Soon hopefully! I think by Spring this thing will be dialed in enough to start joining up for the PNW teener events! Main thing keeping me from traveling far now are the lack of windshield and a lack of racing seats with more than lap belts. When the rains fade in the spring let's go play!

As I was plugging up my intake to pressure test it I started to ask myself what all of these vacuum hoses and controllers were in there for. Turns out these are part of the emissions system that purge the charcoal canister on the gas tank, the little doohickey is the purge valve, needless to say I don't have any canister or emissions anything so I gutted everything and capped the intake nipples, I was rewarded with the code "P0458 EVAP Emission System Purge Control Valve Circuit Low" but it doesn't throw it into limp mode so I will just add it to my list of codes to have programmed out when I get the ECU tuned. Less crap on the engine is a win for me!
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Speaking of taillights from the earlier conversation, when I put in the muffler it eclipsed the spot I had made for the license plate, zipties weren't cutting it for Mr. Officer so I welded up a little bracket and hacked in some led lights into a license plate frame. There, that's legal too.
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Finally the trailer lights i got didn't have reflectors which isn't legal, so I got some reflective tape on Amazon for $3 and stuck a strip on the lights, Check that one off too.
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I think I do actually legally need doors, the law is pretty explicit about that, despite the plethora of doorless Jeeps that I see all over the place. Being the sitting duck that i am and that I guess the ultimate goal is to have a body on this thing eventually I am going to clean up and paint the doors next, stay tuned!

Have you calculated the weight loss of all those hoses? Don't forget to include all the air inside them too.

Happy Holidays, Dane.

Hey, every ounce counts! This particular item is hard to weight though, depending on the throttle position these hoses either contain 1 bar of vacuum or 2 bars of total pressure! It has a variable weight!

Happy Holidays to you too Buddy!

Well spring is upon us and my garage isn't quite so freezing, Lets get some work done!
I had been running a stock ECU for testing just incase I shorted something out accidentally but now it is time to put in my Stage 2 ECU from Vishnu Tuning
The tune on this should be a pretty good starting point but there are a dozen or so codes I need to turn off in order to get a working check engine light.

So here we go into the world of editing a car's Rom, and to do that we need a cable to connect my ECU to a laptop. I was initially looking at getting a tatrix tuning cable but these go for like $200 and this is a budget build, we can do better!

I bought this cable on ebay for less than $7...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/VAG-COM-KKL-409-1-...;frcectupt=true
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I put the computer into read mode by connecting the green test mode connectors, and then gave pin A10 on the ECU 12V to trigger write mode.
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I then plugged the computers together.
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To read and write images to and from the ecu I downloaded EcuFLash for free (you need v1.29 or earlier to use the cheap cable).
I successfully downloaded the ROM from the ECU. Now off to Romraider to edit it!
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Like EcuFlash, RomRaider is also a free program, you use it to edit the Ecu's Image. I am not going to delve into tuning right now, the goal is just to turn off the error codes that are no longer relevant to this vehicle. To do this select the error code you wish to edit from the menu on the left, open it, turn it off, then close it.
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Then after I saved the new edited image, I wrote it back to the ECU. Done, $7 tuning package, heck yeah!
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I noticed an interesting thing while I was turning off the codes, p0508 Intake Air Control Valve Error, I had initially thought that this was an inaccurate code because I had deleted the coolant hoses to this controller but after I thought about it that didn't make sense, more likely it was gummed up and causing some of my rough idle conditions. I decided to leave the code in place and pulled out the IACV and cleaned it thouroghly. I was totally right, car ran so much better on startup after a good cleaning.
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Ran a test and got a clean bill of health! Now I can hook up a check engine light and have it mean something!
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Time to go for a drive under full power for the first time!

Took her out and I can confirm that we have full boost, and a legitimately scary amount of power, this thing is a monster, what have I built???
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The car drives really well below 4500 rpm, aka no boost, it is like there is nothing holding this engine back, it will do 30mph at idle in third.
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Once boost comes in though it is like full blown starwars warp speed, still not brave enough to get it into 4th, or above 5000rpm, I was still shaking an hour after driving it, this is going to take some getting used to. Spins those big tires effortlessly at any speed in any gear.
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Next priorities are real seats, real belts and a windshield, oh and doors (maybe), woohoo!
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"...and this is a budget build..." Glad you clarified that for us mere mortals....

I am just amazed at the work you have done and the skills you have.

Need video!

I have some CF doors ..????

I will grab a gopro and take you all along for the next ride!

Drive it to breakfast Sunday

Awesome stuff.



Those are some big trees. Drive mindfully...

Awesome to see bro Congrats! I still like it better with the full body on it. But damned if that doesn't look bad ass as is

It's almost a shame to cover up that gorgeous infrastructure, but I'm sure it's going to be equally badass with body panels.

Where are you going to put the 'it's a 914' sign?

The most glaring and complicated thing I have left to finish on the chassis is a windshield. Since this car's windshield frame is chopped and raked, I am going to be making all of this from scratch.

I am going to try to bend a polycarbonate piece into the shape I need, I don't want to use exposed fasteners like most non-glass windshields use, instead I am going to hold the windshield in with a bolted in windshield frame. I started out by making some cardboard templates.
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I then transferred these rough templates to some 3/16" steel, I want this frame to be beefy enough that I can use it to help inform the shape of the poly.
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Here are the rough cut pieces in place, I am using magnets as spacers to leave enough of a gap for the windshield and gasket.
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I made some more templates and made the pieces for the passenger side.
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I am grinding these to fit as tight as I can against the frame, after I get everything dialed in I will go back and cut a gap into this part. good to leave it long for now!
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A lot of effort went into shaping these into the correct shape.
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Outside is shaped! Time to do the inside cut!
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These are still oversized, I am going to need to do a lot of work on these and need to leave a buffer for grinding.
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Looking at the shape the Polycarbonate will have to take is encouraging though, I think I may actually be able to pull this off!
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Doors and a windscreen. Big year year for sure

they grow up so fast

Amazing project. Your crafting skills are beyond belief. The Police that pulled you over didn't even know to ask you "Is this a Fiat?" since it didn't have it's 914 skin on it.

