out on the arm a bit to make give it better leverage and lengthen the release time.

Anyway, I ordered a new throwout bearing and was a spectator for the drags. Still a lot of fun with street outlaws racing and jet car.

We'll give this a try and if it doesn't work we'll try something else. The dual disk sounds interesting if they make it for the 930..

Not sure you will get the throw you need to fully engage or disengage the clutch if you move the slave mounting point out on the arm? We tested many configurations with different strength pressure plates, discs, arm lengths and hydraulic ratios. We asked Kennedy how many pounds of pressure to release the KEP Lite pressure plate vs Stage 1. A. "Don't know as no one has ever asked us this question before ???" LOL

Then asked what is the lightest set up that can take the torque and HP? Settled on Lite Pressure Plate and KEP 240 Thick Rag style disc.

Good luck with it. Happy to discuss.

Wow, I 6th paged it... but now a days there is less news.

Ok the clutch is in. Initial tests was it doesn't want to fully release even at the shortest throw on the lever. I can get it into revers with some finagling, but I may still have air in the lines. But I had to drive it to see if it would slip. Nope. no slipping, at all... I'm now getting a taste of what this car will really do.

I decided to surface the flywheel so it wouldn't be a factor in clutch chatter.

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New disk even though the old one was probably fine.
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The stage 1 clutch itself didn't have much spring left in it. Thus it not working at all in 2nd. The new one would barely start the threads. And has considerably more pedal pressure as well as effort. Still not bad but we'll see in the first bumper to bumper action.
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with the addition of these 2 parts and the flywheel surface, I also bought a new throwout bearing. (not a great design I must say). They probably don't last long.
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I just need to drive it a bit and break it in. It's still really grippy starting out in first, other shifts are fine.

Wow, 2 posts in 1 day..
So my next project is getting the steering better to my liking. It seems really light at higher speeds and not enough camber.

If you remember back a few pages I installed 40mm drop spindles. I think that and not enough bump steer correction is causing me some issues. 1st of all. I can’t drop the car anymore and it caused me to lose some camber. It’s almost like I raised my car up.

So I decided to experiment on my stock spindles and drop them 19mm (3/4”). Then lower the torsion bars a bit and gain some camber. Right or wrong here is my adventure in raising spindles on Bilstein struts.

Start by locating the ¾” weld hole on the back of the spindle/strut.
I drilled a small starter hole then the largest bit I had to remove as much metal as I could with a drill bit without going thru the strut housing.
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Then I took a dremel and rasp bit and ground the rest of the ¾ inch hole. I’m sure there are easier ways, but this is what I came up with.
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You can’t really get it all, so the next step is to cut a slot in the top and bottom, (see pict). Then tap a chisel or ground down screwdriver in there to separate it. It breaks the rest of the weld free. You may need to grind a bit more to break it all free.
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After it starts to move you can see where the high spots are and grind them down until you can drive the spindle down to the bottom. It’s tapered slightly so it easier to go down first.
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Then clean up the old weld spot and take the paint off the strut housing to make it easier to slide up however much you want to raise the spindle.
Now is the tricky part. Since I only wanted to raise it 19mm, it wasn’t a problem for me to tap a chisel in the slot and knock the spindle up 19mm higher than before. But going higher the taper becomes a problem. I imagine some heat or I think I read that others removed the spindle entirely and removed material from the inside would allow you to go higher. ( I’m speculating here, my 40mm were already done when I got them).
Once it’s at the height you want it, then it’s a matter of cleaning the paint off and welding it in place.
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Note: I’ll be taking care to keeping my spindle to strut angle to 12degrees or less. One of mine was 9 degrees and the other 13 degrees. Moving it up the strut seems to have put them right at 11 or 12 degrees where I want.

"If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough. "
Mario Andretti

What a great day on the autocross course with SSCC. Siskiyou Sports Car Club.
No, I wasn't anywhere near the experienced drivers, but I had a blast. The car worked great. No slipping clutch meant getting the power to the ground. And also meant that the old tires tried their best, but just not enough. Still thrilling moments will keep me coming back for more.

You probably can't see all the times where there are traction issues. But I'm using that as a learning experience before I get on the big track.

Take a ride with me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbQlmIz4_do&t=103s

One more comparing my last 2 runs. Still not better than my run with Dillon. Funny how that is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tagV6tGYEt0

Happy 918 Day!

Lot's been happening, Wow, it's been 2 months, sorry this will be a long post.

