Battery Relocation

[SummerSledSix]

Echo,

Here is one way to do a front battery thing for a six conversion. The battery "tray" is just some Home Depot angle iron "U"ed and welded in with a spacer. Collapsible spare from an 84 911, plenty of these in Porsche junkyards, tie down is a nut welded on the end of a tube welded to the bulkhead (probably easier to do a bolt-on with threaded rod). Standard 914-6 cooler shroud repro. I used the side terminals on the Optima, facing aft for the connections to keep things clean. Probably need a stronger batt strap for D/E, but hey, you can build anything with duct tape and wrap ties...

I used #2 wire from the local auto shop who also crimped the lugs on for me (~13 ft), ran it thru the existing hole for the windshield washer tube, thru to the passenger footwell, then along the outside of the tunnel (away from the gas lines), then thru the firewall, grommets as needed, then over the engine, terminating on the mega-lug that is on the starter. Not noticeable with the carpet in place.

[echocanyons]

SummerSledsix,

That is exactly how I was pictureing doing it but wasnt sure if it would fit.

[J P Stein]

Nice clean install, Summersled.
How'sa bout some more pics of the car?

Nice car - clean.

Where did you get the 914-6 cooler shroud?

[SummerSledSix]

Thanks guys! Got the shroud from Patrick Motorsports, along with all the other cooler doodads. Will be happy to post some more pix as soon as I get the beast off the jackstands and the CV grease out of my hair, probly tomorrow.

Echo, the fit in there is pretty cozy, the tire is actually sitting on a 3/4" block of wood, which puts the full diameter a little above the battery. There is about 1/2" between everything this way, doubt that a conventional battery would fit, the Optima is about the smallest I've seen (but boy can it crank).

BTW, the "00" welding cable will cost you more than plain old batt cable, 'cause it's built to be more flexible, something you don't need for your teener. The "00" part is the wire gauge which is 3 sizes larger than #2 (2, 1, 0, then 00). I coulda probably gotten away with #4 which is what most cars use for batt primary, but with 13 feet instead of 3, the extra beef is a good idea, especially if you've got high compression iron on the other end of the wire. The stock 3.2 cranks through this rig like a banshee, even on a 20 deg. day with dinosaur oil.

[jtf914]

I just thought I'd add two more pics to the post:


Justin

[74914]

JP, your comment on sandblasting the engine bay caught my eye. I'm planning on abrasive blasting my engine bay and both trunks while fixing rust. What's the reason you wouldn't do it again? I've read about painting frustrations due to blast media not being cleaned out of all the nooks and crannies, and also that soda blasting is less messy. I've got glass beads, black beauty, and green lightning to experiment with...no soda yet.
Any feedback on media blasting experiences is appreciated.
Ed

[mike mueller]

I sandblasted my engine compartment and I've had to vacumm the darn engine and surrounding area a few dozen times now.
The sand seems to be multiplying



It looks good, but now I'm tired of the engine noise already and will be adding some sort of sound deadening material to the firewall........

I have no experience in doing this but why put the sound deadening material in the engine compartment? It seems like it could be placed behind the interior "back" pad. I haven't tried it yet but I don't see why there's not enough room. I suppose it would shim the bottom of the pad out and you might have to have some longer screws.

Just a thought.

[mike mueller]

ShawnO,



The car originally had the sound deadener on both sides of the engine firewall as well as the floors. I removed it all to make the car lighter.

The engine noise is too much for me with the top on, so I'm adding some sound deadener back to the car to help quite it down a little.

[J P Stein]

I built this "enclosure" out of 2 X 4s and painters plastic tarp.
The idea was to contain the mess......then I crawled in there with the blast hose (suitibly protected) . It worked...too well....damn near choked to death.

Note to self....fresh air supply is a gud plan. Resperators don't cut it.

Then there was/is the sand that is almost completely shaken out of the nooks and crannies after bout 3 years.....and I thought I had em' all covered.

I used a fine grain sand #50, as I recall. It all worked out in the end, but what a PITA. Feel free not to use this idea

[mike mueller]

Hey JP, the trick is to have a vacuum system running at the same time to help with the dust.

It helps a little..........

