75 1.7L 914 Build, for my own learning and project tracking Options

[Vicious]

I've always wanted to own a 914. My dad had a few before I came along and talked about it often. In high school we looked for one to build together but it never happened. In July of 2022, I was visiting my goddaughter at her grandfather's house when the grandfather and I got to talking about cars. He was talking about Karmann Ghias and I said something along the lines of "I'd much rather have a Porsche 914" to which he responded "I've got one. Its been sitting for 20 years" I jokingly told him to let me know if he wanted to sell it. When he came back and said for $1000.00 I could have it I agreed sight unseen.

August of 2022, still never having seen the car, I made the 4 hour drive back with my trailer to pick up my new to me 914. I had no idea what to expect and honestly expected the worst. It had been sitting for 20 years after all. This is the backstory I was given, as best I can remember:

In the early 2000s, he took his rusted out 1973 (i think) 914 to a shop in Des Moines, IA to be restored. They ultimately decided to pick up a shell in I believe Arkansas and frankenstein a car together. Thus why my 1975 has a 1.7L in it. Car got a fresh coat of paint and a rebuild and he drove it home. He was then unable to title the vehicle due to the body swap, stashed it in the back of his shed and never touched it again. Unfortunately, after all this time, he was unable to find any of his paperwork or keys to the vehicle.

Here's how the vehicle looked after getting it out of the shed.

[rhcb914]

I can tell by the thin wall of the cylinder sealing area those are 100% the slip-in kit.

The 1.7 heads registers are 100MM, so your measurement is close enough to say those heads aren't opened for the 1.8/2.0L cylinders which are 105MM.

While cylinders look in OK shape, from my experience I would tell you to punt on those! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Given the look of the combustion chamber, that engine was probably already a smoker!

The NPR pistons are heavy. The thin sealing register will not seal properly, dig into the heads potentially ruining them. Likely to have ring break-in issues and oil control problems because the thin side walls don't have the strength to hold the shape.

I built a 1911 with the NPR kit many years ago. It was just throwing away $$. I got less than 5K miles out of it and never got it to really run right.

If the engine is disposable, sure clean it up and reassemble. But if you want anything to last, you would be better off getting a cheap 96MM AA set and having the heads opened up at the very minimum. Properly built 1911 is a pretty nice combo.