Today I had the chance to put my car on a chasis dyno and get a starting point for some tuning to come. It produced 305 lbs of torque at the rear wheels in 4th gear. I'll have to play with the timing and throttle linkage before I run it again. I would also like to put on a quieter set of mufflers to replace the turbos...they sound great, but a little too loud for me below 2,000 rpm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0z5TV72aFo

Dyno Video

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I love v8 914's

That thing is so quiet, how can you think it's loud? And the only time it spends under 2000rpm is when at a red light he he.

What was the HP?

What was the brand name of the Dyno machine?

What are you plans now, that car is so dialed and tight I cant imagine improving on it?

Well, that's a good question. My torque curve was no where near maxed and steadily climbing, but I couldn't get the rpms. This motor is a 305 truck motor that was built for a circle track car and should rev in the 6-7 range with no problem. I wasn't getting even near that. All I know about the motor is it was new, has headers, Eldebrock torquer manifold, 650 carb, cam for sure but who knows what (sounds pretty healthy) vortec heads and roller rockers. Unfortunately, the motor was built by a shop for another person. It would help to know what really is inside. It has about 250 miles on the motor now. So, a combination of not getting full throttle, possibly not enough full advance and maybe under carbed kept the rpms down. I'm thinking it shoud break 300, but looks to be around 270 now to the rear wheels--not sure. I was really kind of suprised because the car really hauls ass. This motor stock is used to hauling around a 5,000 pound trunk, so with that kind power curve in a 914 that's 1/2 of that, well....makes for a nice ride.


PowerDyne SuperFlow WinDyn V


Well, I'm perfectly happy with the car now, other than I want to make it quieter under 2,000 rpm. For me, I just want to make sure that the motor is tuned for the street and getting what it is capable of under those conditions.

You can't imagine the grin on my face when some guy is showing off for his gal in his hot rod next to me, only to be handed his lunch by a 914 VW Porsche

Amen Brother! I wasted some little shit with his girlfriend just the other day. Was funny to see the surprise on his face. Of course I only do it to 60 just to show them it's there. I don't want to get a ticket or cause any traffic problems. Funny when they catch up though . You can see the what does he have in there look???

On another note Mark I found a compete FI sysytem for my car. I am still researching it but it is a birect bolt on deal. Wiring everything will be a bit of a chore but doesn't look to extreme. I've got some good articles from the MGv8 guys on it. My worry is height wise. DOesn't look lik eit sits up much higher than my carb but probably does. So I'll have to check that out when it arrives.

Cool to see that dyno run. Kind of a trip watching your wheels cranking away while your car doesn't move

302 z28's were advertised at about 390 hp stock without headers. They were really about 425-450 hp. with headers and maybe a 700 cfm carb at about 7200rpms. They did not have heads as good as vortec's. 650cfm is enough carb for 400 hp at 6-7k in a 302. If the motor was built for a truck it could have a high torque low rpm cam. You need at least 1/2 inch of lift at the valve. About 36 degrees total with 10 initial advance. A high reving sbc really needs a good ati balancer to keep the crank balanced at high rpms.

A good thing is the 901 might live a little longer with only 300ft lb.

My 283 is running like crap right now, could it be the Edlebrock 750 carburetor he he. The plugs look perfect but you can smell the fumes when driving and it's not untill you floor it that it runs well without misses. I am looking for a 550-600cfm carb right now.
I am going to buy a 350 back from a friend I sold it to. I will also get a sb ch single turbo set up with it. I will run the 350 while rebuilding my 283 for turbo. I have a set of LT1 heads and intake manifold from a Camaro. I will modify those heads and use them with the intake, run 8.0:1 or 8.5:1 compression, build a Megasquirt fuel injection system and run a big ar.. untercooler in my trunk lid.
Compared to the 350, I really like how the 283 likes to spend its time at 3000+ revs, it just isn't strong enough as is, but that can and will be changed.

dkjens, Lt1 is reverse flow coolant isn't it? also the ports are different for the intake and there isn't a distributor on the LT1 intake. The waterpump runs off the camshaft and the ignition is under the waterpump on the front. Do you mean cast iron vortec heads?

charliew,
Yes, I know the LT1 is not a bolt on head, but it can be modified to work on a gen 1 engine. I will probably use an EDIS8 for ignition and a Megasquirt for fuel injection and the LT1 Camaro intake manifold.

I had a 305 in mine before I went to the 302 The 305 is a good, torquey engine, the shortcoming is the heads. The Vortech heads is the way to go, the small bore on the 305 does not lend itself to the larger valve heads from larger bore blocks. You should be able to get well over 300HP out of it, but the long stroke is more for torque, not rpms. Also, if you want to spin it over 6400, you really need some trick valvetrain, or solid lifters and ignition. My HEI gives up 6500-6700, kind of a built-in rev limiter. The valves start to float around 6700, but I am running full roller hydraulic lifters.The 305 is now in my 35 chevy, which I really need to work on and get on the road st some point.
If you want to quiet it down a bit, try some resonator tips. Worked wonders on my car. The neighbors were getting upset when I pulled between the houses at 5:00 in the morning.

