'76 2.0L parts car or keeper?

[The Glademister]

I couldn't resist a $300 914 today. It's a maraschino red '76 2.0L that I had looked at about a month ago. I had passed on it then but today's price was just too tempting. After getting it up on blocks and cleaning out all the junk and leaves... I'm pretty surprised. The rear trunk pan is in great shape. The front trunk pan is just now starting to rust through but may be salvageable. The drivers side floor pan appears to be solid. However, the passenger side is a real mess. That floor pan has a large hole under the seat and that long is terribly rusted on the exterior with no rocker cover at all. The structure is comprised on that side of the car as there's flexing evident in the passenger door. The interior is complete except for one seat cushion, floor carpeting and horn button. The original radio is missing also. The rear interior window seal appears to have held but the exterior seal is shot. I think the state of the firewall will be the decider on if this tub has a chance. That will be revealed when I pull the back pad, interior and exterior insulators. All the glass is original without any cracks.

Mechanically the intake has been pulled (who knows how long) and the air injection holes plugged. But I did find the distributor in the front trunk. It looks like someone replaced the fuel pump under the tank. The exhaust is after market but the headers still have heat exchangers and they appear to be in good shape. All the brake calipers are on the car but the 17mm master cylinder had been pulled (very rusty) and was laying in the trunk also. All the transmission shift linkage is intact. It may have Koni rear shocks evident by the orange color.

Priority is the pull the engine and transmission as those have the most value. If the crank turns by hand, I'll be really happy.

[beatnavy]

Keeper!!! You can do it (again). 'Course, that's easy for ME to say....it does need serious work as I look at those longs....

Have you measure the gaps?

[PCA7GGR]

Money pit! Its the rust you can't see that will be the killer.

Get an ice pick and probe the suspension pickup points. That plus the fact that parts are starting to be dear in price.

[beatnavy]

I guess it also depends on what you'd want to do with it and how far you want to bring it back.

Keeping track on the World I don't think anybody's voting to keep, and they're probably right. Not sure they saw what you're capable of and how far you went with your other project though...

[The Glademister]

Originally Posted by beatnavy

I guess it also depends on what you'd want to do with it and how far you want to bring it back.

Keeping track on the World I don't think anybody's voting to keep, and they're probably right. Not sure they saw what you're capable of and how far you went with your other project though...

Yep, I just went over there a replied to some questions. More photos later today.

[dougcoup711]

with out intake I am ok with that.
I call dibs on engine if you want to sell spinning or not?

Doug

[The Glademister]

Originally Posted by dougcoup711

with out intake I am ok with that.
I call dibs on engine if you want to sell spinning or not?

Doug

The engine and tranny were specifically what I bought it for. But if I do decide to sell the motor Doug, you'll be the first to know!

[The Glademister]

I stripped the seats, back pad and carpet remains to get a better look at the floor pans and firewall. Confirmed the the passenger side long is really bad. Rust has started up the inner firewall and cross member. The drivers side floor is probably just being held together by the sound deadening material. I suspect that long will be toast when I pull the rocker cover. The white interior is of interest and the back pad is probably salvageable. The insulated pad behind the pad came out really nicely and is definitely re-useable. The I got under the car and removed the Ansa muffler and tail pipe assemble. That's some heavy exhaust! What I definitely dislike is the later exhaust header and heat exchanger set-up. It does not look like that can be dropped without lowering the engine. Last thing I got done was getting the CV axles loose, clutch and speed-o cables off. I should have the motor and trans out tomorrow.

[lorenzoscribe]

Glademister,
I had a set of those orange shocks on the back of my parts car. They were orange painted Boge heavy duty shocks marketed by Interpart, the aftermarket side of Peter Brock's BRE Racing Team. I'll bet yours are as well.

They are on my autocross car now with a set of HD springs.

Larry Steckel
1971 Porsche 914

[TheCabinetmaker]

I've parted out better cars than this one. a money pit. note that the cinder block jack stand you have shown are very dangerous to use, don't go under that car supported as pictured, cinderblocks are a known danger to support a car on. folks can get killed that way. Get some real jack stands, your life ain't worth skimping on.

Ps note that the stock late smog control parts that this car may have are worth money to folks that live in smog Nazi states that require original equipment to register the car. the later smog control exhaust is hard to come by, and can be worth some bucks$$$$$. consider their value if you have them in your parting out calculation.

[The Glademister]

Originally Posted by TheCabinetmaker

I've parted out better cars than this one. a money pit. note that the cinder block jack stand you have shown are very dangerous to use, don't go under that car supported as pictured, cinderblocks are a known danger to support a car on. folks can get killed that way. Get some real jack stands, your life ain't worth skimping on.

Ps note that the stock late smog control parts that this car may have are worth money to folks that live in smog Nazi states that require original equipment to register the car. the later smog control exhaust is hard to come by, and can be worth some bucks$$$$$. consider their value if you have them in your parting out calculation.

Duly noted on the stands. That's an outdoors solution to keep the tub elevated and dry. Regarding the smog gear... I think all that has been removed except for the exhaust. I suspect this was an aborted carb conversion. There are air injection tubes in the heads with plugs on them.

