Richard Thompson or Patrick Motorsports

[wndsnd]

I am thinking of selling my Richard Thompson kit for a Patrick kit. I like the idea of being able to drop the engine a few inches for valve adjustments etc. Does anyone have experience with the Patrick version. What worries me is that its mounting points dont seem to be as strong.

Is it easy to lower the Patrick to get at the valves? It looks as easy as disconnecting the shift rod, and heater boxes and then dropping the tranny mounts. Is that the way it works?

Thanks
John

[John Rogers]

I had one of the Patrick front mounts in my race car for the reasons you mentioned. Most other west coast shops that make up 914 conversions use them and it makes things very handy to be able to lower the rear of the engine and transmission combo to work on things. The firewall mounts are made so they are pretty much fool proof to get mounted. I used the ones with bolts and a empty case/tranny assembly to make sure all lined up before final drilling and welding.

When lowering the engine you do have to make sure to remove the right side air cleaner stack or it will hit the rear sheet metal and mess the air cleaners up.

Patrick also sells several other 914 related items: a handy transmission temp adapter that goes in the speedo drive hole, also a high temp plastic clutch cable wheel that will never soften from heat and fail and a very nice shift rod firewall bushing. I used them all in my 914-6 race car.

[wndsnd]

Thanks John

If they are strong enough for your race cars it should be fine for my car. I am going to run PMOs
So I hope they will clear.

John

[John Rogers]

The total height should not be an issue. I used PMO manifolds with Webers and K&N air cleaners and there was no clearance issues. I did convert my engine cover to the GT style with mostly screen. I would suggest doing a mock up with a dummy engine, transmission, heads on the right side, etc.