Freshening up an older 914-6 conversion:, Making a 914-6 Conversion your own Options

[boxstr]

Dan, good evening. Glad to see that you are still around. I lost track of you for a while. Let me know if you are coming down to Portland anytime soon, I would love to get together.
Craig at Camp

[Root_Werks]

Dan, good evening. Glad to see that you are still around. I lost track of you for a while. Let me know if you are coming down to Portland anytime soon, I would love to get together.
Craig at Camp

Will do Craig, looking forward to making some fun road trips once this 914 is back on the road.

[horizontally-opposed]

Still have a couple of weeks until I tow my 914 to the body/paint guy.

Ben's working on an oil cooler and shift rod for me. Correct oil lines on the way.

AND

Bought the Koni's that were for sale. Wound up being adjustable oil filled Special D's which I was hoping for. They work perfectly, can adjust and feel a nice smooth resistance change with each adjustment. Cleaned them up a bit.

Gotta figure out what springs to use now. Stock, but cut 1 1/2 coils off or something slightly higher rate? Street car, don't want to bounce around but know I have a bit more weight with the six.

Any suggestions?

Nice score on the Koni rears. Have a pair waiting for a rebuild.

Highly recommend 140lb springs for a street car you'll drive hard from time to time. Installed 140s back in the 1990s, and never looked back. Car rode beautifully, and handled great too. Wondered about a need to move to 160s with a six conversion, but the 140s are still great.

[Root_Werks]

Still have a couple of weeks until I tow my 914 to the body/paint guy.

Ben's working on an oil cooler and shift rod for me. Correct oil lines on the way.

AND

Bought the Koni's that were for sale. Wound up being adjustable oil filled Special D's which I was hoping for. They work perfectly, can adjust and feel a nice smooth resistance change with each adjustment. Cleaned them up a bit.

Gotta figure out what springs to use now. Stock, but cut 1 1/2 coils off or something slightly higher rate? Street car, don't want to bounce around but know I have a bit more weight with the six.

Any suggestions?

Nice score on the Koni rears. Have a pair waiting for a rebuild.

Highly recommend 140lb springs for a street car you'll drive hard from time to time. Installed 140s back in the 1990s, and never looked back. Car rode beautifully, and handled great too. Wondered about a need to move to 160s with a six conversion, but the 140s are still great.

Exactly the feedback I was hoping someone would provide, thanks! Was debating on getting 100lb springs, but worried they'd be a little soft. I prefer a slightly higher spring rate and lower dampening rate for street use.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[Root_Werks]

Pulled the engine to redo some things and replace some pieces. Have the time, might as well.

For those interested, check out the homemade mount. It's a modified 911 crossbar. The system relies on sheet metal shelf to support not just the engine. I'll remove all this and install a bulkhead mount.

Engine and cross bar:

[Root_Werks]

Inside the engine bay, you can see the mount plates. Everything added looks like 3/16" plate steel.

There are so many holes drilled in the 914 everywhere. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[Root_Werks]

Had to Dremel, cold chisel and grind for a bit of time. Tried hard not to damage any original metal, but still wound up tearing good metal off the firewall (no, that's not a rusted area).

Lots of holes to weld up:

[Root_Werks]

The pieces from the constructed mount:

[Root_Werks]

Maddogs mount welded in place, sorry for the fuzzy picture:

[Root_Werks]

Another fuzzy picture, dang, gotta figure out what's up with my phone.

Found rust and will take care of that while I'm here.

Looks like a long term window leak in combo with plugged drain hole. It's very localized which is good. But still sucks I gotta cut it out and patch it.

[Root_Werks]

Done enough with the engine bay. Lots and lots of welding, grinding, cleaning etc.

I'm not fixing the oversized 914-6 oil tank holes. They are what they are.

[Root_Werks]

Found a color in spray can that was sort of close to the Anacona Blue. This isn't that type of 914 that it matters if the color is a bit off. Going to drench it all again with a third coat and call it good.

Found fiberglass patching which had to cut out and replace with metal. Also had to put rear trunk springs back in and remove the shock trunk kit along with welding up holes.

This was a former AC car, there was was a lot of patch work already done. It was so-so, tried to clean it up a bit.

Hoping I can get the engine back in with all the correct 914-6 conversion, cleaned up wiring, oil lines, factory heater boxes and much more before it goes off to paint.

We'll see, I have about another week or so.

[Root_Werks]

Moved the Brake Pressure Regulator, new lines from PMB made that pretty easy. Worked on cleaning up wiring, it was pretty messy. Around the engine still is.

You can see a patch on the engine shelf to the right were the dealer AC once was. I left most of that stuff alone. It's not perfect, but it's solid and just fine.

Getting closer to installing the engine. Waiting on SS fuel lines.

[Root_Werks]

Started installing MD's inner long stiffening kit. Totally forgot how much work it is. Note the little RV jacks to keep door gaps as perfect as possible:

[Root_Werks]

Hardest part is keeping metal tight against long. Lots of clamping, clean and weld a few holes, move to next etc. Takes a long time.

[nditiz1]

Can you provide more pics of your regulator relocation and PMB lines?

I am now on my second set of PMB lines. They sent me a plug and T fitting to use with the early style location. The center line they provided is not long enough to get to the new location unless I add another coupler to the line coming out of the firewall. Looks like you mounted yours vertically and have no T fitting.

[Root_Werks]

Can you provide more pics of your regulator relocation and PMB lines?

I am now on my second set of PMB lines. They sent me a plug and T fitting to use with the early style location. The center line they provided is not long enough to get to the new location unless I add another coupler to the line coming out of the firewall. Looks like you mounted yours vertically and have no T fitting.

PMB sent me an early "kit" which had all hard lines. I wound up using a line that was probably intended for something else.

I started by installing the L & R caliper hardlines. Figured they would determine where the regulator would sit. Then I sorted through the remaining hard lines until I found one that was long enough to bend to meet the mounted regulator.

It was a PITA pulling whatever line I used in and out of the tunnel making small bends until it fit nicely.

Also had to rotate the mounting bracket on the regulator 180. Wound up making a little jig from wood, putting the regulator in a vise so I wouldn't have to worry about breaking a good seal on the halves.

[Root_Werks]

Finished up the inner longitudinal stiffening kit installation last night. This is the 3rd or 4th one of these installed and I've learned a bit each time. Still took me 6-7 hours to do, but it's totally worth it. The reduction in body flex is dramatic when doing the "but test".

I also remember how much less cowl shake there would be when going over bumps or RR track crossings. Very excited to have this done.

914 goes off to paint on the 26th. I think I'll be ready with time to spare.

[Root_Werks]

Quick shot of the new Hi-Torque starter, ground cable, correctly modified cooler from Ben and part of actual repo 914-6 engine tin. Whole engine needs re-wired. The wiring is correct, but messy, really messy. Maybe I can clean it up? On this, starting from scratch might be easier. I'll have time once the 914 goes in for paint.

[rjames]

Nice progress, Dan. Looking forward to seeing the car after the paint job!