Why yes it can.

Cause of 2.0 dropped seat solved, although the grease between the cylinders didn't help either.

The way we found it.

It's definitely amazing what you can find in there...

There's a member in So Cal who left a rag near the shroud while working on the car and forgot.

Found it later after the valves went south on one of the heads.

They will remain nameless.

gadammit.

I've installed these on both my cars. Saved me from myself a couple times.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N7HS3X5

I did that once with my 911. I had a towel on the back bumper while I worked on the engine. It started up real nice then made some nasty sounds. The towel didn't make it past the fan belt and got jammed in the crank pulley. I had to cut the belt to get things free.

So far on this engine, #3 intake seat dropped, kissed the piston top and it has bus pistons. Plus although this engine internally doesn't look very old the lifters are flat, when they should be slightly convex.
So it looks like this one will be a full build.

Yep.. we all make mistakes. Years ago, when I still had a 2.0 in my red car, I accidentally knocked a small pair of vice grips into the fan and didn't notice it.

When I started the car, it made a horrible racket. I shut it down quick. But not before it trashed the fan. I ended up pulling the injection and engine tin, and spent hours picking bits of the fan out of the cylinder and head fins. Luckily I had another fan to replace it.

Funny.. the the vice grips were fine. I still have them and use them.

Mistakes are how you learn. Hopefully your mistakes aren't too expensive.

Clay

I don't look at them as mistakes....I see them as "tuition"

Plus, life would be boring if everything went as planned. There'd be no great stories. Or pics.

But there would also be no having to explain to the wife why you are pulling the motor out of your 914 that was running fine a few minutes ago...... Or that you are going to have to spend $$$$$ to fix it because you did something stupid.

I was going to say it absolutely can.
Or if you have a beetle, the fan will shred it and evenly distribute it all over the top of the motor.

I bet most of us who work on our cars have a story like that... of course I don't...

I put one of those center mounted, single two barrel intake systems on my car once, that thing was a mechanical disaster. Does that count?

Only thing I can smile about is it wasn't my fault.
I had a similar job with a guy who put dryer sheets in the engine bay, expensive rodent deterrent.

This is why they count the tools when you go in for surgery. A friend of a friend keeled over & died because they left a tool inside of her abdomen.

+1 on the bus fan grill.

once had the heat blower hose get sucked in there, while on a busy freeway with nowhere safe to pull over, in 95 degree heat...

The rag shows the air flow. Found all sorts of things and critter nests under cooling tin. Never a rag though!

What's involved with adding the bus fan grill?

That grill is some great insurance. I want one.

This right?
https://www.busdepot.com/j10983

Plastic from a broken grill could still cause problems, right? Sounds like an opportunity for a clever solution with wire mesh.

Piece of cake. The threaded bosses are already on the fan housing, all you need is three 6mm bolts, three washers would be nice, and a 10mm socket (you still have one of those in the tool box, right?)

Easily done with engine in the car. A bit fidgety, so it helps to have a mirror. And you'll be leaning on the fender, so grab a good fender cover (I absolutely adore my mom's blanket, I'm sure I got the name wrong...Garold's mother is no longer making them - have we had a recent update for her? - but I seem to recall Perry Kiehl is making them now).

leaning over the fender.
thats an understatement.

head down and arse up more like it.

i might go get one of those screens and carry out your mod mate after reading this terrifying thread.

Yeah - i can make that happen. I assumed the attachment points were already there but wasn't sure if they were filled or not - thanks for this. (adds to the list of stuff to do when I finally can get back to the 914 in person....)

Just saw that these are on sale at CIP1:

https://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?Pr...021%2D119%2D207

from their web-site:

MSRP: USD $24.99
January Sale: USD $12.50
You save USD $12.49!
In Stock - No Sales Tax

Hope this helps!

Yeah, I had the same thing happen

Heater hose sucked into the fan. Thought the engine blew. Pulled over and picked all the shreds out.

Kinda forgot about that one...

Thank you Steve!

Yup - thanks @anderssj - good, timely find.

Glad to help.

As the old man used to say, "even a blind squirrel steps on an acorn once in a while"

So how is the engine rebuild going? I need my LE engine done also.

So how is the engine rebuild going? I need my LE engine done also.

On this we have it torn down to the short block, it's too bad this was a newer rebuild with 20-50K miles left to go, only bad is it had bus pistons. Back in the day you would have just done a top end, but with it torn down this far I would just do the bottom end as well.

Owner is coming over the weekend so I don't know the budget is yet, huge price difference between just getting it going again, or a full restoration both mechanically and ascetically.
The one head has a dropped seat, other need all 4 exhaust studs done OR new heads. Besides engine it needs a bunch of hoses etc just to get it going. Everything tin is a bit surface rusty and greasy, I could just power wash things and call it a day but paint detail powder coating, costs extra, etc.

Huge price difference depending on a lot of different choices here, plus there's always the while you're in there factor. Extra parts and labour add up PDQ.

I resemble that comment.