Some race, some wish they could. I can't afford it so I get my thrills where I can. I've been driving this car a long time. I was lucky to find club, the world and wouldn't want to forget NARP. So I was able to add anti rolls, 140 lbs in the rear, 21 mm torsions, oh you know, all that Weltmeister stuff from the turn of the century. But like some, I also bought the KYB's and settled. Well thanks to a few of you, I now have bilstein b6 hd's for the front and just got these for the back. Which brings up the first question. I'm raising the front spindles 40mm (1.5"), I'd like to get the snap ring close on the rears. Can you guys get me close?

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Second thing, I live in the desert, so even in the winter it can be hot in the day time. So I'm adding a front oil cooler. I've seen it exhausted out the hood (BOLD), from under the car and into the wheel wells. Since the brakes get so hot, I was thinking of sending that air towards them. Can you guys give me, from practical experience if this path is good or not. The brakes are 911 T M's w/ vented rotors in the rear, fronts are wilwood superlites vented rotors. Brake heat should not be a problem around town, but I like to play on mountain roads, or any twisty and I'd really like to join some of you in some friendly autocross. As far as top speed, shoot my car was not set up to go fast so under the car exhaust should not be an issue either. I've seen the wheel well exits on 911's. To me your opinions are gold, and appreciated. Thank you

Re: cooling, you'll get opinions all over the map on this. I've owned one racecar that exhausted the air into wheel wells and another with it out the bottom (mostly anyway). Both seemed to work fine. A few details that seem to be important from my experimentation/experience:
- The intake can be anywhere from 1/3 to the full size of the cooler, but no larger
- Ducting to the cooler is critical. If you give the air anywhere else to go besides through the cooler, it'll do that. The cooler is restrictive to air passage. So you want to make your ducting fit closely and seal the gaps - foam tape like you put on A/C ducting, windows, etc. like you get at Home Depot works well to fill gaps. Foil tape can work too. (The ducting away from the cooler is a little less critical, but makes for a nicer installation and look.)
- If you exhaust under the car, put a downward facing lip on the leading edge to help create low air pressure to draw air out. A front spoiler should serve this purpose too, if your car has one.
- The air exhaust should be larger than the cooler. Many say 1.5 times the face of the cooler, so I usually aim for that.
- Some like to use fans to move the air. If you plan to be stuck in traffic, it's not a bad idea. If you do your ducting right, in my opinion moving free air is better than a fan once the car is rolling.
- Exhausting out the hood is great, but you have to cut the body and most don't want to do that. My cars have run 190-200 degrees oil temp on track ducting in the wheel wells and under the car (granted I run big coolers).

The Wilwoods with Porterfield pads like to be hot...work better when hot than cold...racing I'm powerbraking on the formation lap to get heat in the brakes (and tires)...so don't think you need to worry about that.

@stownsen914

Thank you for the response, that answered my #2 question. I'm thinking that this may not be the place for the first question. As I now remember you all have the super adjustable ped's on your rear coil overs.

@wndsrfr

Thank you.

Assuming you have a narrow body car, but if I recall correctly, (please somebody correct me if I’m wrong) raising the front spindles more than 20 mm will have the base hitting the inside of a 15” rim (911 Fuchs). Even raising them 20 is excessive for 15” wheels and a good 50 series tire (Bridgestone re71). You’ve got to be really low to take advantage of raising 40mm, my club (POC) requires min of 4” clearance, which is fine with stock height spindles. Also 21 torsions in the front is fairly stiff, 145 in the rear might be too soft, should be much closer to 200 in the rear - I have this setup in my 4 cyl track car.

I’d splurge for a set of coil over sleeves for the rear, sell your 145s and pick up some 175 springs (or higher). BTW I may have some sleeves in the parts bin I’ll donate to the cause for cost of shipping…

As far as brake pads, go with a good performance street compound, like porterfield r4s, I used this for my track days. The 914 is light and a momentum car, I don’t use my brakes often enough to overheat them, in fact like mentioned above, it’s hard to keep heat in them, so you want something that works well cold, or with minimal warmup. You shouldn’t need cooling unless you’re throwing big power at the wheels.

I’m just throwing a bunch of info out here, but I’d suggest planning out your system with a bit more research, shoot post more info here, but seems you may throwing good money away on unnecessary items.

@infraredcalvin
Thank you for the response and the kind offer. This is a budget build, so every bit helps.
I've already been running the suspension parts since 95'. Thought I was happy. I'll keep an eye out for some 180's springs. Brakes I got 10 years ago, struts and coil overs are new to me, I'm doing the spindle work at home. I need to buy a cooler, an oil pump and make up some lines, I've already modified the bumper and valance for the cooler. I am going to flare this car and I will be buying some used 17" rims. 205's are nice, but 225's will be a dream. I went out and looked, and from a stock height, it looks like I'll have about 4.5" clearance with the 40mm at the engine support bar. Yes it is a four cylinder. Thanks dude, this is what I need, this is her last build for me.

