I will post pictures later... I don't have any pictures with me, but I want to get this started. This beginning part is coming from memory, so if I leave anything out, feel free to chime in.

I'll start with the back back story. It all starts with Tony, who is now known as TonyAKAVW. He had been looking for a 914, which I had always considered a kind of funny looking car. He lived in Santa Barbara at the time, and found a 914 for sale in Arroyo Grande that I went with him to look at. It had what looked to me like "minor rust" that seemed quite fixable, so I advised him to buy it. It came with the personalized plate of "AKA VW".

Of course the rust was worse than it looked to the casual non-expert observer, and I ended up helping Tony work on it quite a bit. I learned a lot about 914 issues such as loose CV bolts, hot start issues, and L-jet quirkiness. I had failed to keep my DWD shot up to date, and at some point I must have poked myself with a rusty piece of sheet metal. I caught the 914 bug, which has since developed into full fledged DWD.

I found a "starter 914" that didn't run, but was cheap. I had it towed to Tony's and we got it running. It was a salvage titled car, which turned out to be made of two cars. I started noticing V8 conversions, and wondered if I should go that route. Eventually I got a ride in a V8 914 from a fella named "Mario" at the D&G swap meet. That sealed the deal, I had to have a V8 914.

For a while I was planning to convert the 914 I had. Eventually DWD dug in a little deeper and I started having thoughts like "do it right the first time" and "wouldn't it be better to start with a clean slate?". So then I started the search for the perfect 914 roller.

This is a pretty good stopping point. I'll continue this later... with pictures!

Hey,
its funny how we seem to just get deeper in to these cars. I remember seeing a V8 car around 1980. I thought it looked so cool! I did own a 66 convertible Corvair that had a Crown V8 conversion. That car was in perfect condition, interior and paint were slick. Well some 25 years later comes my 914.
Keep the updates coming!!!!!!!

Not to hijack the thread, but this is where it all started. That original car, a 1973 914 (with a 1975 1.8 engine) spurred all of this. I bought the car back in 2001, and it lasted until early 2003 when in a fit of DWD, I discovered it was terminally rusted. By the summer of 2004 I had bought a new 914 which is now my Subaru conversion car.

Really, it was that 2001-2003 period when I got both Royce (bondo) and Jeff (jkeyzer) hooked on 914s. I went to college with Jeff who knew Royce from high school. Jeff had an ex-CHP mustang at the time, and Royce had both an MG and a '67 Mustang. I started grad school in 2000 at UCSB, so I was within an hour and a half of Royce up at Cal Poly SLO. For whatever reason I had by this time developed an interest in 914s. I liked the fact they were light, different looking and mid-engined. So I found an ad for one and went to look at it with Royce. I bought it for $2700 which ended up being a mediocre/bad deal.

Shortly after I bought the 914, Jeff bought a 72 911T. The three of us went on some drives, some of it between San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara. So being in school, driving these cool cars, in such a nice place definitely set us up for an addiction. Jeff eventually sold the 911, bought a really nice 914, and has been driving it ever since. Royce told his story.

Anyway , just a couple pictures of the beginning of it all:

-Tony

1. The PO signing the pink slip over to me.
2. Our three cars parked at a shopping mall in Goleta.

What's an LT1 V8?
Mark D.

It was July 3rd 2004. The 914 was near Los Angeles, and so was Tony. He had done a PPI and based on his description, I committed to buy it. I drove my beater truck down there, rented a uhaul trailer, and picked it up.

It was a roller, but it came with 3 engines and 4 transmissions, along with a bunch of misc parts. I didn't have enough room in the truck for all the engines, so I traded one to Tony for a pizza.

