I purchased one several years ago at the local IPC VW parts store (no shipping charge)

Looks like they've gone up in price since then - ($30. these days)

I got a delivery today!


I was still in the middle of my work day, so all I let myself do was take a little peak after signing for the crate.



My plan for the evening is to finish uncrating everything, take inventory, and mount things like the engine bar and the transmission. I also got some brake stuff from PMB that I want to do prior to mounting the engine. New soft lines, new pads, etc. get everything bled properly.

I'm really hoping to have a first start on Sunday sometime.

Zach

Don’t rush. Take your time and enjoy the process. People make mistakes with deadlines.

WOW..that sure looks NICE
Congratulations on you new purchase

That's a good looking crate right there!

Love that PMB is offering this service.

Congrats!

Awesome! Is that a 911 (or 914-6) style oil cooler? Sorry if I missed it, but is this engine dry sumped?

I meant oil tank, not cooler!

Yea Zach! 6 oil tank. Hmmmm….

Behind this crate is a /6 2.7 with CIS. Its going to eventually go into the bus, and the oil tank is from that.

Zach

"Enjoy the Process "

I agree with Mark , and i am guilty of this rushing thing making simple mistakes -
Zach, congrats this looks so awesome!! i have been talking with Eric about using the Holly system and those ITB's etc on my newer 2.1 in the car now, man that looks sweet!,

@rfinegan , i know you are having fun on your 3rd re-build etc but maybe this should be your next step if your current reassembly does not go as planned, but then again its more about the process and experience right?
- Zach, i cant wait to see it in the car an dhear it run- what do you have for muffler and headers?

Phil

Are ‘Nickies’ part of this build? Who’s heads did you use?

SSIs and Ben's quiet muffler.

It may change to headers, but I'd really like to get heat in this car.

Zach

Lots of work this weekend.

Saturday:
Major tasks:
From the old engine:

• Oil remote hose
• A bunch of injection hose clamps
• pulling the hardware off the clutch and pressure plate.
• Fuel regulator

New engine:

• Remove all electronics wiring
• Remove shroud, doghouse, right side throttle body and right side tins
• Reroute fuel hose, mount regulator, mark high pressure and low pressure ends.
• Cut a channel in the right side heads for CHT.
• Install oil remote
• Replace tins, doghouse, throttle body.
• Install new clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing.
• Unbolt engine from the pallet and get it mounted on jackstands (this was a bit sketchy, but mostly just muscled it up.)

This is the new fuel hos routing. A little bit of a change from what PMB had designed but after checking with the designer the would make it easier to connect the fuel lines to the car.


Both hoses now exist where the need to connect to the chassis fuel hard lines. Red is regulated, blue is return.


partial engine teardown to get to the heads so I could CAREFULLY grind in a groove for the CHT to lay in.


Engine is off the pallet on jackstands. Clutch kit is on. Engine is mostly back together (the shroud is missing). This is where I stopped Saturday night. It was a full day, and I got a lot done!

Zach

Today was a shorter day. Took the GF out to brunch, and did not touch the engine till about noon. Had to start getting cleaned up to go get my kids at 4. I made the most of the time.


Engine and transmission got a little getting to know you time. Also the engine came off the jackstands and on to the jack and lifting plate.

Put the Ford solenoid on the rear engine tin.

And then it was time to get the new engine into the car.


UP she goes!


I got brunch and she helped getting the engine bolted into place. Winning!


There it is! All snugged up into place.

At this point, my alarm went off letting me know it was time to shower up and go get the boys. When I got home this evening I went back out and got the clutch and speedo cables into place.

I went to get the axles in place and realized I did not have new CV gaskets. GRRRR! I'll go see if Tony at Translog has some tomorrow, and if I strike out I'll order some and the will be here soon. But I need those before I get too much farther on the underside of the motor.

I still have a good bit of work to do.

I'm going to need to take the pass side throttle body off again to get the CHT ring into place. Not horrible.

