Derelict 914 - k24 powered

I love the idea of starting fresh although I have to say that I've never pulled the trigger on doing it. I wish I had done it on the E21 and may still especially now that the CIS is gone.

You seem really good at planning things out and executing but that would be my only suggestion. Don't let what can be a complicated process of designing circuits, physical running of the wires, etc. push actually driving the thing too far down the road. 

So far the only harnesses I've built from scratch were for bare bones motorcycles. Not much to those circuits compared to a car, but I feel like if I just do one circuit at a time it seems well within reach and maybe less scary. It's also on the list of things I'd like to do so skipping that process seems like chance for regret. In the meantime I think using what I have to test out systems may be the move.

In reply to captainawesome :

A 914 isn't much more than a motorcycle. Just twice as many lights...

In reply to rdcyclist :

That's a good way to think of it. It's just a motorcycle with a few more bells and whistles.

Most of my hours at work yesterday were spent modifying the stock wiring diagram to remove any circuits I won't need. It wasn't much but at least the diagram only has what I need. I will be adding in a radio and a push button start that uses RFID tags. No key for this car will be needed which will be neat.

Less than $24 gets you an Easyguard which seems to have good reviews. Even with the stock harness I plan to use this. I just need to source a button that will fit the stock key hole on the column.

In the afternoon I had a bit of daylight so I got back into removing the spare harness. The only area I have left is the fresh air blower which I've read can be a pain in the ass. Hopefully this weekend I'll have the time and patience to get it free.

Once it got dark I spent a minute or two looking at my planned frunk venting solution. It's a 12"x16" stainless louvered panel. I bought a smaller one but was worried it wouldn't have enough surface area. The smaller one was super beefy and this one is a little thinner. Since the frunk floor isn't super flat where I plan to fasten I may need to cut and weld in some material.

I'll be interested to see what you come up with in terms of wiring, as that is going to be something that I'll have to address on the Towpar. In the meantime, everything else looks AWESOME!

captainawesome said:

Most of my hours at work yesterday were spent modifying the stock wiring diagram to remove any circuits I won't need. It wasn't much but at least the diagram only has what I need. I will be adding in a radio and a push button start that uses RFID tags. No key for this car will be needed which will be neat.

Less than $24 gets you an Easyguard which seems to have good reviews. Even with the stock harness I plan to use this. I just need to source a button that will fit the stock key hole on the column.

 

In the afternoon I had a bit of daylight so I got back into removing the spare harness. The only area I have left is the fresh air blower which I've read can be a pain in the ass. Hopefully this weekend I'll have the time and patience to get it free.

Once it got dark I spent a minute or two looking at my planned frunk venting solution. It's a 12"x16" stainless louvered panel. I bought a smaller one but was worried it wouldn't have enough surface area. The smaller one was super beefy and this one is a little thinner. Since the frunk floor isn't super flat where I plan to fasten I may need to cut and weld in some material.

What's that vent for?  If it to evacuate air that has gone through the radiator, I do not think it is any where close to big enough.  Those vents have only a tiny amount of surface area.

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

Radiator vent. I've seen some setups with similar surface area cooling setups that should run hotter than my own. I figured if this wasn't enough I could go to phase two which is either weld in full louvered panels like pictured below or add some to the inner fender area like other 914 swaps for supplemental flow. Based on my reading the radiator I have is probably larger than I need which will probably allow me some wiggle room. I'll have to see what my napkin math was for the area using this vent but it seemed like enough? I think it was ~6"x.25" for each opening with 26 vent holes in total which equals 39 square inches of area.

These are upside down and I don't see the need for the holes.

These louvers are considerably larger but not sure they are necessary.

I don't like Honda swaps and 914s are dumb.

Do carry on. Looks like fun.

Curious on that push button start kit, I'm intrigued enough that I picked one up

fouckhest said:

Curious on that push button start kit, I'm intrigued enough that I picked on up

How does it lock/unlock the steering column?

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

You have to disable that "feature" by whatever means necessary if I remember correctly. I don't have the instructions with me at the moment but it is mentioned in it somewhere.

With no steering column lock, one could just slip it in Neutral and push it away to somewhere it can be hotwired.  I'm not really interested anymore.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I had not considered that but for my application it's not a worry.

I've been keeping my eye out for fog or driving lights. A lens replacement on the one that's broken of mine was possible but then these Napa labeled Sylvania driving lights popped up on ebay. They had some neat covers and seemed to be somewhat period correct.

They needed to be mounted further back on the brackets the car already has to not poke out but otherwise bolted into place. The passenger side bracket isn't at the same height as the driver so it needs some tweaking.

I thought I would dig the covers more but with them being black they just get lost. If I find some white ones I may snatch them up. Maybe paint these with white or yellow plastic paint and decal them with Napa logos?

That's all I had time for this evening. I hope to get more substantial stuff checked off the list this weekend but I gotta remember this isn't a race. My main goal is to have a running and driving car that can go around the block by summer. It's a lofty goal and quite frankly not likely. Can't hurt to shoot for the stars though.

Got some stuff checked off the list today. The expansion tank couldn't be mounted until some firewall holes were welded shut. I've been putting this off and I don't know why. The first hole I had the wife hold my brass paddle on the backside but she had to bail afterwards. So the rest I did without the paddle and managed to do a decent job.

Since the driver side went so well I thought it best to do the passenger side. These were much smaller and took very little time.

And now all sanded smooth.

What's the first thing you do after welding up holes? Drill two new ones for the expansion tank bracket.

The seat will be right in front of the rivnuts but I plan to carpet the inside so it won't be visible regardless. 

That went fast as well so I got right into spot welding the fuel regulator bracket to the passenger side.

