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

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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.

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Disappointing day today.

Got back home tonight a bit earlier than expected so of course couldn't wait to get the case apart. I wanted to check the bearings and make sure standard size would work so I could get everything ordered.

As i said before I had my doubts about the story I'd been told by the PO. Allegedly the engine was rebuilt and had 200 miles on it.
The cam gear suffered some kind of horrible damage. For the life of me I'm not sure how that even happens.


The cam showed a good amount of wear. And there was a lot of scoring on the main journals, the bearings and even a decent amount of scoring on the bearing seats of the case. A lot of wear on the lifters, alot of wear on the lifter channels of the case.



I'm going to get the crankshaft inspected. I think it should be salvageable. If not it might be time to think about upgrading to a 2.0 crank and get the case bored out while I'm having the other casework done. Unfortunately that means the motor rebuild is on hold for a few weeks until that's done.