18yrs ago a local contacted me looking for parts for his 72 that he has owned since 74. He was "restoring" it and said it had a turbo.

8 years ago he contacts me out of the blue still needing parts for his restoration. He comes over and ends up buying a 75 parts car I had to use for some sheet metal he needs.

Fast forward 3 weeks ago. Contacts me again saying he has sold his house and needs to get rid of his 914 and parts. After talking for a while he tells me his wife passed from covid while he was battling cancer himself. He is now cancer free, but at 68yrs old he has a new priority in life and it is time to get on living. He has since purchased a small airplane and is taking flying lessons, bought a Ferrari and a new place in FL. All the things he and his wife talked about doing.

So now I have this 72 with a 1.7 built out to a 1.9 and yes it has a turbo. The 72 has been in this state of projectness for over 37 years.
We ran the engine at his place before loading it and the 914 up.

So now I get to learn about turbos.

That looks like a pile of parts that should stay a pile of parts. Or ship it to the UK, they would love to put that puzzle back together.

It would take a lot of effort to get it running again...

Crown was a decent, simple blow through, non Intercooled turbo kit. They featured a 300 series B-25 flow Rajay turbo (small a/R) for quick spool, boost controlled by an upstream blow off valve. The wastegate (seen in pic) more than likely a later-on mod. Crude efi enrichment was a hobbs-switch set at 5psi, and actuates the (cold-start inj.) via the cyl-head temp sensor. Crown kit also (reason ?) eliminated the HB's for a pair of short exhaust manifolds that placed the turbo just under the rear trunk; turning the trunk into a hibachi bbq.
Crown Co. were the folks that also had kits to stuff a SBC 327 into your Corvair ! Fun stuff.

I’d love a copy of those Crown install instructions if you are willing to scan and email them to me Garold.

Yep, that shell is junk. Lots of bad repairs, but perfect dash, leather wrapped steering wheel, lots of powdered coated suspension bits.....

Of course Jeff. I actually think there are two sets of manuals. I will go through the stacks of paper that came with the car and get back to you in a few days.

Seems like you should slap that on your daily driver 914 Garold!

@scottthephotog has a Crown turbo kit that has never been installed.

He already has a PDF of the instructions.

Scott... you want to chime in here?

Clay

I have a Crown kit on my car. I also have a PDF of the instructions.

Hi Garold, I'm not sure if you remember, but I bought Ed Atkinson's Crown Turbo'd 914 2.0 many years ago.

Ed had already passed away, so I ended up doing countless weeks/months of research on it and enlisted help from just about everybody here that knows something/anything about them (many thanks again Marty!). I even had a chance to speak with Hot Rod Legend Ak Miller about his blow off valve that was on that 914.

If you REALLY want to turbo a 914, don't use the Crown kit especially with stock FI. PM me and we can chat at length as to why and what may be a better path forward.

If it still has the Rayjay turbo, they are highly sought after by the Corvair Turbo guys and experimental aircraft guys. $$$$$$ The Rayjays are also very hard to find parts for.

I eventually gave up getting it to run without detonating and switched it back to stock NA FI'd and sold it. I was a blast on boost before it started heating up and detonating tho'...

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Caint turbo a 914. Just sayin ;-)

yeah - but you got to admire the lunacy of those years when they thought they could turbo anything - including tiny little pushrod world war 2 mechanical minds.

in the same era, bmw were sending blokes out to piss on junkyard engine blocks to fortify them for F1 turbo. i guess it was science?

Wonk,

You missed the running joke on 914World. There was a person who's name is lost on this forum somwhere who said is is impossible to turbocharge a 914. A few of our members proved him wrong. So if someone starts a thread about turbocharging a 914, someone else has to say "You can't turbo a 914". I am surprised it took this long for someone to actually say it.

Clay

Hi Garold, PM sent.

i'm a thousand miles away. or is it that 10,000.



americans can prove anyone wrong.
russians, chinese. dumb arse aussies




been away from america too long. need to go to marfa.
locked down and ,,,,,,,,,,,

Jumping in about the turbo kit. It's great to see one of these actually installed on an engine. Mine has been sitting on a shelf in my garage for the past 2 years. I don't recall there being any fuel enrichment under boost. It's a very primitive setup. As mentioned, there is no intercooler or wastegate on the original kit. Boost is controlled by an IMPCO TC2.

Here is a picture of the TC2 as well as a diagram of how it works:

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I sent a pdf of the 914 turbo instructions to Larry who posted it on the 914 manuals website.
The instructions can be downloaded here:
http://p914-6info.net/Manuals.htm

I haven't installed the turbo yet for 2 main reasons.
1. Living in TX, heat is a problem. Yes, I could add an intercooler and an additional oil cooler to the kit to reduce heat.
2. I love the way the car drives right now. The throttle is very responsive, and I'm not sure I want to add turbo lag to that.

Maybe at some point down the road, I'll mess with the turbo, but for now, I've got another 914 I need to get on the road first. Maybe once the second 914 is done, I'll return to the first one and potentially add the turbo.

@scottthephotog
My kit came with a vacuum operated fuel pressure regulator. I won’t be using it as I switched to dual 40 Weber’s. I found a different fuel regulator that works with carbs.

Scott and Kevin were gracious enough to send me their copies of the installation instructions. They are different.

The May 1974 instructions were for the 1.7 and 1.8L only.

The Aug 1974 are edited to include the 2.0L, and spcifically include a variable fuel pressure regulator.

Here are the August 1974 instructions:

That's really interesting that they added a variable fuel pressure regulator for the 2.0L. I'm sure both could have used it though. If I ever get around to installing the kit, I've thought about using the cold start injector as a fuel enrichment source on boost. The variable fuel pressure regulator seems like a better idea though! I wonder how much additional pressure it added on boost.

I’ve owned many Corvair Turbos over the years and used one as a winter car every
year when I put the 914 away for the season..
It did have a primitive system, but it worked pretty well considering the era and the fact
it was in a production car..
It had a pressure retard in the distributor and also didn’t need a waste gate because of the size of the carburetor, exhaust housing and exhaust system limiting boost.
Sodium exhaust valves and a nitrated crank helped it survive also.

Different compressor impellers, exhaust scrolls and Weber 2 barrel carb adapters
were readily available… As well as oversized forged pistons..

I still keep a turbo setup on a shelf above my workbench.

My 930 was a very different animal and I did use one those Hobbs pressure switches
To control an alcohol injection system for it when I bumped the compression, put in SC cams, changed the spring in the waste gate and twin plugged it….




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"and the fact it was in a production car."

you said it.
about 7-8 years at least in front of porsche?
they were pretty good those corvairs.
not many of them down here in aus.
very handsome cars.

its a low pressure set up in the corvairs?
i don't know anything about them.
but they are fascinating.