I went ahead and set up the feed line to the fuel rail with quick release fittings. Until I get the stainless lines through the tunnel I can't quite finish the return and main supply into the regulator.

The blue cap sticks out like a sore thumb so I'll probably trade it out for a black one soon. You can't see it with the engine cover closed but it bothers me.

Since I was on a roll I decided to weld the lower rad mounts in place. Unfortunately I didn't align them as well as I had hoped, so the top bracket on the passenger side isn't lined up as well as it should. I may need to adjust that, but for now it will work fine.

I had to call it for the day but tomorrow hopefully I can check a few more items off the list.

You're smoking right along, I can see a summer drive happening easily!

My goal for my Mini hot rod is a drive before winter sets in, then I can blow it all back apart and send it to paint over the winter, if I get it back in the late spring of '26 (a BIG if!) I could be driving it by fall!

I need to get cracking!

In reply to MiniDave :

I definitely have some momentum going. I've built a large list and one section is strictly 5-15 minute jobs I can do when I pop in the garage with only a few minutes to spare. Not surprisingly it's made a difference but is mostly stuff that's not worthy of pics or updates. 
 

You appear to be on a hot streak as well. I have the upside of my paint being haggard and staying that way. I do plan to pull it all apart next winter to redo the front pan where the suspension bolts in. I don't even want to think about that yet though.

As mentioned in my last post I have a list of quick jobs that can be done when bored or only a few minutes to spare ar available. After dinner I removed the massive radio antenna poorly retrofitted to the passenger side. I had to remove the front wheel to get in there but it required very little effort to be freed. I'm not sure if I'll weld up the large hole on top of the fender or not yet.

Then I pulled the gas tank for more tinkering. I spent a few minutes measuring the resistance when full or empty on the fuel sender unit and mapping which pins go where on the external plug. Based on my research I will need to run a resistor inline with the signal wire to get a cleaner reading at the dash gauge from the Haltech ECU. Since the Subaru unit is so low I'll maybe run a 75ohm resistor?

I actually spent most of my Friday night reassigning pins and planning out my wiring in the Haltech base map. The map that Humble Performance includes runs a reverse lockout which I won't need. I also won't need the tachometer output signal since my Powertune dash will recieve that data from CAN. The tacho will be switched out to a second cooling fan output. I have a spare AVI input which will be used for the fuel sender. The last piece of the puzzle is the VSS signal. I was hoping to run the Audi sensor but Haltech prefers a hall effect style and Audi is reluctor. The signal converters out there are pricey and a lipstick style hall effect is a couple bucks. Some folks more experience than me say the bolts heads will be enough for a tone ring so that's what I plan to try out.

The setup will be similar to this.

Before I put the tank back in I trimmed a couple tabs that can no longer be used due to the in tank pump. That lead me to attaching the filler neck and then trying to clean it all up. I didn't want a brand new looking tank so instead of sanding and painting I sprayed a paper towel with bumper trim paint and wiped all the surfaces down. This kept it a bit crusty but in a nicer condition than before. I think that's it for the evening.

I got a late start Sunday but managed to get some work done.

Before I can install the gas tank again I need to weld up a torn tank mount. This required removing the fresh air box stuff which kinda snowballed into removing the dash cap and lower dash pad. I still have some of the old harness that needs pulled out as well.

So the tank mount got welded along with some random holes I found throughout the frunk. I also opened up the coolant hose passage so I could have a rubber grommet and still fit the hoses through.

I broke both sides of the vent flapper things due to a half dozen pens and pencils that found their way into the defrost vents. Hopefully I can extract the ones from the parts car without issue.

Almost forgot I welded up this cut in the frunk floor.

I spent some time trying to clean up the dust that's been dormant for decades while the air box stuff is out. This is AFTER some nylon brush and shop vac work. More to be done but it's way better.

The trunk bolt strap thing got welded up with some holes.

And more in the frunk.

The mess was starting to get out of hand.

The dash work sucks but hey, the frunk has some good progress going on.

I kinda needed something to really wrap up the progress for the weekend and make me feel like I accomplished something. A while back I found that Gates makes these heat sleeves used on coolant hoses. I thought they would be perfect for the splices I have in the system so I won't need a half dozen hose clamps. RockAuto had them for around $3 each so I bought enough to do the whole system other than the actual connection points that will be serviced.

Let me tell you boys and girls, these things are worth every penny!

They cover the splices while also clamping them together. It's a thing of beauty.

I also added a splice with an 1/8 NPT port to drain the system. This is located on the thermostat side high enough to not snag on stuff. Once again the miracle clamps were used.

Last but not least was the splice made on the water neck coming off of the head. So for the whole 1 1/4" hose system I will need only 4 clamps to secure it all but still be able to remove everything or service all sides without issue. It's brilliant.

whoa, those are super cool.  I've never seen those before. 

In reply to golfduke :

I can't recall where I stumbled upon them but imagine they will get used again when I set up the heater core lines. Super neat idea that seems like it would be more well known than it is. I know some folks use them as their actual clamp at the radiator but that would be a tough roadside fix. Probably not the best use case if you plan to frequently open up the system.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

With no steering column lock, one could just slip it in Neutral and push it away to somewhere it can be hotwired.  I'm not really interested anymore.

Fun fact: ND Miatas don't have a column lock. I'm sure you could rig up something with a solenoid if you really wanted one, but boy howdy is it nice when you're working on the front suspension. 

Love the use of the Gates clamps, those are super nice!

I love the progress!  Whats the material of those Gates clamps and how do you "tighten" them?  Do you have a metal sleeve inside those connections?   I've never seen them before either, but they look nice!