[SummerSledSix]

Ok, now that this thread is stale, here are the pix I promised. Aside from an old Honda motorcycle, this was my first gearhead project. I would not have even CONSIDERED this project were it not for the Pelican Parts' tech article library, and their availability of parts and occasional phone advice. Also got a lot of guidance and parts from Patrick Motorsports, and Dan Jacobs LLC up here in Connecticut. As usual for me, only discovered this BBS *after* the fact.

e-bay organ donor for project, got the whole "car" for the price of the engine. Some Porsches die so that others may live...

Above photo: one Carrera 3.2L shoehorned into the teener. Had to lose the stock airbox and go with the cone. Tight, but it fits!

Cooler installation (3rd attempt). Fabricated the bracket, welded at 2 points to frame.

Stealth cooler opening under '76 megabumper. Note bracket to pull rubber up and out of the way. Valance is a hack and clean up of the very abused original.

Had to find a home for the DME - under passenger footwell. Carrera engine harness just long enough to do this.

23mm master cylinder, probably overkill for the Carrera brakes, just fits. Note the ~90 deg fitting just under (!) the rack bellows.

No BS welded in engine mount (Patrick M/S). Good news: holds up to a 3.6; bad news: direct couples engine noise to chassis (see Dynamat in 1st photo).

Home made engine/tranny cradle inspired by similar Porsche service item. No more funky furniture dolly / musical jacking maneuvers to get the engine in/out.
Final product. Only teener fanatics (like you guys) would suspect there's more than meets the eye here.

...applause...

Once again I'm impressed.

Did you just gamble that the motor from the donor car was okay or was it nearby for you to look at.

What year 911 was that? Can I ask how much for the donor car?

You give us '75-'76 bumper guys a reason to hold our heads high.

[J P Stein]

Nice car!!
Sanitary installation, great pics......humm, running out of compliments.

Is that the original color?
How do those rear tires hold up to the power of the 3.2L?

[SummerSledSix]

Shawno, I looked for a 3.2 for about a year, most of what I saw was in the $5K-7K range, but always chickened out 'cause I had no way of knowing what shape the internals were in. Was scanning ebay end of 2000 for an engine and spotted the red car, an '84 Carrera, first year for the 3.2. The bid at the time was ~$2600. That got my attention, and the more I thought about it, the more sense it made, 'cause I knew there would be other useful stuff to salvage, tho the job got that much bigger. Final bid was in the low $5K range, was first ebay transaction for me and the seller. The car was close enough to go inspect before I bid; would not have risked that kind of $$$ otherwise. Also figured the engine must have been running pretty well to propel the car into whatever it whacked, everything but the rear deck lid was distorted . Think I got real lucky here, offset the stellar price I paid for the teener.

JP, the paint is original, "sunflower yellow", tho I think the rear lid has been repainted. Plenty of little scratches and divots if you look close. Adds "character". Don't know how the tires (205's)will hold up yet, its first D/E is 16 days, 19 hours, and 15 minutes away. I will probably flare the car eventually like you did on your car, another fine example of a "fast yellow" teener by the way (nice clean garage floor too!). By the way, I painted my front trunk floor with a rattle can prepared by my local auto parts store (which is why it looks so clean). Dead on match - the wheel domes are the original color. There is a shop in MI(?) that will match to a sample, ie a headlight cover. Did you save enough paint from your sandblasting ordeal to do up your flares?

[sweater914]

what a precious, cute, little car, until she eats everything this side of a new corvette alive, nice sleeper, one day, one day

[SummerSledSix]

well here's a new one. I've gotten a few emails from the bbs indicating add'l replies to this thread, but nothing new shows up when I go to read the thread. "sweater914" is the last post I see.

???

[J P Stein]

Summer:
What you may be seeing are pivate messages, rather than posts. Your settings preclude sending you email via the list.......I tried.

In reply to you question about my flares/color:

They're still in primer and will be for the forseeable future.
My car is an oddball color, Delphi Green Metalic, which is damn hard to do a color match and, quite frankly, the whole car needs to be repainted. It's a big expenditure and it don't make it go faster, so it's pretty far down the list.......I may do it myself one of these days.

The engine room is light gray.

[DDS]

"00" is pronounced 'two ought' and refers to conductor size. Ever wonder how you buy wire bigger than 2 AWG? Now you know. 0, 00, 000, 0000, then MCM sizing ie 100 MCM etc...