'74 widebody hot rod build

[rswannabe]

The stock '74 915 transmission was functioning fine, but was open diff, had the weaker 7:31 ring and pinion, and none of the updates later 915's got. So I sourced a euro 915/67 transmission from the '80's with the stronger 8:31 R&P and aluminum side cover, factory LSD, and most importantly external oil cooler. This transmission should work well with the 3.6. All the extra torque the 3.6 makes should work well with the stock ratios as well.

Here are a couple of (not great) pics of the transmission bolted to the old 2.7 for the trip up to Al's shop.

[rswannabe]

So with the ITB's mounted and tuned by Al, we had the 3.6 in the car and running well EXCEPT for an oil leak directly onto the passenger side header that made quite a bit of smoke. Frankly too much smoke to drive the car much. This was NOT Al's fault or responsibility to fix, though he took a few whacks at it. When I got the car home I was able to put it up on my lift, clean it thoroughly, and then run it to track down the oil leak. I had to do multiple cycles of this to finally identify the passenger side cam tower/chainbox interface as the culprit. It was leaking from the seal between the chainbox and cam tower, and running down to drip off the lower rear corner of the #4 cylinder head, to drip right onto the header. I considered doing a temp fix of rerouting the drip so it didn't land on the header and continue driving it for a while, but decided against it and took it apart.

Upon disassembling and removing the passenger chainbox I confirmed that did seem to be the origin of the leak. Unfortunately, that is where life and work got in the way and stalled all work on it for far too long. But I have the new seals and am ready to reassemble everything and retime the motor next week. Then there should be more progress and posts in the near future.

[jmd88]

Nice work!
Local Black on Black here looking for someone to hit some corners with and would love to see those headlights in person. Hit me up if you're looking to push the Woodinville/Duval backroads and want company.


Lovely build!

[rswannabe]

Originally Posted by jmd88

Nice work!
Local Black on Black here looking for someone to hit some corners with and would love to see those headlights in person. Hit me up if you're looking to push the Woodinville/Duval backroads and want company.


Lovely build!

Thanks! I'll keep you in mind if I'm heading out your way for a drive.

[rswannabe]

In preparation for installation of the 3.6 I replaced all the fuel lines in the car, including the hard lines that run through the tunnel. I then upgraded the fuel pump to a Bosch 044 and installed a new filter and pressure regulator in the engine bay. The pump is mounted to an aluminum bracket secured to the backside of the driver's side rear seat via rubber isolators.

[rswannabe]

While tracking the oil leak down I also fabricated the new engine surround sheet metal needed for install of a 3.6 in an early car. You need to close off the area to the rear of the chain boxes and to the outside of each chainbox and the area where the engine mounted oil cooler would be on an early engine.

I first used card stock paper to make a template for each fill piece and then cut them out of sheet stock with tin snips and bend them using two pieces of angle iron in my vice. Then just paint to match!

[rswannabe]

Here is the block off for the area where the engine mounted oil cooler would normally go on the forward passenger side of the motor.

[rswannabe]

To pull air for the heating system people often connect a duct to the top of the fan shroud, but i've never liked the look of those. So I fabricated some ducts to come off of each side of the fan similar to what early engines use.

[al lkosmal]

Very cool Brooke....your work, as usual, sets the bar a little higher. I'm glad you were able to track down the oil leak on the 3.6...It was elusive and I couldn't track it down. ....but it is worth it to finish up that 911. Really like that one. It's sometimes a small world...i'm currently working with Carlos, the previous owner of your 74, on a 3.6 engine with ITBs, etc.....and looking to work with you on your 2.8 project.........

regards & Happy New Year!!!
al

[Flojo]

Originally Posted by rswannabe

what hub is that? can't say I've seen it before. custom machined?

maybe you could be so kind to list the parts of this set up?

[0cean]

Originally Posted by rswannabe

For brakes I decided to go with black 993 calipers over 930 rotors paired with an unboosted 23mm master cylinder. I have this combination on another one of my cars and the braking is phenomenal!

The front rotors can be done either using the stock 911 (narrow body) front hubs and mount the two piece early style 930 rotors and spacers for the wheels or use the later one piece 930 rotors and the later 930 hubs that have an extra 21mm of offset.

The rear brakes use stock 930 rotors which work with the stock hubs. The calipers need to be modified to fit though. First the bolt holes need to be closed up and then redrilled in a narrower spacing (3"). I did this by dilling the exisiting bolt holes to 1/2", threading them to 5/8" and then filling the hole with 5/8" aluminum threaded red held in place with red locktite. I then redrilled the holes to the 3" spacing needed for the stock 911 hubs.