I managed to make it home, despite having slightly overloaded my beater truck. (which has since been replaced with a beater van with a tow package)

Wikipedia can answer that better than I can. LT1 V8

Here's a pic of a 1993 Pontiac Firebird barfing up an LT1. I bought the whole car and drove it down from Mountainview. It had 115k miles, but still ran strong. I got all the FI stuff out of the Firebird, which will go into the 914. (I hate carbs) It's an early LT1, so it's a speed density system. (No MAF to find a place for, or possibly fail)

I should probably mention why I chose an LT1. It's a powerful and efficient engine. The efficiency comes partly from the 10.5:1 compression. Thanks to the reverse cooling, the head temps stay low enough that it runs great on cheap gas. The torque curve is very flat, which will go well with a widely spaced 4 speed transaxle. A note for purists: It has German Mahle pistons, so it's ok to put it in a Porsche.

Bondo,
I worked as a tune-up and driveability specialist at GM dealerships and I know the LT1 EFI well. I assume your going to use the "Abits" ignition system if not what will you use? The angle based ignition timing system does work well and is slick. The location of the unit may be a problem if theres any trouble, however thats the system on that engine. It was replaced with a different system in the LS series engine and that system has less parts but G.M. seems to just do things that way.. EFI and its tune-ability is a big plus..

I assume you mean the optispark? I am using the optispark, I rebuilt it with a new cap, rotor and bearing. The original was all messed up from water intrusion, and the seals were totally crumbly. I used plenty of RTV when installing the new cap, so it should stay dry. The location isn't going to be an issue because I'm relocating the water pump to the front trunk.

Yes, the ignition system, our service manuals and the GM school called it "Abits". The system was designed to help the computer track the movement of the pistons, crank and cam. The rotating plate has 720 points of reference to track and determine piston location.
The water intrusion was a problem when designing the system, as I remember the unit has two vacuum ports, so to draw out moisture. Often they were damaged and or the seal and water could build up ... Should be a great engine for you.
My car has Edelbrock EFI its basically a G.M. system as well. Based on the tune-port system which is an older sibling of the LT1 EFI..

Here's some more pics of the roller right after I got it in the garage. It's a 73 2.0, with front and rear sway bars. Mostly rust free... (what you see in these pics is what I saw when I bought it, what I found later will be in the next post)

Looks pretty good so far, I could fix everything I have seen to this point body wise. It looks like a great start to a really nice car.

More pics please, if it takes you as long to post up pics as it does to build it, I will be craoking of old age. Dont make me wait.

Ok, ok... here's some more.

This plus the rear trunk rust shown before is all the rust. Not bad really. The longs and floors are perfect and rust free. It's original paint except for a repair down the passenger side where it seems to have been minorly sideswiped in its past. (approx 1/4" deep crease at about shin high going from behind the front wheel to in front of the rear wheel.

It seems to have sat since the 80s. It had an 80s dated parking receipt for a horse race track in one of the defroster vents, and I found an 80s registration slip in it somewhere.

A few more progress pics. Stripping down to a tub and refurbing some bits.

Here's the beginnings of modifications. I cut out the center tunnel. I will reinforce the clutch tube, add some wall height, and put the center tunnel back in. I also cut cooling holes in the front trunk. The last pic shows the 911 front suspension I picked up at Dunkels.

The LT1 is not an easy fit into a 914. Here's how it looked after it came out of the Firebird (and after removing the water pump). The alternator and air intake are in really bad places for fitting in a 914.

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So I had to make a new alternator bracket, to place the alternator down low, opposite the AC compressor (and delete the power steering pump of course).

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Then I had to address the intake issue. There are no water passages to worry about, and the head ports and manifold mounting bolts are perfectly symmetrical. The only difference that prevented turning the manifold around were the places where the manifold seals against the lifter valley.

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The solution was to weld up the areas on the manifold and sand them to shape, so the manifold fits backwards. (intake on the flywheel side)

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Now that is some slick shit.....I gots wood.

Keep it coming I'm in the drooling mode now....

Very slick on getting that intake on backwards!

Great thread!

Here's the hell hole area after cutting it back to good metal. I also cut off the engine shelf, as I won't be needing it.