Budget build...a true teener project!

Less is more. For what you are describing you want to do with the car - be careful not to take it backwards - trying to improve the performance. It is awfully easy to do - aka: opening a can of...

John is correct: Do not worry about the brakes; absolutely not necessary for any street driven car - depending on the car and pads - I have been known to tape up/reduce my brake openings to retain more heat! See pic below - white tape...

Suspension: Hmm. Chris Foley has forgotten more than most of us would know - give him a call - a better resource - especially for a budget minded enthusiast - does not exist.
Mr. Foley raised my spindles many years ago - lots of tweaks, on track, at speed and tinkering with set-up to finally work close to expectations. The challenge with your test-beds is you cannot safely determine (really know) all of the characteristics of the car without great risk. No high speed entry, cornering, HELMET, etc.

Maybe be content with modest changes...just an idea.

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@Cracker

I hear you. I was planning on a few laps at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway, bring tools to work in between and get it as close as I can

@Cracker

I think I may be tough on my brakes when I play. Most of the others that might join me in the canyons have a lot more HP than I do. So I have to go deep into the corner, hammer the brakes and rotate, lots of maintenance throttle and out as quick as possible. After the straight I may be behind again but I catch up in the turns. The stock brakes are toast by the time I get half way through a fun run. So first thing I got for this build was some brakes that I thought would be Shivers proof. It will be easier to dump that air under the car.

Braking is an art all unto itself...

You can "hammer" the brakes but I like to teach a smoother technique - ease on at application and then heavy into threshhold; release over a span. Essentially, a passenger should not feel these transitions. This technique allows the chassis to remain stable and planted - there are many benefits on a road course - I won't bore you with detail. What you are describing is what I have seen occur on AX where speeds are slow by comparison; however, the driving technique can almost be described as violent.

Good luck - be safe.

Double post...

Thanks, I'll will work on that as I learn the feel of these new brakes.. Yes, slower speeds, but maintaining my lane.

Another thing to watch out for re. brakes (BTDT) is if you run a deep front spoiler/splitter like what @cracker shows above then you need to ensure you have adequate cooling airflow to the brakes. I've never had an issue otherwise with a shorter front spoiler or stock-ish valence, in fact only have needed to connect my ducting when using the deep spoiler.

I totally agree as well you can do a lot with a 914 on stock brakes with good pads, fluid and technique. I did that for several years before starting to mod further. For (track) pads I'd been using Pagid Black or Orange and then a few years ago they released a newer compound for lighter-weight classic cars I've got on now but forget what they call that series.

@campbellcj

Thank you. I did not think of that, I am thinking of a splitter, though at the speeds I reach, it wouldn't be very effective. Brakes were bought and paid for a decade ago, finally got the struts, hubs and ebrake plates needed to run them. I'm a big fan of good brakes. It is amazing how many times I heard " I didn't see you" as they cut off a saturn yellow 914. I will look into those brake pads you mentioned.

Ah...... It does still exist

Excuse me? I have not been the absentee, here...

Cracker

40mm is too much. Way too much. Pretty sure I've never moved spindles further than 30mm.
Mount a wheel on the strut, with an a-arm attached. Measure how much space there is between the inside of the rim and the closest point on the bottom of the assembly. Usually the collar that retains the strut on the a-arm is the first thing that will hit. Your measurement has to take into account the direction that the strut will move when you alter the spindle position.
15mm is about all that's safe on stock 4cyl struts and 15" 4 lug alloys.
Larger wheels and/or wheel spacers have a significant effect of increasing the available space.

At the rear, start with the perches on the 5th groove up from the bottom.

Thanks Chris. I'm going from 4 to 5 lug, I have b6 hd's for up front and I have not purchased rims. I was going to run 17" x 8" 's front and rear and correct with spacers. I haven't even picked up lugs yet, so I do not get them too short. I want the car lower, I had to leave the front end up a bit to have some suspension travel. I want to correct that. 5th groove on the rears. Ok

Mine are raised 16mm and it did rub on the 15 inch rims....the spacers just made it work.

@ChrisFoley

Its been a LONG time now but I believe you moved mine 30mm ~ I am too old and not enough left in the mental hard drive to recall without notes. My car is very much still a street car and it works just fine at that ~ I also run 17" rims. You may not want to get even that aggressive - as I mentioned previously, Mr. Foley would be your best resource.

Cracker

I will be real interested to see what he says, after knowing what is going on the car. If 30mm will do it, I'm all in. I have not pressed them yet. Last build for me, just want to get it right.

With 17s its probably safe to go 30mm without having the wheels in hand. Any more would require more careful setup measurements.
Are your struts Boge or Bilstein? The Bilsteins might have been made with a different spindle height than the Boges.

@ChrisFoley

Thanks Chris. They are Bilsteins B6 HD's : Only pic I seem to have.

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