And I'm trying to figure out how Eric designed the ECU plate to go on. I know its supposed to go in the stock location, but for the life of me I can't get the holes to line up. So I have a question in to PMB to figure out what I'm doing wrong. Its possible it was not designed to work with a firewall back pad in place. If so I may mount it to the firewall, as I like my back pad.

I may go camping next weekend with the boys. But I should have the engine close to first fire-up by Friday. And if we don't go camping (landowner may be using the cabin for turkey hunting) I should have the car driving next weekend.

Zach

Picked up the CV gaskets at Translog at lunch. Hopefully I'll still have enough energy after scouts tonight to get the axles hooked up to the transmission this evening.

Zach

Oh cool,

I had seen a few pictures of this engine along with some hp figures. I think they where putting one in a 912 also. Can't wait to hear how it runs and sounds!

Steve

That is coming along quite nicely.

Ticked a few more lines off the checklist.
Axles are attached. Clutch is adjusted. Shifter bar is back in and shifter is adjusted. Oil cooler is back in.

Click to view attachment
My 11 year old wanted to help tonight so I got the tools out he’d need to adjust the clutch cable, showed him how to set it up and the turned him loose while I sat in the drivers seat to test. About a million quarter turns later the clutch felt right. It was fun watching the clutch pedal move up a good bit in the cabin for such a tiny movement at the adjuster. This little voice callin up from under the car “hey how ‘bout now. Test it!”

There was about a pint of oil still in the remote cooler which promptly gravity fed itself on to the floor while I was reinstalling it. So now the garage also smells like fresh kitty litter. Could be worse!

Zach

Teach 'em when they are young. That's the way, but you already know this. Great project and I like many can't wait to see the results. Thanks for the updates

Great progress! Can't wait to hear about driving impressions with the big 4.

My GF just had surgery so progress has been a little slower.

Since Tuesday I've gotten a bunch of stuff ticked off the project board.

• ECU board is mounted to the car.
• The new main harness is mounted.
• 02 bung is welded into the SSI exchangers
• Relay board harness WAS 90% done (now about 10% done)
• muffler is hung
• engine has oil in it again! 4 quarts now, but I'll need to add in another quart once it build pressure.

Oil cooler back in place minus the fan packs. The fans draw a lot of power, and I'm not super sure I even need them. I just don't find myself sitting in traffic for long periods of time in this car. In fact, I do my best to avoid that! This is the same place the cooler has been mounted for the past decade or so, and it has worked. I know front mount is better, but I need the trunk space! This pick also shows the sandwich mount and the hoses routing along the valve covers.


Chris's improved shifter console. The whole kit is so much better then stock IMO. Cover is on it now so you can't see it. Just looks stock except for the little tail sticking out the back.


The 02 bung welded in. I don't TIG. I used my little Lincoln 140 set up in Flux Core mode. Local welding supply shop recommended I try this Flux Core SS wire instead of buying SS MIG wire and a new bottle of gas. It needed a lot of heat to lay in, and I did some practice repairing my cracked set of SSIs before I got the good set out and started cutting a hole in them. Not nearly as pretty as TIG, but it works - well even.


And then disaster!
I needed to add a wire to the 12 pin plug. When I took the plug out of the slot on the relay board it crumbled in my hands! Fuuuuuuuuck!

So I called Tony at Translog and Steve at Aircooled Racing to see if either of them has one I could scavenge off a trashed harness. Left a message for Tony, and he will get back to me.

Steve said he was pretty sure he had one, but was running out the door to go see a 97 year old friend who was not in great shape, and that's way more important then a plug off an old car. I'll give him a buzz Monday and drive over if Tony does not have one today. Its been a minute since I drove to Steve's shop, so I'm leaning towards that option just to go and see what he's up to these days.

I'm REALLY close to first start.
Need to get the SSI's in, hook up the fuel line (I'll likely do that today) and fix the relay board wire harness.