Then I started hacking off the fenders. (don't worry, I'm not putting on a body kit)

I'm doing my own one of a kind "flares", and I wanted to be sure to get ALL the water trapping foam out. Burning it out smells bad, but works well. My goal is to be able to get at least 225 tires under there.

After turning the LT1 intake around and moving the alternator, the engine wiring harness was all wrong. I rearranged it and made a box to replace the relay board and provide "translation" to the 914 wiring.

A V8 conversion is going to need different gauges than stock. I decided to go with the Getty 911 style dash, and had it covered by Dr. Evil.

For the water temperature I took the guts out of a generic summit water temp gauge and hacked them into a 911 combo gauge.

From the front:
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From the back:
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For the tach, I did the same thing, but with a 911 tach. (a 914 tach wouldn't work because the scale wouldn't match any aftermarket tachs I could find)

Front:
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Back:
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And finally all the gauges inserted into the Getty dash instrument frame. (thanks to spunone for the primo spun aluminum trim rings)

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As I mentioned before, there's no room for the water pump in the stock LT1 cam driven location. I modified the stock water pump so it draws from and pumps to two hoses instead of 4 ports on the block. I also made a new thermostat outlet, since the stock one pointed the wrong way for my radiator. I also installed an electric conversion, because obviously the cam drive wouldn't work in the front trunk. The LT1 thermostat is a bypass thermostat, so the water pump is always pumping coolant through the engine, and adds the radiator to the loop above the set temperature. The heater lines come right off the water pump.

Stock LT1 water pump:
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Modified pump:
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bondo,
I really like it This is looking nice, and they said it couldn't be done!!!

I've never said it couldn't be done.. i said it didn't fit easily...

Hell guys put Big Block Chebies in BMW Isettas, all it takes is time, creativity, a desire to die when it actually runs and a BFH....

BJH

It's not done yet! And while I am continually making progress, it seems like I am exponentially approaching done.

Now for the trans stuff.

I tore into 5 914 transmissions and 2 912 transmissions to get the parts I needed. I took all the best parts and made the best trans I could, for almost no money. I modified the intermediate plate with fittings for a cooler such that it will dump cooled oil on the upper intermediate plate bearing, which is a common failure point.

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I powdercoated the case semi-gloss black. It didn't come out perfect, but it's close enough.

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Once I finished the rebuild, I designed and built a cable shifter. You can get the complete details here.

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Time for another update.

I made the adapter that bolts onto the block where the water pump used to mount. This adapts the 4 ports to two hoses. It has to be very compact to fit into the firewall indent between the seats.

I finally machined the early hubs for 5 lug and pressed in some nice long Verbus studs.

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I was also considering moving the V-calipers 4mm out so I wouldn't need to have the vented 911 rear rotors turned down 4mm. Then I found out the rotors would fit onto the lathe at work... I said screw it, might as well K.I.S.S. and do it the easy way.

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wow


Just plain amazing stuff

patrick

Beautiful

Ok, this progress thread has officially caught up with the "present".

Here's the latest!

Adapter for the 911 oil sender to screw into the GM block:

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Rebuilt 19mm master cylinder using a 17mm master as a core:

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I got some used 911/bus axles with renegade adapters in a trade with Otmar. I just finished repacking them and putting them together with new bolts. (the adapters that are not shown are already bolted to the trans) I used longer bolts to hold the adapters on and put nuts on the backside of the flange to keep them locked on. The heads of the bolts are countersunk into the adapters, inside the grease cavity of the CVs. There's no way to safety wire them, and periodic checking for tightness would be impractical. The nuts worked fine on the trans end, but now that I've done it on the stub axle end, I noticed that there's no room for it there. I'll have to remove the nuts and cut the bolts shorter. Oh well. Maybe I can leave enough bolt sticking out so I can safety wire them from that end.

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This progress thread is officially on hold now, as Julie and I just loaded the rotisserized 914 into the pod. It will now get the rest of the garage stuff packed in around it, and won't get worked on until after the move down south.

