I haven't been working on this a whole lot, too much driving I'm approaching the 8,000 mile mark with no breakdowns yet! I'm still trying to figure out my lean mixture problem I detailed in another thread but will hopefully get that sorted out soon.

I have managed to paint the sail panels. I haven't bought the vinyl yet so I decided to try painting them to see how it looks and if it fails, I can just install the vinyl over it. It came out "alright". Not perfect but doable for the time being.

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I also started making a bike rack for the car. It attaches under the roll bar and can carry two bikes. I thought about just mounting the bikes to the roof but then I wouldn't be able to take the top off and what fun is that? I still have to make something to hold the seats in place.


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There's a good chance you will tuna can your trunk when you hit a bump with that set up. I used to run a bike shop and saw things like that happen quite a bit. That area of the trunk isn't made to handle the impact.

Maybe something that ties in to the bumper mounting points that attaches to the bike axle or rear part of the frame to keep the seat off the trunk?

You car looks great by the way!

-Chris

Yeah I know that's why I still have to make a bracket of some sort that evens out the load. Also the closer to the edge the seat is, the more sturdy the trunk lid is which is where I will have the seat located. The bike was just set on the lid for the picture.

Something along these lines.

914 Bike Rack

Past 9,000 miles...


I started working on the rest of the bike rack. I made a baseplate to hold the seat down and to distribute the weight. I've only made one but once I make a second one for the passenger side I will attach both together via a bungee cord to hold them in place

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I've been doing a lot of little things lately. I fixed the fresh air controls. Now I have a working fresh air fan. I also got all the smaller lights working on the controls as well. For the first time since paint, I have functional door switches so my interior light now comes on by opening either door. I know, I know its the little things that get me excited. This past weekend I did a valve adjustment and while I was under there I decided to swap out mufflers to the Bursch muffler that the car originally had when I bought it. I'm happy I switched because I like the sound much better now.

One problem that came up last week was that I starting to hear a rubbing sound from the front when braking. I took the tires off and to my surprise, one of the brake pads on the driver's side was down to bare metal After inspecting it further, I noticed one of the pistons in the caliper had a "chip" missing which caused the pad to angle itself against the rotor causing it to wear funny. I took a spare caliper, rebuilt it, and installed it with new pads and the problem is now fixed I'll be keeping an eye on it though.

I took it for a long drive in the mountains this past weekend and I did notice a bunch of spitting and popping on decel so I have an exhaust leak somewhere that I need to fix. Now that summer is over I also need to get my heater system functioning again. I took part of the system out when I did various things on the car so I need to add it again. I'll be ordering new heater hoses and such in the next few weeks. Once I get rid of my LE, I will also be replacing some of the seals on the car since it leaks quite a bit of water in the rain. Oh and I'll be doing the "foglight mod" shortly as well. Lots of little stuff to be doing before MURS11!

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Here is a short clip from a drive. I need to make my camera mount a little bit stiffer. It makes me dizzy just watching it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OSbTmVHDyQ


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OSbTmVHDyQ

Well my motor bit the dust today. I had just got home after a 60 mile trip with no problem. I parked it. Came back 5 minutes later to move the car, and a knocking sound roared from the engine while attempting to start it. I had an exhaust leak that I was planning to fix today and at first, I thought maybe a heat exchanger was loose. I put the car in the air, checked the exhaust and it wasn't that loose. I took off the valve covers and nothing looked out of place. I then drained the oil and checked the sump plate and that's when I found the surprise.

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And thats only some of it and none of it is looking good. I put the car back together and pushed it to the corner of the driveway until I decide what I want to do. I don't know exactly what my plan will be but I do know that the engine will be replaced within the next two weeks. Having an inoperable 914 is not option for me not to mention its one expensive driveway ornament. Plus I have to have it running for MUSR 11.

I have a few options at this point.

1) We have a used 2.0L longblock that ran long ago (according to PO) and it has been collecting dust for a while now. I can transfer all my parts over to this core and hope its good.

2) We have a complete 1.8L motor that we know is good. It will need to be gone through with new seals and the L-jet sorted through but should be a good option.

3)I can look for a good used longblock or complete engine to buy.

I'm sorta leaning towards option 1 since it is the cheapest, and I can use all my good bits that are currently on my engine now. Obviously a complete rebuild would be the best option but thats not possible right now.

That Sux! At least you weren't 600 miles from home...

