Cairo's (Michael) 6 - Part 2, 3.2 coming out and '95 3.6 going in... Options

[tygaboy]

That's some pretty heady company, Michael! And your car more than stands up to it. You should be quite proud! Just lovely...

[Cairo94507]

@tygaboy - Thank you Chris. We are proud of my car. It's hard to compete with something that just finished a full professional restoration that has not been driven and just rolled off the trailer onto the lawn-let alone it being a real 916! I do not enter Werks to win, I enter because of all of the people who attend and just love seeing our 914s and want to talk about them. That's the fun.

I let people sit in my car because they thought they were small inside- One guy was about 6'2" and he said he would never fit. I told him John Holleran is 6'6" and he fits in and drives my car and owns a real 914-6 of his own since he was a teenager. When he got in, he was shocked at the leg and head room. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[Cairo94507]

Took her to a local Classic Car Show in Old Town Auburn. Took pics when we first arrived and then was too distracted by all the cars that showed up. I had the only Porsche there. I got a terrific spot with no cars next to me and right near the stage.

The cutest thing was a late-teen, early-20-something girl who got all excited when she saw my car and told her girlfriend "I see this car all over town". She then proceeded to take pictures of it and do a selfie of herself with my car in the background. I would rate her a solid 9 out of 10. If I was single and 40 years younger..... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[raynekat]

Stunning, beautiful car. Nice

[Cairo94507]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) Thank you very much.

[autopro]

That's a great picture of your car. I'm happy to see that the young girl really likes your car, most young persons these days don't care about older classic cars. : (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[bkrantz]

That's a great picture of your car. I'm happy to see that the young girl really likes your car, most young persons these days don't care about older classic cars. : (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

Or older classic guys.

[type2man]

Props to you for the sole reason you drive it and are not a little bitch that trailers their car to every show just to get a pedegree ribbon thats costs $6 to make. Only thing I would change from what I see is the led fog lights. Those 5 ring lights dont look good. Thats just me though, but I am sure you see it...

[Cairo94507]

I appreciate that. It was a tough call on the fog lights. I run them as daytime running lights, so I wanted them bright and believe me, they are. So it was a trade off I was willing to accept. If Spoke ever comes out with a more stock looking fog lite kit, I will gladly buy it.
When I run into people who have seen the car on the road, they comment on the intensity of the lights and they definitely see it coming. That was my goal- I want to try to reduce the chances of some dolt pulling out in front of me because they did not see my car coming. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[billh1963]

She then proceeded to take pictures of it and do a selfie of herself with my car in the background. I would rate her a solid 9 out of 10. If I was single and 40 years younger..... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

No pics of the girl? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)

[Cairo94507]

So we did some maintenance on my car over the past couple days. I had weeping valve covers and leaking axle seals. We adjusted the valves, replaced one possibly leaking rocker shaft seal and replaced both axle seals. We found 3 valves that were loose and maybe 2 that were tight. Now they are all perfect and the engine sounds much happier.

I have to say, I was shocked when we went to pull the heat exchangers off and saw AASE Motors had not changed out the exhaust studs for the heat exchangers to the 47mm length studs. They left the stock 3.2 heat exchanger studs in which are about 1/2" longer to accommodate the thicker heat exchanger flanges on the 3.2, than what is required for Ben's heat exchangers. Instead of replacing the studs while the engine was on the engine stand they added 1/2" spacers onto the studs then the nuts- funky. We removed all 12 studs (that was a bit of a chore requiring heat on about 6 of them and welding a nut onto one that snapped off) and installed the new shorter studs that accept the correct barrel nuts. The next time we do the valves, it will be easy to drop the exhaust. Best of all, they are now correct.

I was very pleased to see all 6 spark plugs looked brand new after approx. 8K miles- love fuel injection. Did an oil and filter change too. Oil had a little over 3K miles on it and it was nice and clean.

We drained the transaxle and put in Valvoline 85/140 GL4/GL5 gear oil. We also installed the Tangerine Racing firewall shift rod bearing. We had some play in the shift rod shaft where you could move the rod about 1/8" all around. Now it is nice and looks good too.

We took the opportunity to raise the car approximately 1" front and rear as it was just a bit too low. Pretty easy to pull the rear Bilstein shocks out and raise the saddle clips 2 notches and reinstall. The front took about 5 minutes to crank the torsion bar adjusters up. Car rides better now.

Here are some pics of the work in progress. Big thanks to Greg T. for putting up with me and showing me what to do as we did this stuff. I had a great time. Also a big thanks to my twin brother Bob and HB who were there both days and watched and listed as we worked through our list. HB has 2 914's and is gearing up for a 6-swap into his copper car and suspension update to 5-lugs on his yellow car. I have to say we had a great time. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[Craigers17]

Awesome car.....very clean. How many miles since the build was complete? I think that's the cleanest tranny I've seen on a functioning 914!

[Krieger]

Looking really good!

[Mike Bellis]

Car looks so pretty.

I'm sad I moved before I got to see it in person.

[tygaboy]

Working on your car with buddies... one of life's great pleasures, for sure. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

Michael, your car looks spectacular. No surprise there!
Hope to see you and Bobby soon.

[Cairo94507]

My car has exactly 7,150 miles on it since returning to the road. I thought I was at about 9K. Checking the speedometer pic when the car camera apart clarified my thoughts...

I appreciate the comments; since I no longer have a lift to keep the bottom clean, it is actually dirty. We cleaned it off a bit when working on it. But I need to get it up in the air and I don't see us getting a lift installed for about 1.5 years as we are still dealing with the County and the HOA to get permits approved before we can begin building the new garage.... Now I understand why people say building a new home is a pain in the rear.

Here is a pic of the new ride height, up 1". Now I need to shop for some tires, 195x65x15 to help fill the wheel wells up a bit. My current tires are terrific, but they are 195x55x15.

Cheers everybody,
Michael (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[Dion]

Michael, your car is looking so fantastic. Nice work on the engine maintenance. I imagine it’s sounding as sweet as ever.
So glad your putting miles on it. Enjoy it to the max!
Cheers mate (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[Dion]

Oops, double posted.

[autopro]

Considering the amount of miles you have put on it, it didn't need much maintenance. Goes to show the good work you did building it. Car looks beautiful.

[Cairo94507]

Thanks @autopro - I try to stay on top of it. It seems I am always trying to get it a little better.

The guys in southern California who assembled my car, Kent, Jim, Bob and Andy, did a great job, especially when you consider they received a disassembled damaged mess with tons of missing 914-6 specific parts after the VA shop was unable to locate a lot of my original parts.... I am eternally grateful to them as this car would never have come to life without their skill, knowledge and patience.

In my sights for the future is to install a square weave German carpet kit. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)