Also I want to pull the ECU board back out of the car and modify it slightly. As is, the firewall pad won't fit without putting some pressure on the ECU board. But if I am able to move on of the relays, the pad will fit a lot better. I'm using the 914Rubber pad that does not hold water against the firewall, and it blocks a lot of noise from coming into the cabin.

Zach

Good progress!

As for the wiring #@%!$, it happens. Can't recall the number of times a $5 part stopped work for days, sometimes a week +.

So close!

I have one if you want it. Just pm me your address and I will send it tomorrow.

Clay

I also have one on hand if needed.

Progress slowed a little so I could go camping with my kids Easter weekend. Worth it!

Yesterday (Monday) I stopped by Aircooled Racing and got a new 12 pin plug. Then work and scouts so no further car stuff yesterday.

Tonight I put the full exhaust system on the car and hooked up the 02 sensor. I had bought a pigtail extender for the 02, but did not end up needing it. Yay! I also worked the backpad back into place.

I still need to:
Remake the 12 pin plug.
Attach the CHT sender.
Attach the injector plugs.
Pressurize the fuel and oil systems and look for leaks.
Start the car!
Set idle and drive!

Hopeful for first start before this weekends camping trip.

Zach

If anyone needs this for their 914, it's you

Please put some safety glasses on those young eyes while working in that position!

I've got a RTT, and am strongly considering putting it on the Bus when that's on the road.
Because what the Bus needs is to be more top heavy and carry around a big brick on the roof!
Zach

teasing...and I should talk...but this feels like a movie series of Zach putting another engine in his car.

Lets see...
The stock engine
The 2056 pre-rebuild
The 2056 post rebuild
2056 now with fuel injection
now the 2.3

So, yeah. I've done 5 significant engine changes for this car. Which sounds bad until you consider i've had it now for 18years (holy !!!) I think it was the last engine thread where my eldest son was probably a touch younger working on the car then Josh is on this one now.

Zach

I really thought I'd be starting it last night.
But after a 10 hour work day, running kids around, making dinner, etc... I got out to the shop around 9 and worked till I started fumbling with things like nuts and bolts. IE - an hour later then I should have been working.

But I got a good bit done before I realized I was basically asleep on my feet and went to bed.

CHT is in place. I had kinda been dreading this one, but its done. Its always the kinda stupid jobs that give me pause. But once I did it, it only took a few minutes.

Hooked up the last fuel connection. I'm not happy with how the fuel lines are set right now. Since the deadline I set for driving got deleted due to Amy's upcoming surgery, I may redo this. The engine side hard lines I have just don't work with the rubber hose routing and I want to remake them. So I think I will do that before I put gas back in the car again. More work.

I hooked up the injector connectors. Not to bad but they were not labeled so I had to be careful.

I also remade the 12pin connector harness. I reused my old harness, but cut back the old wires and remade them.

I'm kinda proud of this one. With custom wiring documentation is everything. 10 years from now I know I won't remember what I did. Instead of drawing the diagram and sticking it in my manual, I labeled the wires themselves by printing labels on heat-shrink tube.

I got the shroud back on and hooked up the throttle cable. There is one cheesehead screw that does not want to go back in as the standoff is slightly misaligned. I'll need to fix it tonight.

My main battery cable also needed some work. This is when how tired I was really started to show. I was fumbling with the battery connector and dropped the hold down nut. I probably just stood there looking into the engine bay for about 15 minutes. I was standing, but I wasn't really there. I tried to work for a little longer but gave it up and can't even recall what more i tried to do.

One last thing, that I realized pretty quick last night when I thought I was going to start the car - I don't have the hose I need to rig up the breather - and I can't find my breather can. I hope I still have mine - I may have given it away since I usually just close the vent lines. For this engine, PMB wants the breather vents run to a catch can during break in, so that's what I am going to do.

So, probably no start this week since I'm camping tomorrow though Sunday. I'm going to try and put a bow on the electrical stuff tonight and (if I have the energy) change the fuel hardline I don't like so my hose route is better.

Then the only things I have left to do is:
breather vents and catch can,
add gas, and check for leaks
Start it up!