Your car is looking good.

Mark

Adding resonator tips was one of the options I'm exploring. In my setup I have dual tips on turbo mufflers, in other words I would have to purchase 4 resonator tips which would run over $100. Now, if the tips would do the trick then I'd pull a a bill out of my wallet pretty fast. I'm just not to sure how much it's going to make a difference. You feel it made a significant impact to the noise level of your car? I presume you had the low end resonation/drone before you added the tips...or just loud?

I've also seen "insert" options as well: cones or baffles. That option will cost about $150...but do they work is the question. You can insert the cone after the headers or before the muffler
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I just don't have any room for larger mufflers or that would make the most sense...plus my turbos are brand new, but hey there in the trash can if I can find a better option. I even thought about an additional inline glass pack before the axle...but no room again, unless I go to short headers. When I added a crossover pipe it helped a ton, but I want the low end drone gone (mostly).

Now, Drivability I heard has a tone port connected to his exhaust. I just don't know how that works--I meant to connect with him at Cars and Coffee in Irvine but I forgot.

So what-do-ya-think? Resonator tips...diff. mufflers, inserts, dynomat or ?
Oh, there is one other option...never drive slower than 2,000 rpm

i have an idea!.......... buy a honda!...... suck it up your driving a HOT ROD for gods sake! what... are old or some thing! jeez you old geezer!

really how bad is it?

btw niether of those "baffles" shown will help you low freq problem, those are "racin mufflers " and do not attenuate the sound much at all.

Sometimes the drone can be improved with better timing and also the long headers can be causing it in the collector. I haven't tried it but the insert in the collector might help, it's really a muffler for street rods that are only running headers though. Or drag cars that have to have a lower exhaust level. Higher compression also will cause a drone. You might want to check up on supertraps as they can be adjusted with more or less diffuser plates.

I wonder if dkjens realizes that the vortecs are the cast iron equalivent of the lt1 aluminum heads but were cast iron for the chev trucks. Same port and combustion and valve configuration but designed for the top distributor. If you want aluminum heads go with the new design heads that everyone made to copy the vortec design.

Silence is Golden Problem solved...gone, adios...with just $3 of stuff from the hardware store.

Initially, when I first was putting my car together my turbo mufflers had just the one outlet on both sides of the car (single in and single out). I wanted dual tips so I had the muffler shop weld on dual chrome tips on both sides of the car and customized the lower valance. Obviously one tip went on the muffler stub and the other was just welded to the back end of the muffler. OK, so now I ask the muffler shop to blow a hole in the end of the muffler inside the tip so exhaust is coming out of both tips. I asked if that was going to be a issue and they said "shouldn't make a difference." The car didn't have exhaust when I first came in so I had no comparison when I had left.


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Fast Forward. After reading and reading, I kept having this nagging feeling that perhaps I didn't have enough back pressure in the muffler for it to work as designed. So today I looked down inside the tips with a flashlight and I could see the difference between the real outlet and the one I had added on. The way the chambers in muffler was designed, I essentially had created a way for the exhaust to pass right through the muffler. To see if my hunch was correct, I built some block off plates and bolted them in the second tip on both side sealing it back to original as a temporary measure.


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Low and behold, my car was an entirely different animal afterwords...all my problems of resonance went away and the car mellowed out considerably. Perfect! So "messix" the old geezer is finally happy. I'm driving my "hot rod" with a smile on my face and my stereo on, OH, I can hear it now. Although, I will miss being able to set off car alarms just for fun

Now, I'll probably just tack weld the block off plates permanently and call it a day.

Great job! I have a chevy powered 944, it's a fun car but I can't imagine all that power and torque in a lightweight 914. Must be a blast!

Craig

F--ing sweet Mark, Keep up the good work, well talk about it when you make it to the PNW.
Troy wishes he had a V-8

Do I have a bullsyeye painted on my 914? Sure seems like it...the last two times I drove it downtown I almost got creamed. I decided to add a 3rd brake light, not stock, but maybe it'll help. Oh, I guess I don't have to worry about not being stock

xxx

In two weeks I will be attending Dr. Evil's So Cal transmission clinic to install an H gear instead of my stock 5th for better freeway cruising. I'll be bringing three transmissions, two from parts cars and one from my v8 914.

I figured it would be easier to just pull the motor since I wanted to also install my air conditioning. With all all mocking-up of the compressor mounts to put the compressor to be driven off the alternator, I wanted to make sure I got it right with everything lining up properly. The load on the motor should be more balanced having the ac an alternator on one side and the water pump on the other.