The stock 993 rear rotors are only 24mm wide, so you also have to open up the throat of the caliper by grinding out a few of the choke points to allow clearance of the 28mm wide 930 rotors. This is pretty easily accomplished with a rotary file.


.

I have a question? When you said you filled the break holes, did you do that by welding? It looks like some other way was used. How did you do the filling?

[rswannabe]

Originally Posted by Flojo

what hub is that? can't say I've seen it before. custom machined?

maybe you could be so kind to list the parts of this set up?

The hubs are a billet aftermarket version of the later 930 hub with the built in 21mm offset for use with the one piece 930 rotors. I purchased them with a bunch of used suspension pieces and used the hubs on this car. I do not know who made them, but they seem to be very high quality.

I likely won't be making up a comprehensive list of all parts. Too much work!

[rswannabe]

Originally Posted by 0cean

I have a question? When you said you filled the break holes, did you do that by welding? It looks like some other way was used. How did you do the filling?

The description of filling the bolt holes is in the post you quoted, but I'll expand on it here:

To close up the stock bolt holes with their 3.5" spacing, I first drilled them out to a larger 1/2" diameter. This allowed me to use a tap to thread the holes for a 5/8" threaded rod. I threaded in a 5/8" aluminum rod and secured them with red Loctite and ground them down flush. I was then ready to drill the new bolt holes with a 3.0" spacing. You will notice that the new bolt holes overlay the old filled holes. So even if the red Loctite does not hold the threaded inserts in place, they cannot back out as the bolts going through the new holes and holding the caliper in place will prevent the threaded inserts from rotating and backing out.

I hope this answers your question.

[0cean]

Originally Posted by rswannabe

The description of filling the bolt holes is in the post you quoted, but I'll expand on it here:

To close up the stock bolt holes with their 3.5" spacing, I first drilled them out to a larger 1/2" diameter. This allowed me to use a tap to thread the holes for a 5/8" threaded rod. I threaded in a 5/8" aluminum rod and secured them with red Loctite and ground them down flush. I was then ready to drill the new bolt holes with a 3.0" spacing. You will notice that the new bolt holes overly the old filled holes. So even if the red Loctite does not hold the threaded inserts in place, they cannot back out as the bolts going through the new holes and holding the caliper in place will prevent the threaded inserts from rotating and backing out.

I hope this answers your question.

Yes, perfectly. Thanks for the info.

[rswannabe]

I have completed the reseal of the cam box, retimed the motor, and buttoned everything back up. I had not timed a motor before, so thanks to Jeff Higgens for walking me through it. Here’s the motor all closed up with sheet metal and heating ducts in place.

[rswannabe]

Today I worked on replacing the old Pioneer cassette head unit with a new Continental Bluetooth streaming head. I had one of these in my 993 abs was quite happy with it, especially for the price. Also going in is a powered sub under the drivers seat and new Alpine speakers.





Working through the mess of new wiring.

[brcorp]

Looks great so far!!!

[Rodsrsr]

Great build...

[rswannabe]

Thanks for the compliments. It’s nice to be making progress on this project again.

I finished up the stereo/speaker/subwoofer install and buttoned it all up. I’m quite pleased with this combo of Continental head unit, Alpine R-S65.2 coaxial speakers, and Kenwood KSC-SW11 powered sub. It is a relatively easy install and the sound is quite good given relatively simple system. This is not audiophile stuff, but good bang for the buck and good enough for my needs.

I love how clean and straight this chassis is. It’s a pleasure to work on.



With the stereo done I quickly sorted a few other electrical gremlins (dome light switch contacts needed cleaning and new hazard switch was needed to get turn signals working), but then I started putting the new(ish) interior in. The car came to me with a full black interior in pretty good condition. It’s not perfect, but it’s not ratty either. Just some nice patina for the most part. However, black on black is WAY too boring for my taste. So a few years ago I picked up a full Can Can red sport seat interior for a 911. A full red interior it not to my taste either, but I’m going to use some of it. To start I’m just using the seats, front and back. The red carpet on the back of the new back seats looked like a faded orange muppet, so I pulled it off and replaced it with the black carpet from the backs of my old seats.

[rswannabe]

So then it was time for the front seats. I know this is not to everyone’s taste, but I love the pop of color. They are actually a little less bright in person than they appear in the pictures. I’ll live with it like this for a bit before I decide what (if any) additional red accents i’ll bring into the interior. The two I’m considering so far is the infill strip across the middle of the dash and/or maybe so red accent coco mats. We’ll see…