Zach

No work tonight. It’s my eldest’s 15th birthday.
But I did find my old Empi breather box.

No one local had hose, so I gave up and bought some off Amazon.

One more night of work, should be done next week.

Zach

oldest son 15... Now I am Old... Happy Birthday..

Finally a little time to work today over lunch.
Fuel and Electric is done. Most of my time was spend reforming a SS fuel hardline so it came out where I wanted it to - cutting off a few inches and putting a new bubble flare on it. Damn, stainless tube is hard to form. I ended up heating up the end right before I put the flare in to get it to shape a little easier. I'm jealous of everyone with pneumatic flare tools.

Need to run the breather system, then I can get ready for pressure checks and first start. But first I have to get back to work for a bit. Maybe first start tonight? Maybe.

Zach

Getting closer!

Video or it didn't happen

OK, need to know, how did you print on heat shrink tubes?

@jamie
Any modern label maker can load cassettes of heat shrink tube to print on to.

Zach

So close but no cigar tonight.


Got the breather hoses into place. Had to scrounge for a nut, but only found a wingnut. That will work.

Cranked over the engine with no fuel to build oil pressure. But that was going to take a minute and I did not want to wear down my battery. So after making sure I did not have any oil leaks, I added gas to the tank and let the pump build pressure.


But there was no fuel pressure. Despite the fact that I heard the pump freewheel, then labor. So I turned the key off, and let it go through the prime cycle again. This time I was getting bubbles in the tank letting me know excess fuel was going down the return line. Still no pressure at the gauge.

So, I have the feed and return lines miss-plumbed. Which actually means I have the feed and return lines wrong under the tank. Fuck that, I'll fix it in the engine bay.

I also found that I have a slight weep coming from what is supposed to be the return line (but which is currently the feed line). I need to undo those hoses and switch them anyway. I'm tired, and I need to let fuel pressure bleed away anyway. So this will be a tomorrow job - IF I have time tomorrow. I'm a little grumpy about this. I was pretty damn sure I'd be posting a first start video tonight. But that's okay.

Zach

Thinking about this with a clearer head this morning.
I’m going to pump the gas back out of the tank today.
I’m going to remove the other hardline from the engine bay and do the same mod to it that I did to the other yesterday. Cutting those nice stainless lines is painful, but it will make for a cleaner run. Then I can get the two fuel lines run in properly.

At 9:30am I have to take the puppy to get his balls cut off, so I may be too busy today to do any of this. But I’d like to get it done today if possible.

Zach

sorry to hear that- i somehow mislabled my lines when i pulled my motor out last ime and in reinstalling it had the same issue, . but swap them around and hook it up , and get that thing roaring!! , it will happen soon enough, i know the feeling but one more day will is not a big deal but its like being a kid and having to wait an extra day to open your christmas presents, isnt it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whtCGQ4mIVU


First start!

I let the 15 year old have the honor of starting it up.

I have a few issues to work out yet though.

Spec for this motor is 43psi of fuel. I can only get 40psi out of the stock regulator. Not sure if the regulator or the pump is the issue here. But the regulator is easiest to replace so that's what I will do.

I also think I have an exhaust leak on one of the cylinders. So I'll crank down a bit more on the nuts and see if I can't close that up.

Zach

A facet fuel pump is perfect for getting gas out of the tank thru the fill neck. I think in the long run you’ll be happier getting it right now than later. Enjoy that new power plant.

Huzzah!

Awesome !!!!!!

Ordered a new Holley fuel pressure regulator, more clamps and some more sae 30r9 hose. Hopefully it will all get here Monday.
Will be a very busy weekend and Amy goes back under the knife Tuesday (round 3). So I’d love to have this done by then. It may be premature, but I may try to wash the car today juuuuust in case I can drive it before the surgery date.

Zach

Congrats, Zach! Lots of nice weather ahead so you can enjoy it.

That started nice and easy. Congratulations to you and your son for having the honor of firing it the first time.