Low buck 914 Outlaw project

Hi,

After about a 2 year break from any project car action.... I am ready to dig into this partially resto’d 914 I picked up last month!

The “break” was a result of a move to a new house that had extremely limited parking/working space when purchased. It is a really cool house and great location - exactly what we were looking for so when I had to let go of the car I was building previously (Supercharged 1uz/6 speed 190e - there is a thread on it somewhere here...) it was kind of ok....

So here it is the day it was coming home. The previous, previous, previous owner did all the work done so far. The 2 other guys in the lineup did nothing at all. I managed to get ahold of the first guy after I bought it and got the full lowdown on what happened - coming in part 2 along with my evil plans.

Part 2

Although this still needs a pretty serious amount of work to finish, most of the gross, filthy nasty stuff is already complete. It had all the dirt and undercoating removed, tub was sandblasted, all rusty bits cut out and new metal welded in. This included the hellhole area and parts of the trunk floor. During this period the rear 914-6 GT reinforcement kit was welded in as well as the in cockpit bracing.

The whole body was epoxy primed and most areas painted Porsche Tangerine. 

This looks awesome. I’m a big 914 fan. I’m excited to hear about the “outlaw” part!

Part 3 - Outlaw plans

Power train

The 914 came with a pretty complete 1.7l type 4 motor but those are pretty lame so I sold it off.

First choice for new motor would be a 911 6 cylinder.... but the prices recently for anything 911 has put that plan well out of reach.

Second choice is a SBC swap - pretty low buck all considered for the power gains. Lots of subie swaps out there which is also a good plan but somehow in my mind a mid engine v8 feels like the way to go. 

Rest of the car

The rest of the plans for the car will include:

• 5 bolt conversion
• Convert the front trunk area to support water cooling 
• redo the interior in a minimalist kinda way
• Re-paint the exterior after finishing the bodywork. 

So far I have rebuilt the trailing arms and prepped the hubs to drill the 5x130 pattern.

I bought a sweet set of cookie cutters for the car but I’m now not sure they are wide enough 6” and 7” front/rear.

Sweet!  I have a '74 1.8 ready for it's rustoration, it will not be quite stock.

Look forward to this build!

OT, but 914 and orange: from Redding CA fire

coexist said:

OT, but 914 and orange: from Redding CA fire

Ouch!!

How about a lathe cut and 2” more barrel?  Those centers cut and drilled for bbs Rs multipiece would be cool...

I’ve looked st this pic quite a few times with the same thought.

84FSP said:

How about a lathe cut and 2” more barrel?  Those centers cut and drilled for bbs Rs multipiece would be cool...

Aren't those fifteen52 teardrops?

The car came without a dash or gauges - turns out there is an early and late style of both. 

I ended up finding the correct one in Florida and shipped it up - gauges came from Illinois. I sandblasted and painted the dash structure so it would look nice.... even though I don’t think you can see it once all the dash pads are on etc. 

Rear hubs and discs re-drilled and studded with longer studs to accommodate a 1” spacer.

I also super carefully masked, sanded and painted the gauge bezels so they no longer have a bit of the rusty...

New bushings, new wheel bearings, new 70mm long studs, new lug nuts, new discs, new plated hardware, new paint and new spacers - feels like these things were a build all on their own....

 Excited to bolt these in this weekend finally and see where the wheels will actually sit in relation to the flares. I have a feeling I will still need to go to 8” wide rims at least in the back.

The rear rims fit closer to the flares lip now with the spacers which is much nicer. 

Got some adaption action in - very happy scoring all this for $130! 

The plan is to get/build a short stroke smaller displacement motor that can rev reasonably well and not make a ton of torque - kind of opposite to what most SBC builds are all about.

What is your plan for the trans?

In reply to Pattyo :

Stock 914 transaxle for now. 

I can show you how to build a 331 ON A BUDGET that flow's over 100% VE with 200cc heads and make approx. 600 hp and spin 8000 rpm. IT was A Mighty Mouse build we did at Chevy High Peformance. MOSTLY FACTORY PARTS, today you can buy more expensive parts. heads were just 200 cc darts 

GTXVette said:

I can show you how to build a 331 ON A BUDGET that flow's over 100% VE with 200cc heads and make approx. 600 hp and spin 8000 rpm. IT was A Mighty Mouse build we did at Chevy High Peformance. MOSTLY FACTORY PARTS, today you can buy more expensive parts. heads were just 200 cc darts 

Please do go on.  When I hear 600 HP and 8000 rpm, my brain just ignores everything because it sounds so unreachable.  The "ON A BUDGET" has my interest.

it starts with a good block , the good early block is a 4 bolt 327 block made after late 64 when they went to the large journal crank, this build was 15 years back and parts are better still. the 350 blocks are just a bit stronger and heavier

. at .060 over a 4" bore can keep a 2.02 valve open for ever and I think it was around .580's lift, not going crazy on port size Hi 190's  and carb size  750 is plenty, 12.1 compression. with a short stroke you can go to 6" rods. you can do this with small journal blocks too, I know I am minimalizing this a lot and using old parts require just as muck work as new parts,

it can kill you at a machine shop

really though new stuff is so cheap now I want a 400 block with a 327 crank/ala dart block with 350 crank size. don't know how old you are but the sound of those tiny chevy's reving to 7 on a hot summer night is something I never want to forget.

the dz 302 is the late 283 crank in the late 327 block,  same same in the small journal block. heck there is a set of 441x heads brand new on cl atl. now. best head made until the bowtie came out on the 350.

sorry but there was no 1964 327 4 bolt blocks with large journals.

the LJ 327 came along in 1968, with a 2 bbl carb and used the same "010" casting number block as the 350.

for this car I would use a "010" block bored .030" not .060" as the walls are not thick enough, I tried it and it made a perfect lawn sprinkler! add a 3" stroke crank with 6" rods and flat top pistons, a set of Edelbrock or AFR or similar  aluminum heads with 64 cc chambers. use a hydraulic roller cam short duration, high lift. use a factory FI manifold with megasquirt.

it will run on regular gas , get over 20 mpg, and turn over 7000 rpm, and sound like heaven came to you.

“it will run on regular gas , get over 20 mpg, and turn over 7000 rpm, and sound like heaven came to you”

That sounds like a lot of “Yes” to me.

In reply to OldDave :

looking back you are right about the years. I would argue the 67 dz was large journal but then I remembered it uses the green rod /small and 68 up was pink rods/large journal. anyway getting a small block to turn up rpm's is easy, a different combo from round track or drag racing, OH and if you want a sound worthy of that car use 180 deg. headers. 

I have been thinking about the 180 header option. Not sure if I want to cut the car up in the back though. This is one I found online with off the shelf Shoenfeld headers.