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side view

Wow it's my old buddy Mark. I thought you were all done with your car. LOL

Funny I dropped my motor too. I am going to the good DR's PNW clinic this next weekend. I am taking a total of 3 transmissions too. I am adding an "h" gear to my v8 tranny too! Flipping crazy man

We need to talk man. Big doings at the Rust compound

While I had my motor out, I figured it was a good time to install my fuse panel upgrade. Excellent workmanship, it fit beautifully and was very well made. The only thing I wish was different was the fuse numbers are printed upside down...not a big deal. Well worth your time. Plan on an hour or two to take your time to install.

I just got back from the So. CA Dr. Evil clinic...great fun, and I learned a lot. I ended-up with a real nice rebuild with a newly geared 5th gear...an "h" gear. The motor and transmission are already back in the car and it should be running in a day or two.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LobBZn0m8x4

AC project is almost all done as well. I installed a nice parallel flow condensor, new barrier lines, new drier, expansion valve, safety switch, and like new DPD evaporator that I had been saving for years. Once I get the car running I will need to evacuate the system and then charge it up with R134.

condenser and drier

closed back up

Looks sharp Mark, I like the fuse panel, where is it from?
Let me know how the new gearing works out.

AC in a 914???? Take the top off for gods sake and drive faster I guess when you live where its 105* 4 months out of the year you need it

I just got back from working in Bellingham all week. I started my car to check for the dreaded noise. it started and ran like a champ. 60-65 psi oil press, I'll take her out on the road in the AM.

T

I've got a 30 pounder of 134A in the garage, and a vacume pump with fresh oil.
Bring her up an I'll charge it up for free.

What, you don't work under your dash with your back on the seat and your legs sticking out the door? The numbers are perfect from that perspective! Removing the steering wheel helps, of course.

Can't wait to get my new fuse panel installed.

Well, I installed my rebuilt 901 with the re-geared 5th "h" gear today...and low and behold it worked beautifully. No grinding, smooth shifting, and no funny noises! I even had left over parts...LOL, then of course one of my 901s became the bone yard for many...which was cool.

I can't believe how many rpm I carved off with the new h gear--somewhere around 500-700 at 65. I like to go to the Central Coast which is a 3 hour drive. That means my engine will have turned almost 100,000 less times in one trip. Thats' got to be a big plus in the gas mileage department. I was getting 20mpg, it will be interesting to see the mileage now. With 305 lbs of torque to the rear wheels there is no lag between 4th and 5th...perfect.

Dr. Evil thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!

[quote name='computers4kids' date='Sep 26 2009, 07:46 PM' post='1219016']
Well, I installed my rebuilt 901 with the re-geared 5th "h" gear today...and low and behold it worked beautifully. No grinding, smooth shifting, and no funny noises! I even had left over parts...LOL, then of course one of my 901s became the bone yard for many...which was cool.




I am truly jealous,


My trans will be my next project.

Mark is the man, I mean Marks car is the Sh-T.

Great job

Decided to just update this thread a bit. I decided to install a stock radio in place of the modern stereo, but with a twist. The neat thing about this stock radio, it plays Internet music stations via my iphone or ipod beautifully. The inline jack that I plug into my iphone/ipod carries the music signal and charges the device at the same time. Here is a "how to" thread.

Other than the radio, I haven't done much to the car, except for driving it all over ---quite a novel idea for a 914.

I have had a great time reading this thread! I am starting my conversion as we speak and wanted to thank you for taking the time to post all your progress and solutions. Huge help for those of us who are converting to the "dark side"

Im still in rust removal, cut and paste mode. Thread gave me the little boost i needed to get my ass back to the shop and keep grinding!

Thanks, Keith

Exactly what I was thinking....stealth sleeper. VERY NICE JOB.

Well, a little over a year ago this v8 914 roared to life and made it to the WCR2009 in Irvine, CA. Haven't done much to it other than just enoying it...a whole year and never once stuck on jack stand.

Here we are with the WCR2010 only a couple months away, so I decided to do a few things to the project: Had the top painted, installed a new brass shift bushing and plastic console cover, and new bumper tops from 914rubber.com.

I had bought all the materials to blacken the recesses of the fuchs, but just couldn't get myself to do it.

Note to self.....It's been a long time since I've updated this thread--Well, it's been over 2 years since this project hit the road and I've been pretty much just enjoying the car as it is.

I can't believe how much I enjoy driving this car with the added hp. These cars are ideal for power infusions. I did have my stock wheel recovered and the pad re-stained by Dallas Custom Wheels, which turned out awesome.

Since I sold my automatic 914, I've been really thinking lately "what's next?" I really like the v8 teener the way it is, so I probably need to get another project.