My last couple of weeks…
I spent some time getting back to the art of fiberglass work. My little experience with the trailer caused some damage and needed repair to the front splitter. I started by calicoing the pieces back together and determining a way to hold things together while things dried. I worked from the front first so I could make sure the 2 halves lined up. I used angle hair to glue them together, clamped them and let it get hard. Then applied some layers of matt to provide strength and to fill in the gaps. (yes, big gaps.) I worked the front a bit and then removed the front end, (hey, that’s kinda handy). Working from the back side I applied several layers to get the strength back where I wanted it. Then I moved back to the front where I could get it at least close.

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Broke the shop laptop. Couldn’t get ancient laptop with broken monitor and broken keyboard to switch to the exterior monitor. So I ordered a new monitor cable, tore it all apart and managed to get it back together again… and bam, now I have 2 monitors and an external keyboard.

Swapped my Press’ 12 ton jack to my Affordable Tubing bender that came with an 8 ton jack. That took a bit of fab work, but it worked out fab! It is said to allow bending of .120 wall tubing.

I promptly used the new/downsized press to install some bearings for a friends rear end rebuild for his Jeep. Yay, it still works!

Finally back to the 914.. I’ve had problems from time to time with the fuel pump not working. I previously had wired in an alternate route so I wouldn’t be stranded. Well it came in handy the other day when my friend came by and wanted a ride. So this week I did some tracing and found a connection to the fuse block (aftermarket) had gotten hot and was crusty. I cleaned up the terminal, put some dialectic grease on it and the new fitting and I think that’s going to take care of that. I’ll leave my bypass in place, just in case.

Still haven’t found wheels that I like and can afford. So I decided to take a chance at straightening the 8” wheels. A visual inspection would have said they were fine. I could still feel they were off just driving on the driveway. Note: This work is minus the tires of course. This way I can have a race tire set and street tire set. Currently only 6 wheels are straight. 4 – 18x11” and 2 of the 18x8”. I was successful in straightening one of the wheels before my setup bent on the 2nd. I'll send it to a pro but in the meantime I picked up another 8" wheel and that makes 2 full sets. Then I started searching for affordable tires.

I've been working on the ECU trying to get something I could tune. The existing one is tunerlocked by a shop in NJ that is now closed. I picked up a couple spare ECUs at the wrecking yard and started learning. Decided to purchase HPTuners. It's a learning curve, but I think it will work to get my redline back where it should be.

Lately the project is installing a wide band to help with tuning. I'll be setting it up to log data with the laptop using the scanner app in HpTuners.

2 days of autocross earlier this month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFXOVJmNi3k

Another comparison run of the 2nd day. Exciting day for me as my normally dominate competition had a backup car they were going to do a champ style endurance race so it wasn't quite up to the horsepower and suspension tuning of their normal LS powered RX7. So I actually had a chance. I was behind them on Saturday, but managed a class win on Sunday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m08hQtTxWs

These will help get a bit closer to the competition. I found the Hoosiers I was looking for at John Burget Tire out of the east coast. 580 for all 4 shipped to my door. Not new, but close enough for me.
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Well, if you've read this far. Thanks for listening to my dribble..

Dan - Congrats on the class win! Nice repair on the fiberglass, too.

3 weeks later and the last event of the season is in the books. No records were threatened but lots of fun was had. I fixed an oil leak last week, but developed a lifter tick during the run. Yeah, I sent it anyway. Made it home just fine. I have 5 months to fix it.

The Hoosiers started to hook up on the 2nd lap. Fun, but I was disappointed that I didn't adjust my driving to take advantage of the traction. Lots to learn. I'll be looking for some AX tires...

Here's my get to the track solution. It works for short excursions.
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Here the long video if you're interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcBzrdm7ANc

I’d love to see your car on a “big track” to awaken the beast !

I have that same yearning...
Things happen so fast on the short track, I just react most of the time. At least on the big track you have a few seconds to collect your thoughts for the next series of turns.

Have you taken your car out on the big track?

We did streets of willow one year for WCR. We had 20 minute runs on the track & could do 3. It was 100 plus out there. It was awesome for about 10 minutes. The second 10 kicked my ass. I got done with that first one & took about 2 seconds to decide I was skipping my second session. By the time I had lunch I had decided I was just going to load my car up & be glad I made it through WCR without my car breaking down. That heat just takes it out of you man. I was also amazed at how much energy 20 minutes on the track took. Granted a lot was the heat but there is something about being in track shape .

Please keep in mind that you will carry a lot of speed at Big Willow (914 LS6), and if something goes wrong, or you miss-judge, you can get seriously hurt. The Streets, OTOH, is relatively safe because of the lower speeds. Cage, fire system, gear, and ambulance/EMT for the big track. IMHO.

