adding horsepower to a 914

[davidjt]

I was considering option to give my 1975 2.0 L 914 a little more
horsepower. Someone mentioned dual exhaust but I am wondering if that's
practical? Isn't there only one exhaust line coming of the header?
wouldn't a dual exhaust only split that into two pipes or would it actually
add more power?

thank you for helping me with this problem and if you have any more
suggestions to add power to my car please tell me.

Thanks,
David
davet@nettaxi.com

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

If your 75 has the stock 75-76 exhaust on it, a change to the earlier style will give you more power. Not sure how much more, but it should give you at least some of the 7HP (factory rating 88 vs. 95) difference between the 74 and 75 2.0s.

On the 75-76, there are header pipes that bolt to the heads. These have the two exhaust paths from that head joining into one pipe, and turning to go forward. The heat exchanger itself bolts onto those headers. It bends 180 degrees to go back, and joins up with the primary muffler. The primary muffler has a short inlet pipe and a long one that stretches over to the other side of the car to get the exhaust from that side. The primary muffler feeds into a catalytic converter (if equipped) or a bypass pipe (if not) and then to the secondary muffler, then out the tailpipe.

The 73-74 2.0 exhaust has heat exhangers that bolt to the heads. The exhaust gases come out of the heads, and bend to go directly aft. They are separate pipes until they get back to the muffler. The muffler itself is the whole width of the back of the car (more or less) and the pipes from both sides of the motor go directly back into it. This is a much straighter path, and should flow quite a bit better.

A Bursch collector can bolt onto the back of the 73-74 exhuast, and supposedly gives you a small boost in power as well. Tuned headers are supposed to give a much bigger HP boost. The Supertrapp diffusers are pretty neat, as they allow you to tune the exhaust for noise and backpressure and/or performance. To do it right requires a dyno, but you can just add or delete plates until you get a sound you like and acceleration you can live with. (Or is that the other way around?)

--DD

[So Fast]

find a turbo charger, the user APorsche914 is puttin one in is 914, becasue i had a 74, with duals and it really didnt help, so on my 73 the person before i had it threw in a 4.6liter v8-and if you like sleepers the 8 is the way to go
That should give you the horsepower your car deserves

hehe...here i am, hmm..adding power to a 914..i can do that, ok..what im doing to my car is adding a turbo system from Crown engineering, an intercooler from an eclipse, and making my own plumbing cuz the plumbing w/ the turbo is made for the stock crap(im gonna here it for that one) fuel injection, and i have dual 40idf webers, not to mention lots more mods, ill post those if anyone cars to see them, but im going from around 80hp to 150+hp, not bad huh?
oh yeah, btw...914's w/ dual carbs should have more performance if the carbs are tuned to the engine and synchronized, if not..then you wont gain and probaly will loose performance

[This message has been edited by APorsche914 (edited 05-17-99).]

if you want pics of the turbo kit goto: http://members.aol.com/a914turbo/914turbo.htm

description of my car is below:
'72 porsche 914 that started out almost totally original..into:
1.7L flat 4 banger engine w/ dual weber 40IDF carbs and a turbo kit installed from crown engineering w/ intercooler w/ custom made plumbing to accomodate the intercooler and carbs,(original plumbing for turbo was made for the original fuel injection), oil cooler, and oil/crankcase breather kit, horsepower boost went from stock 80hp w/ crap fuel injection, to a blown 150+hp dual carbed engine
custom made center console w/ boost gauge, temp gauge, oil pressure gauge, oil temp gauge, and message center w/ pictures showing when doors and trunk are open
black leather vinyl interior, racing bucket seats w/ black/blue stripe covers, and 5-point harnesses
specially adapted 85.5 944 flush mount gauge cluster/holder/face plates w/ 914 gauge senders recallibrated for the different face plates,this was done so i have an accurate reading on the speedo and tach,and also this newer dash eliminates the single gauges and puts them in a one piece, flush mount cluster
upgraded front brake calipers using huge(compared to 914) one piston calipers from an '87 944, have double the pad area, for quicker, more powerful stopping, also installed an adjustable proportioning valve, (replacing the stock valve) to keep the front brakes from locking and flat spotting the tires, when i go into a corner a little to deep, to fast before deciding i should slow down some..but going slow is no fun..hehe
hydrallic clutch conversion w/ master cylinder and slave cylinder from CNC, this eliminates the cable system and allows use of much stronger clutch and pressure plate to hanle extra horse power from engine mods
5spd+reverse manual gearbox
bright yellow paint w/ removeable black "targa" top
35 watt pioneer am/fm/cd w/ a 4x6 speaker mounted on each side of car in stock locations..sounds weak right?, dont worry.ill fix that sometime..but most of all i wanna fix that "slow, boring,ugly, old car problem"..i think ive accomplished that pretty good w/ all the above mods to engine, interior, and brakes, and all around performance of the car.
oh yeah...by the way(how could i forget the most important thing)....wanna race!!??...hehe

[This message has been edited by APorsche914 (edited 05-17-99).]

[Eric]

Question actually about the turbo kit you bought. I have a '72 914-4 1.7L which, as everyone well knows, sadly lacks power. I live in San Francisco at the top of a very large hill (my 4L truck has problems on this hill). Would a turbo kit make sense in my case to get more torque power (for going up hills)? What did it cost? Have you put it in yet? Are you happy with it?

Thanks

the guy i bought the kit from used it on his 914 to go uphills actually..he said he lives in northern CA where theres alot of hills and his 914 struggled going up them..so he bought the turbo to make it up the hills ok, no, i havent gotten a chance to install the kit yet, i had to pull the motor on my 914 yesterday actually..and as Dave Darling says..its decapitated, im having to replace the heads, piston rings, clutch, push rod tube/seals and some other misc seals...oh well..itll be like a new motor on top when i put it back in. let me know if you have any more ?'s