I built the rotisserie specifically to fit in the pod, so it's a very tight fit. It has a winch at each end to raise and lower the 914, and a P-38 lightning prop pitch motor connected via chain to rotate it. The C clamp brake was added because slop in the chain allowed way too much rotation when stopped. It runs off a car battery and rotates at about .5 RPM.


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Here it is hibernating in the pod.

Nice prop pitch motor! I'm glad that thing is getting some good use. That ahs got to be the nicest rotisseries I've seen. But why isn't it powder coated?

Any Updates? AMAZING work!

I spy a 67 Mustang Fastback in the background

Ferg

Hehe. Yup, that's my 67 fastback. Not a GT, but it has a pretty darn rare set of options. Power disk brakes, convenience control panel (extra warning lights), A/C, deluxe interior, rally wheels, upper and lower consoles, and tilt away steering wheel. (when you open the door, the steering wheel pops up and to the right, to make getting in and out easier)

I've added a 5 speed transmission and holley pro-jection fuel injection. Next time around (I've already restored it twice) it will get a whole engine and trans out of a 90s Mustang, along with the more modern EFI. Much the same way I'm putting the 90s LT1 in the 914.

As far as updates go on the 914... I've organized the parts for it, and most of them are packed in bins and stacked in the pod. It's hibernating at least until we get to the new house, which will be August at the earliest.

Nice progress; where are you at now ?

Hey Royce!!!!

Update please.......

Finally I have an update! For those of you who haven't noticed, I haven't been around much lately. After the 914 went in the pod I pretty much quit reading 914world, because it was depressing to see everyone else able to make progress while I couldn't.

We've had the house on the market for about 10 months. Prices here have held pretty steady, but the buyers are nowhere to be found. We had a few people look, but no offers or even callbacks. No emails except for a realtor. We kept lowering the price as time went on and saw no improvement, even after lowering the price by $65,000, making it the cheapest 3 bed 2 bath in a 5 block radius. So long story not as long, we've given up on selling and have decided to stay in Los Osos for at least the next 3-5 years. I'm glad I don't have to leave the locals I know here, but I'm also sad that I won't be getting to know all the folks in the San Diego area. Sorry guys, but I might make it down there eventually!

And now to the topic of 914 V8 progress! The 914 is still on the rotisserie, and in the pod. Over the next couple months, I will be unpacking the pod and getting my shop space (the garage) set up again. Once that's done, I will again be able to whittle away at it, and perhaps make REAL progress.

In hopes of an update....

I recognize Montana de oro outside your house.

Yep, he's just down the road from MDO.

Hey Bondo:

With your central tunnel cut open, you have a prefect opportunity to run your cooling pipes through the tunnel and directly out the back to the engine.

I've been running 1-1/4" copper water tubing with sweat-soldered bends in my car for 8 years now and it has been working flawlessly! I found that in going forward through the tunnel, using a 45 deg bend up and then another bend straight forward, I could run the cooling tubes under the gas tank and directly into the trunk.

With the tubes inside the car, there is no worry about damage from running rubber hoses out side, no long hoses to replace and around 1/2 the distance the water has to run (improving flow)...What's not to like?

To protect the copper pipe, I encased each tube in PVC tubing. There is plenty of room for shifter & wiring along with the cooling tubes. Since the copper is WARM, I would suggest insulation to keep the heat out of the cockpit.

Another suggestion: with the tunnel cut open, you have a great opportunity to create and TALLER and STRONGER central tunnel that will significantly increase the strength & stiffness of the "flexy" chassis. I would think the next gauge thicker sheet would do the trick and give you a unique center consel.

After welding a complete rollcage into my car, I finally realized how much flexing went on with out it!! > The FLEX is what makes the roof squeak ALL THE TIME!

Best of luck on you conversion, your approach is well thought out!

Terry

Bondo, are you still out there? Anyone know him? I am starting an LT-1 install and hoped to correspond. Anyone else do an LT-1 install lately?