Andys

Andrew and I co-drove his V8 914 at that WCR. Streets of Willow is a great track for a "middle size" track. Thunderhill West is another. Top speeds of around 100 vs 140+ make it likely the place I start. We've done several tracks and look forward to getting out there again soon. Top speed at the kart track is about 75 for me, (unless I drive it deeper...) It feels good at that speed, so I'm ready for the next step.

I actually like the larger tracks. 20 min sessions is just about right. But the best part is you can pull off and take another session later. After about 4 sessions a lot will skip the last session. 5 12 min sessions would still be a lot of track time vs AX.

Andys, I fully agree, I was writing my last post as you sent this one. I've done several track days at Thunderhill east with my 944T. I do like that run but I'll start with the smaller west track then if everything feels good I'll do east again. Big Willow will probably down the bottom of the bucket list.

Fun Dyno Day!

Ok, I just saw this last minute. $100 for several pulls.
So after Cars and Coffee this morning I headed over to a dyno day.

Not the HP number I was looking for, but close to what I expected. 362 at the rear wheels. Anyway it's not about the number (so they say...) So more tuning needed. Plus I don't know if the computer is pulling timing. A/F look pretty good.

I ran the first several pulls in 3rd, because his dyno maxed out at 154mph. The last pull was in 4th to see what difference it would make. It stopped at 5500rpm.

enjoy...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XOZfDj5FEI...a-g--VPR14eLhK4

Juuust keep it at 360whp. No need to have any more than that....

Sorry, no can do. I need NOZ, 2 bottles, big ones!

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Time to build a tire trailer?

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Dyno figures that you are getting seem kind of low? Last time I had the motor tuned and dynoed on a Dynojet I got 430 WHP

It's in the works!

Wow. Just Wow... From you part of the state our tracks are a bit of a haul, but would be worth it. Check out ORP. Very technical - well suited to a nimble car with some hp. Can run either clockwise or counter. Big fun. I instruct with HOD out there.
Then there's PIR. Flat & fast. I instruct there with a couple of different clubs, including HOD.
Even more of a haul, up in Shelton WA is The Ridge. Another technical track with elevation changes and a bit of everything.
And lastly, east of Seattle is Pacific Raceways. Old school. Kind of scary with not much run off and things to hit if you do go off... maybe get some seat time at the others before you try that one.

Thanks for the invite, I typically go south to Thunderhill to hook up with my son and his outlaw 914, but he's not always available so a trip north is a big possibility. And 2 of my bucket list items is PRi and ORP.
AND and instructor would definitely reduce the learning curve!

Another new track to be built in WA. Adjacent to the drag strip where PCA AXs are held near Bremerton.

The Ridge was designed by the same person / group as Thunderhill. Very similar. ORP and PIR are both a blast - very different but lots of fun. Give a yell if you head up this way. Bring your son - we'd have 3 914's out!

I look forward to heading north sometime.
Actually, I'm having track withdraws...
Thanks

Look into a track day at the old S.I.R now P.R.I. pretty long track with lots of elevation changes. The main straight will allow you push the top end speed. Was a location for Trans-AM racing back in the day.

I was just checking out the PIR website. Nice looking setup. Maybe there is something good about Portland afterall .

Wrong one. Pacific Raceways. Was SIR for decades. About 20 miles east of Seattle. The SOVERN historic races are held there during the summer.

Well, I never met a track I didn't like.

A dream bucket list would be to hit all the tracks or at least the major ones.

Dan,

Are you enjoying you 930 turbo trans 4 speed in your car?

Thanks,

Bob B

After cleaning and lubing the exposed shifter mechanism at the back of the trans it's shifting much smoother. It tends to pickup dirt so I'll have to pay attention. The new clutch is holding the power well. It's smoothed out a bit on the starts, used to be grabby. In general I love the idea that it should hold 700+ hp. So I'm not afraid to flog it. The downsides are the spacy gears. 1st is 0-55, 2nd goes to about 90, I've only seen 3rd on the dyno at about 135ish and 4th pegged the dyno at 155, (the dyno couldn't take any more).
I think I'll find that on the big track I'll wish I had a couple more gears. I know we can always say the big V8 has torque all over, but the truth is being in the power band can't be beat. On the autocross course where things happen really fast, it's kinda nice to be able to just use 1 or 2 gears. (mostly 1).

For Rohdy guy

probably wont raise enough capitol, just like this one..
https://www.opb.org/news/article/boardman-r...ion-good-start/
plenty to do..
Portland International, west ore
Grass valley, east regon
Pacific Raceway, The Ridge, west wa
https://www.spokanecountyraceway.com/road-course ,,east wa

ya that gearing doesnt sound optimal....momoney..there is a great trany guy,,used to work t Gamroth, he probbly has gears laying around...
Cary prob. knows his name, , I might Remeber...