The 25-year/250,000-mile refresh, UPDATE 5.15.2017: After first 1,000-mile trip Options

[horizontally-opposed]

Now you can drive it down to the West Coast Ramble! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif)

Great to see it's coming along Pete. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

This thing you speak of...does it require the ability to take something called vacation? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)


(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)







Thanks, Mike!!

Next step is finalizing the wheel/tire package, then sending the car back into paint to have the sides redone. Test fit of 215/60R15 rears below, just to see if they would even physically fit in the wells. They will, though it is tight on both sides with the LR. It's a bit better on the RR, but I suspect I am going to have to play with the fenders just a bit.

[rick 918-S]

PHAT !! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)

[rick 918-S]

PHAT !! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)

[mskala]

...With some tuning—mainly timing related—it made 169 hp at the rear wheels with 147 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheels. Applying a 15% powertrain loss factor, which always gives me the hives, that's 199 hp and 173 lb-ft at the flywheel. The torque comes on strong nice and low and then stays fairly consistent from there on up, from 3000~ rpm up to and through 6000 rpm. Not shabby for a small-bore 2.2, and very driveable. I'm told there's a little more power to be had with a different exhaust setup with the collectors moved further forward, and we lost more than we should have when the factory 914-6 air box went back on, so I need to figure out my final exhaust and intake setup before we do final tuning.

For the time being, however, I am one happy camper. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

Good job. Looked back over the engine pictures. What is this thing? It is obviously
not your engine

[JmuRiz]

Great results, I'm tempted to scrap my distributor when I warm up my 2.7 for my project.

[horizontally-opposed]

Can't believe it's been two years since I updated this thread. I have a lot of updating to do, but I'll skip forward to the last week or so because the car ran like a champ in its first trip to SoCal in 20 years...

If you are doing one of these projects, it can be daunting/annoying/draining/etc. Just know...it's WORTH IT!

Now, on to some pics from the run to Luftgekühlt, with the 914 packed up for a 1,000-mile journey and the GT4 kicked to the curb. What was I thinking?

[horizontally-opposed]

Didn't take many pics on the way down 101 to LA, but DID take a lot of notes.

The 2.2 is torquey around town, sings up to redline, and—with a factory airbox that is robbing 20 hp on the dyno—quiet enough on long drives. Unfortunately, the wind noise was awful—and a stark contrast to the quiet freeway cruiser this car was when I got it. More work is needed to quiet the noise at the A-pillars and windshield. The list of other things to sort is long, but most are minor annoyances. Some bigger ones, like heat and handling. It really was neat to go down the road in this car....need to take it on more trips.

When it got down to LA, it got checked into the Malibu Car Wash, where a 914 looks a little funny next to some of the other iron (and carbon fiber) that is usually being cleaned, but the crew there did a GREAT job, and for a lot less than the detailers I use up in Northern California.

[horizontally-opposed]

Luftgekühlt was a LOT of fun, and I was blown away by many of the cars there—and some very nice 914s also. There are so many pics online and on social feeds that I won't weigh this thread down with that stuff, so I'll just skip to three from the ride home. One from Point Magu, and then a stop in Santa Barbara where the car lived for a single semester (only felt right to play "One Headlight" by the Wallflowers on the way out of town*), and then a shot to try and capture that feeling when an old car gets you home through the night. Besides the wind noise, high-speed cruising is effortless, and it did better on fuel economy than I thought (though still not so great compared to a -4). The biggest thing, however, was the experience—I never forget the drives I take in this car.

*Particularly because, for the first time in 28 years, my headlights are acting funny, with the driver's side headlight taking its own sweet time to lower itself after turning off the lights. Sometimes 2-20 minutes after the right one goes down.

[horizontally-opposed]

And, after a quick wash, it was back on the road to R Gruppe's 2017 Treffen in Napa—where there were several cool 914s. The 914 and GT4 got a little love, being placed up front in a row of hot-rod 911s parked next to the dinner tables, for a bit of alternate flavor and mid-engined contrast in a typically 911-dominated event.

Photos by good friend Pete Ritter

[horizontally-opposed]

What is this thing?

Good question—was in the group of pics I got from the engine builder. Suspect that's one of his other builds.

[horizontally-opposed]

Btw, need to find then pics, but I eventually did mount that 215/60R15 to a real 15x7R to see if it could be snuck into the rear fenders.

Working with washers and longer studs, I was able to get it into both sides, but the inner tire was rubbing on the trailing arm and car brake line, and there was NO room for the tire to "walk" around under load. So I skipped and went to 185/70R15 Avons for now. I like them, but miss seeing fatter rubber tucked under the car. May move to something else. We'll see.

[horizontally-opposed]

Here we go...

[Cairo94507]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif) Beautiful 914.