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Gosh...it's been a long Winter! Finally had to do a few upgrades to the car to keep from going stir crazy.

I installed an MSD 6al with a rev limiter switch using the magnetic pickup in my HEi dizzy as the trigger. The ignition module in the early GM HEi were limited to about 4-5 amps and 3K rpm before the spark began to degrade. The MSD should give be a better burn at higher rpms as well as a smoother idle...we'll see.

The stock coil in the cap is new, and rated at about 43,000 volts. I haven't decided whether to go with a MSD in the cap coil, external blaster coil or might not even bother. I've read quite a bit and I'm not sure if I would see any benefits from a change with a 300hp chevy motor.

Spark plug gap. MSD says to begin around .035 and work up in increments to about .050 to find your best performance gap. Their thinking is the wider the gap the larger your spark will be to better ignite the chamber. Anyone have any thoughts on this??
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Different beast, but I run the MSD6AL and Blaster coil on my 3.0 six. The 3.0 has a mag pick up already in the dizzy. I started at .035 plug gap, then did .040 and finally landed on .045. I didn't notice any difference at all. So I just left it at .045 because I was tired of pulling them out and It runs great. I do know that I run rich at idle (Webber 48's) but you would never know by looking at the plugs. The low rpm multispark really keeps the plugs clean.
Good Luck

IIRC Im at .040. And im running the big HEI coil


Plenty of spark for me, I run out of gas in my setup before I run out of spark

During the v8 conversion, I went originally with 911 5 lug, all four corners, BMW 320i calipers on the front and stock calipers on the rear, porterfield all four corners--solid 914-6 stock rotors and stock solid 911 rotors up front.

I just installed ventilated rotors up front with aluminum Brembos, 48 pistons on my 3" 911 struts. The best part was it was all complete bolt on...no machine work whatsover. This has been the easiest upgrade I have ever done. The calipers alone are 3lbs lighter for each one. They work great.

Now for the rears. I'm thinking of going ventilated rotors with a vent kit for my stock calipers...just not crazy about 914 rear calipers. I could put some brembos on the back and loose the ebrake, but my bias would be pretty srewed up I suppose. The BMW calipers would bolt right up, but then I couldn't go with ventilated rotors and no ebrake. Decisions.
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Nice Mark! I can't wait to see it in person again at WCR

Mark,

I haven't investigated to see how adaptable they would to a 914, but Ford has a caliper with handbrake, as does GM (metric). Cheap, and available everywhere. If the piston sizes and rotor thicknesses are compatible, perhaps they might be worth a look?

Andys

Rear brakes finally got finished. I ended-up adding ventilated rotors and Eric's V-calipers. Together with a new ATE 19mm master and the aluminum Brembos up front, the brakes seem to be a good combination for my teener. I still need to bleed a little more air, but pretty happy.
Before and After
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Luckly, there was space for the vcaliper spacer. Tire definitely fills the wheel well.
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Hi Mark --

That's purty! How about some pics of the front brakes?

Geoff

Are Eric's V-calipers different than stock rears?

Hi Geoff!
I included a picture of Eric's polished Brembos for reference. I sourced my Brembos elsewhere and didn't polish them...just painted them black.

Eric's Vcalipers are stock rears with a special spacer plate to accomodate the wider vented rotors. Eric also custom makes new stainless brake pins and springs due to the wider caliper. His workmanship is truly a piece of art.
Before and After Fronts

Stereo Update, I love it!
Pioneer 4 channel amp (GM-D9500F)
75 RMS x 2 channels (A)
150 RMS bridged channel (B)
150 Watt 8" footwell sub (morph's 8" sub kit)
2 Polk Audio 4 x 6 50RMS (150 peak)
No Head Unit--ipod/iphone

I thought I wouild post a few pics. The combination really sounds great together and for the most part it all is hidden, looking stock. The floor sub was suppose to fit with my cocoa mats covering them. Unfortunately, there is not enough room for my passenger mat now. Between the stock AC and the raised speaker on the enclosure there is very little space--not even enough for a mat. I'll either have to shorten the passenger mat to the base of the enclosure or see about recessing the speaker into the extension ring on the enclosure. Not sure at this point if there is enough depth for the speaker provided in the kit. Anyway, if I were to do it again, I would probably have just bought the enclosure and found a shallow sub.

I shortned the deposit box between the seats and placed the amp in the back half. The front of the box holds my ipod, small items. The top still hinges as it originally did. I used a 6 inch strip of 3 inch wide velco where the hinge used to attach to box. The hinge is actually velcroed to the top of the amp.

I added a amp switch and volume control on the outside front of the deposit box for conveince.
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It killed me to do so, but it all worked out pretty nice. I cut a hole in my my cocoa mat which allowed it to lay flush on the floor.
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CLEAN!

Looks great man!!