If your going to use the 2.0 I would suggest doing a leak down test on it. If the pump is sound swap the parts and drive it like you stole it.

That's rod bearing material.. Looks like you cooked the oil and lost pressure or had some issue in the lube system. Times like this are when an oil pressure gauge can save thousands of dollars.

I learned that one the hard way a few years ago. Never will I go w/o a oil pressure gauge.
Sorry to see the destruction...

That is a real bummer man, sorry to see that.

Did you notice high oil temps before this happened?

What are considered "safe" oil temp and pressure ranges.

John

Not really. It was was the same as it was for any other drive. Additionally it was only around 75 degrees out for the drive so the temps were cooler than those i've been use to. I have stock gauges so exact temperatures are unknown.


The way I see it is that I pulled this car out of the woods and I didn't do anything to this motor other than replace a few seals, valve adjustments and oil changes. I got 11,000 miles out of it and I'm content with that. The previous owners who neglected the car for it to get the state it did, most likely neglected the motor as well. It happens.

Okay the plan now is to use the 2.0L block i already have. I plan to switch everything over and replace all the seals. My motor and transmission that are currently in the car leak oil like crazy. Every seal possible, leaks. So here is what I plan to replace:

Motor
Front main/pulley seal
Rear Main Seal
valve cover gaskets
pushrod tube seals
oil cooler seals
Sump plate seals

Transmission
Input shaft seal
CV Flange seals
Shift selector shaft seal
Speedo angle drive seal

Am I missing anything? I'm going to do my best to get this thing sealed tight.

Well the engine came out today. It was my quickest engine removal so far. And... all exhaust studs are in tact :trophy I started disassembly and that's all I was able to get done today.

Engine out!
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Some of my oil issues...
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Just some of the mess that built up in the past year...
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As much as I got done
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Tomorrow I will put together the replacement engine and hopefully install it. This will leave me plenty of time to test drive the car and do some other work on it.

Well I found the MAIN reason for my failure...

A picture from one of the heads... notice anything odd?

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Yup, I dropped a valve seat on an intake valve. I was hoping to reuse these heads on the replacement engine but hopefully I have another one I can use.

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Okay the engine is back in the car and all hooked up. In the morning I am going to start it for the first time and get the timing set. Hopefully there will be no problems with the motor and I will get to drive it!

Wow, I haven't updated this is a while. I'll try to bring you up to date. I installed the motor, found out I had low compression due to a leaking valve. I removed the engine again, removed the head, fixed the valve, installed the engine, and was able to get it working enough to drive. Well...... after a thousand miles or so I lost another valve seat. So now I am going to do what I originally should have done and replace it with a complete, low mileage 1.8L motor until I can get around to rebuilding the original motor...

After a trip to MUSR11 and seeing all the fun everyone else was having, I became inspired and have decided to build a 2056 motor for this car. I will gather parts as the budget allows and hopefully have this done in the next year or so.

And now onto the pictures... I started tearing down the engine. This was my first time splitting a case so it was quite exciting.

What I had to work with...

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I found some duct tape on this engine. It was covering up the JB Weld on one of the galley plugs
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Remember the metal flakes that I found in the oil? My camshaft bearings were completely trashed and it was immediately obvious once I opened it up.


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Despite the cam bearings being trashed, everything else looked remarkably well from a novice's point of view. Nothing I can see seems out of whack but let me know if you guys see something I don't.


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There was some lint on the shaft
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Camshaft
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Some nice wear patterns.
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And finally the galley plugs. You can see where I started removing some of this mess. I will remove everything, tap the holes, and install plugs.

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I thought I would give a little update on this...


So far I've managed to put 17K miles on the car since first getting it on the road 23 months ago. Not too shabby. Currently I'm running a 1.8L engine with CIS injection and it is running beautifully. I'm still planning to build up the original 2.0L to 2056 but all I've managed to do is drill and tap the oil galley plugs so not much progress there.

I have done some little things to the car such as add new horns, a new clutch, rear trunk shocks, and I also ordered new targa vinyl for it but have yet to install it. I will post pics as I get work done but so far too much driving has been happening Gah, I love this car.

Today I installed the installed the sail panel vinyl that I got from Camp914. It looks sooo much better.

And an action shot from two weekends ago...

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I just read through your entire thread and have to say you've done an outstanding job on your car.

Here in California, too many cars with that amount of rust are just parted and the carcasses sent to the bone yard

You've shown remarkable talent with your metal working skills, and I congratulate you for keeping another one on the road.