Progress thread 74 2.0 to 3.0 6, Time to assemble Options

[Luke M]

I figured why not start this thread. The car is a 74 914 2.0 that's been sitting since the early 90's. It was parked outside/in the woods up until my brother purchased it last fall. It didn't look too bad from 20 feet away but when you look closer it gets pretty bad. So, here's the plan... strip the car, fix the rust problems, paint it, add a 5 lug suspension, and convert it to a 3.0 6. Stay tuned for pics of the progress..


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[Luke M]

It's been way too hot and muggy here to do any welding on the car.
Figured why not take a break from that and get the motor prepped.
My brother picked up an 83 3.0 a while back from a guy doing a 3.6 upgrade.
The shop that was doing the work said it was resealed not long ago and was a good running engine with good leak down numbers. I was looking it over and figured before I get too crazy installing the fan, wiring, flywheel, tins, and cooler to check the cylinder head torque. The 3.0 are known for broken head studs but was advised these are good. I wanted a piece of mind so I checked them anyway. Well guess what, The first lower head stud that I went to check snapped right off. I was like just great , now it's time to tear into this. I got the heads off and could clearly see that the stud had been broken for some time but didn't snap off. I checked all of the lower studs and sure enough three more where ready to let go. I could tell that someone had recently been in the engine at least on the top end by the new seals/sealant. Could the stud issue been know at that time? Guess I'll never know. Based on a sketchy " known " history we decided it was best to take it all down. Good thing we did tear it all apart as the #5 rod bearing looked like it was ready to let go soon too. Guess the " good " motor deal just turned into a major overhaul. Well not really cause my brother did get sweet deal on this motor and good luck finding a core for that price. One of the studs snapped right off too low to get out so I tried to welded a nut on it but it just wouldn't let go. It kept breaking the stud. That was it I said. I just dropped off several parts to the machine shop so now it's time to order up the stuff needed to put this baby back together. Oh and it's getting some upgrades now that it's apart.. Stay tuned.