When you get the front and rear on and if it uses the standard 914 front and rear light fixtures, I'd gladly donate LED brake, turnsignals, and reverse lights to the project.

Heck yeah! That would be amazing! Even more motivation to get going on body work! Thank you!

Did you know the 16bit WRX computers only use the rear O2 sensor for emissions purposes? The JDM cars don't even have it. Time for more simplification and weight savings!
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Got a shiny new plug for the bung, this will be a good spot for a wideband once I start tuning.
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There! Saved a couple ounces and shed 4 more wires!
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Mr. Stokes...

I hope this post finds you well. It sure has been awhile. It is your old friend Keith from Vegas. Hit me up on PM. I am thinking about selling my 914 and wanted to talk with you regarding value before I go any further. Since we last taked, we have left the house in Henderson where we all used to live and moved to Colorado Springs. Hope to hear from you soon Dana.

Buds of old,

Keith Wilson

Keith! Good to hear you are still around and in CO Springs. We had lunch at Hooters with LVSteve when I bought his Gold 914 years ago.

Same goes for the EZ-30D 6cyl.

Hey! How ya been???

Just to clarify, all OBD2 cars have an after cat o2 sensor. It's sole purpose is to verify the cat is installed and working. Appropriately coded P0420

Looking forward to seeing the car in person this WCR.

True, however the later drive by wire 32bit wrx/sti use the rear O2 sensor as a secondary input to correct the air/fuel ratio, while the earlier cars just use it check your cat health/existence.

Hey buddy! Good to hear from you, you should start a thread here on the world, I bet we could dial in your car's worth together!

Tom's is a pretty relevant recent sale, went for around 30k, I bet yours is probably in that ballpark.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=335699

My 930 boost sender wasn't working, and verifying correct boost is pretty critical as I dial in the car. This was a parts bin freebie from when I worked at Renegade, a new one is like $180 so the goal was to restore the one I had. I found the issue as soon as I pried the cover off, the little piece of aluminum that holds the end of the return spring had snapped off. (Circled in red)
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I drilled a tiny hole in another piece of the case in a spot that would tension the spring in a similar way to the original then temporarily installed it to tune it.
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There are a few tiny metal tabs inside the sender that you can bend to adjust the min and max travel of the potentiometer. I pressurized my intake and verified the gauge against a second pressure sensor I rigged up. it took a little poking to adjust it but it reads correctly now.
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After a test drive to ensure it worked well I painted the cover I scratched up prying it off. and soldered a longer wire in. finally I put it all back together.
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Then I installed it. Eventually I would like to drive my gauge off of the Subie MAP sensor and eliminate all of this but this will work for now!
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My car is too small, or at least these seats are too high, time to address that!
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I picked up some cheap Bride knockoffs, i was being optimistic and tried just mounting them with the stock rails.
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Predictably they sat way too tall...
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So I took out my angle grinder and removed the floor support.
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I threw some paint on the floor, I will probably add a floor support back in there, haven't figured out how crucial it is yet.
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I mounted the seats on their runners, they are already pretty low but I lowered them an additional inch in the rear to replicate the 914 seating angle.
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then I bolted them to the floor using monster fender washers
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I am going to reupholster and modify these so these are perfect, I fit in them pretty well as well, next step belts!

I almost missed this update. Wish you were local. I'd love to get an up close look.

What are you going to do when its actually "done" ... so much work modifying every single item on the car

Nice work, and choice on seats!

Not sure how crucial those cross-beams are, but a race shop felt they were important enough to save when we lowered my driver's seat. Got about 0.8-inch while keeping sliders.

From post #75 on:
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...80724&st=60

And some more recent pics here, in post #44:
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...37884&st=40

Don't worry, it will never be done, just wait until I disassemble the whole thing again before paint

I bought some Schroth 4-point harnesses with anti-submarining technology, I eliminated the original upper seatbelt mount so a 4-point solution made sense, also this isn't really a full blown race car so I wanted to avoid a 5 or 6 point race harness.
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They mount to the main hoop that passes through the firewall, typically your belts should be between level or sloping up to the seat less than 20 degrees, mine are about dead straight.
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Here they are, next problem to solve is replacing the handbrake I had to eliminate to get these seats to fit in the car...
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I need to move the handbrake in-between the seats now that I have wider seats. Browsing ebay I found one that was perfect for adapting to a 914, it has a built in mount for the cable ends, and the perfect recess that corresponds to the wiring trough in the console.
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Here is the unfortunate victim that gave up its handbrake handle for the build, thanks Ferrari! Second Ferrari bit on the car, that has to be worth a couple hundred horsepower right?
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The Ferrari handbrake mechanism has a pully wheel that the cable loops around, I replaced this with a more normal equalizer, this requires a more conventional end on the cables. To make a more conventional end on the cables I cut a chunk of a bolt and drilled a hole in it, then threaded the cable through.
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Then I blasted it with a nice hot blob of weld.
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To relocate the handbrake to the center you need to buy a second passenger cable to replace the driver side, here is the handle base with the cables and equalizer installed.
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I have to say I am pretty darn happy with this. It is about as close to a bolt in solution as I could find.
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It is reasonably ergonomic and controls the brakes perfectly, there is another thing off the list! Woohoo!
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thats fuchin awesome...