912e questions

[greywuuf]

Hello,
I am new to the board and have a '68 karman coupe.... minus motor. I am wondering if someone can enlighten me on the 912e engines ? they were 2.0 ? type IV's. was the cooling essentially the same as the 914/bus ie: pancake or were they some upright mod. I have several of the recomended Porsche texts but can find 912e's only mentioned no good motor pics. I ask in as I have a line on a '74 412 ( injection missing and carb swap not completed ) seems like one of the easier options ( I have toyed with a full Subaru undercarriage ( 4wd and all) but think for now I wont cut her that much. she is in ugly old paint now but as soon as I get the "hoops" completed she will be stripped to bare metal and most likely be perverted into a 73 RS anyone done a SWB to LWB conversion ? Also if there are any rotary conversion owners out there I would LOVE to hear from you. ( I did one to a triumph GT6 and was very impressed )

[John Walklett]

The 912e engine is just the same as the t4 bus engine except for the cylinder heads which are worked slightly different. Also the fuel injection may be a different set up. I used to have a 69' Ghia to which I fitted a 2.0l 912e engine. But I fitted an upright 911 cooling fan conversion and 45 webers. This allows the engine to go straight in the Ghia with out cutting away any body work. It went rather well too.

[Roland Kunz]

Hello

Sorry but very confusing. You have a 68 karmann coupe ?

Is tis now a Volkswagen Type 14, 34 or a 912 with Karmann body ?

For the type 14/34 the 412 has the better flywheel.

74 FI was L-Jetronic and had been 1,8 L with 72 - 76 HP.

Grüsse

[greywuuf]

My Mistake I assumed that since this was he 912 forum it would be understood that I do indeed have a '68 912. I is a Karman Body and I call it a coupe as it is not a Targa. Is this the correct term ? thank for the info though, unfortunately a Much cheaper turbo Subaru Donor car came along and as a plus I can drive it untill I get the body done on my 912. I am still looking for the one person I heard of that has a rotary in theirs.

Thanks again

[Roland Kunz]

Hello

Just browse the net.There are also some 914 with subaru and Rotary to find.

The rotarys have a good power package and you can maybe run the coolers in the engine bay. Also the exhaust is hot to run a heatexchanger for simple heating.

This is much sliker then a V8.

Subaru turbos ? Depending on the year. The 1800 2V will have heatproblems and the heads will get cracks. The newer 4V are more solid and can be pumped up to 250 HP.

But then the rear gets to heavy and you have to use front radiators.

Grüsse

[JordonJames]

I have done some extensive work on my '68 912, including lengthening the wheelbase, replacing the 901 with a 915, body mods, interior mods, and V8 conversion.

First, from my research, the 901 can live with up to 300 HP if it's in good shape, but I am not sure of how much torque it can withstand. The 915 is much stronger and regardless of what you may hear, is not terribly difficult to swap in place of the 901.

I tried several approaches to lengenthing the wheelbase, since I added wheel flares which are typically for LWB cars and made the stock rear tires look pushed forward. First I tried swapping in rear control arms from a '70 911S which are longer and became a nightmare, but will work if you are very determined. The main problem was that the track was much wider and the springplate was lining up about 1.5 inches inside the bracket on the control arm. I fabricated spacers and used a second set of springplates to make an offset setup that works well. Due to my own preferences I scrapped this approach.

The second method (which is what I am using now and works well) was to relocate the front mounting location for the control arms rearward about 2 inches. This has been used by the factory on some early race cars and I learned of this from Bruce Anderson's book, Porsche Performance Handbook. This allowed me to use all of my stock components. Once again, the springplate alignment was off, but only by about .5 inch, which was easy to fix (since I already had fabricated special offset springplates, I just used a .5 inch spacer) and this set my wheels in the center of the wheelwell and widened the track by about an inch. It looks great. If you stay with the 901 you can bolt up the stock axles and off you go. If you go with the 915, you may need to change the inner CV joints to fit the 915 stubaxles. I am currently using the 901 stubaxles in the 915 and using my stock axleshafts, but there is a little play and the jury is still out on whether is this a bad thing. Also, depending on the shocks you use, you may need to clearance the upper shock mount since the shock will be angled more to the rear and may hit when the supspension is in full droop (mine did.)

Here's a look at my car. It has flares and whaletale. It started life a 1968 912 sunroof coupe.




I can't share much about the 912 engine, my car had a worked over VW motor in the back when I bought it, and it did have an upright (doghouse) fan. 1.8 liter and about 100 HP, I was getting spanked by Honda Civics. That is unacceptable. Since building a reliable 350 HP Porsche is a 4 to 5 digit $$ proposition, I went with the V8 conversion. It's some work, but I am very happy with it.

------------------
Jay
'68 912 V8

[This message has been edited by JordonJames (edited 06-06-2001).]