Teach me about 914's please.

[pirate golf]

I think I'm getting rid of my MkIV in the next month and I've got a hankering for an aircooled. I ran across an add on TheSamba.com for a 1975 914. Decent condition and it runs.

I researched a little on the history of the vehicle, but I came up short on good websites for restoration pieces, performance, etc.


I'd like to know what kind of problems I should look for if I go to look at it. What kind of money does it take to restore one and maintain one? Are they cheap like Type 1's? Thanks for the info guys.

[mike]

rust, lots of rust, finickey Bosch injection thats a pain to diagnose, most have been switched out for carbs, parts are expensive.

I'm off to work so I will post more later

[stevehayes01]

Do you know which motor is in that 914? The Type 4 motors (1.7,1.8 and 2.0)that the 914 used are pure junk too. The first thing in short order would be to dump the Type 4 motor and get a 2.2Ltr 6 cylinder air cooled porsche motor.

The other options out there are rotary or v-8 motor swaps as well. I would also look at pan rust on the car and what condition the electrical is in.

[mike]

You can build a type 4 motor to run circles around a 914-6 nowadays, they can reach over 3 liters of displacement and with modern F.I. and Turbo kits can put a reliable 300HP down.

[stevehayes01]

You can build a type 4 motor to run circles around a 914-6 nowadays, they can reach over 3 liters of displacement and with modern F.I. and Turbo kits can put a reliable 300HP down.


This is true... I guess I am just a bitter old man having to rebuild to many Type 4 motors in my lifetime....:D . I do love an old 1776 though!



I am still in favor of doing the rotary swap to a 914 but that take you out of the air cooled arena.

http://web2.airmail.net/atl/Rotary.html

http://web2.airmail.net/atl/Rotarypics/Rotary015.JPG

[URQ]

I still have a 2.3 that I used in my old 83.5 Westy Vanagon and it use to smoke the rear tires all day!
I still dont know what I am going to do with it?

[Defconracing]

there are some pretty sick Chevy Small-block swaps you can do. Someone goes to cars and coffee (ocasionally) in a silver one with a Chevy motor.

[EDM]

Nah it's all about the Subaru motor swap. :tup:

http://www.renegadehybrids.com/914/Subie/Videos/Video01.avi

.

[xoutofstepx]

there are some pretty sick Chevy Small-block swaps you can do. Someone goes to cars and coffee (ocasionally) in a silver one with a Chevy motor.

Yes, very nice!

Here is said car:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v612/kidsneedclues/Cars%20and%20Coffee%203-1-08/DSC_0035.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v612/kidsneedclues/Cars%20and%20Coffee%203-1-08/DSC_0037.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v612/kidsneedclues/Cars%20and%20Coffee%203-1-08/DSC_0036.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v612/kidsneedclues/Cars%20and%20Coffee%203-1-08/DSC_0038.jpg

[mike]

V8 swap is a mess, with guys getting 300HP out of an N/A type 4 motor, or doing 3.6 993 motor swaps, 300 HP is right for that chassis, a V8 is too heavy, over powering, plus you have to worry about putting radiators in a car never designed for them.