[The Glademister]

Today I dropped the engine and transmission. With this car being under cover outside, I needed a different method for extraction. I used two large steel pipe bases, two 6' vertical pipes, two tee connectors and a 8' horizontal steel pipe to make a goal post. The I spanned the engine case with a ratchet strap and rigged a come-along to the goal post. I also put a floor jack under the tranny. Going slowly and alternating between the come-along and the jack - everything slid out nicely. Set it down on some plyboard and the moved my come-along to a tree behind the car to pull that joker out. Having the intake off made the clearance under the rear perfect with the car on two cinder blocks each corner. Note that I've got the wheels stacked up under the car for safety. I then fired up the Bobcat with a fork attachment and toted the engine to the garage. It was starting to rain and about the time I pulled up to the garage - BAM, the hydraulic pump on the Bobcat fails. Oh boy, another project... Anyway, the motor is in the dry garage, the tub is wrapped in a tarp under cover and I pushed the Bobcat out of the way with a neighbors backhoe until I can pull that engine and fix the broken coupler (I suspect).

[The Glademister]

Today it was just me and a type 4 engine in a wrestling match. I didn't whip it completely but enough to find it's true colors. The engine tins came grudgingly and are mostly okay. The uppers need some metal work but with some TLC it could be called a complete set. The alternator looks okay but probably needs to be rebuilt. The starter feels silky smooth and was probably replaced at some point. The external pulley on the fan was interesting. I suppose that's for an AC compressor. That assemble came off well and might be of value to someone doing AC conversion. The oil cooler looks really nice inside and with some external cleaning is probably good to go again. When I got the fan out, I found some wildlife (see photo 3) inside the fan housing which is also good to reuse. One head was missing a valve cover so those rockers were pretty rusty. I got all the rockers, push rods and tubes out. When I went to pull the transmission I had a real hard time. That joker is only coming off the engine case about 3/4" no matter how much prying, shaking and cursing I do. I suspect the spline shaft is rusted into the friction plate. If I can rotate the crank and remove the pressure plate bolts through the starter hole, I should be able to separate. So I went to the heads and of course the 3 cheese head screws on the under tins are rusted so I ground off the center screw and bent the tins back to get the heads off. Cylinders 1 & 2 are a real mess with some kind of biology experiment in them. #2 exhaust valve was laying in the cylinder but that happened while inert. Cylinders 3 & 4 actually look pretty good though. Both heads could be rebuilt and have some value. So to get the tranny off I'll have to pull the cylinders (1 & 2 will be problematic) and hopefully spin the crank. The goal here is to have a decent GC case for rebuild. It's sure not letting this be an easy tear down though.

Also, the last photo shows the exhaust with heat exchangers. They look pretty good with some material missing where the pipes cross under the tin. If someone needs those, PM me.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

The pulley you see is for the smog pump. The AC pulley would be behind the fan, in place of the shim between the hub and fan. The right-front engine tin would have been cut away to fit the AC compressor if such had been fitted. (Note that all AC setups were installed post-factory, most at the dealer.)

--DD

[ClausGraf]

The 74 914 I'm rebuilding has a complete engine and tranny that I got running after cleaning the tank, fuel system and injectors. However, the longs were in bad shape. The carpet over the longs hide the real rust. I'm going forward on this long journey.....Save the Porsche!

[The Glademister]

Interesting Claus. Looks like you're fabricating the outer long and rear suspension area yourself. Very cool. Do you have a build thread on this forum? We'd love to see your progress and detailed photos if you don't mind taking the time.

[TheCabinetmaker]

the heater exchangers unique to smog cars, look fairly good from your photo, and would be worth something to someone that needs to smog, no reproduction where made, they are valuable in the right market, like much of California where 1976 cars must be smogged. don't toss them, they can make the difference for someone trying to smog their 914. They are a consumable item (rust out) and thus will always be in demand so long as smog testing is required.

The engine head photo makes one appreciate a clean dry motor!

[ClausGraf]

Originally Posted by The Glademister

Interesting Claus. Looks like you're fabricating the outer long and rear suspension area yourself. Very cool. Do you have a build thread on this forum? We'd love to see your progress and detailed photos if you don't mind taking the time.

Yes I am fabricating the longs. I built a metal brake to bend the sheet metal. I'll get some pictures together and show the progress on a build thread.
Here is a picture of the suspension mount.

[The Glademister]

Excellent. I see why you're replacing that suspension point. It appears all the top area is gone. How bad is the in-board attachment point (suspension console or "ear")?

[The Glademister]

Originally Posted by TheCabinetmaker

the heater exchangers unique to smog cars, look fairly good from your photo, and would be worth something to someone that needs to smog, no reproduction where made, they are valuable in the right market, like much of California where 1976 cars must be smogged. don't toss them, they can make the difference for someone trying to smog their 914. They are a consumable item (rust out) and thus will always be in demand so long as smog testing is required.

The engine head photo makes one appreciate a clean dry motor!

Copy that on the exhaust. Those parts are in dry storage now and waiting to be put to use.

It's unbelievable how people neglected these cars. Even if you had no desire (or money) to fix an engine problem after removing parts - why wouldn't you just put it back together and protect it from the elements? I've seen MANY examples of this in middle Tennessee were 914s are parked in fields, under trees or leaky sheds and just left to rot. Then the owner passes and the relative is left with rusty remains and thinks that's worth $$$.

Interestingly enough I found several registration papers going back to 1978 in the glove box and one service record showing an oil change at 70 something thousand miles. It does make me assume that the odometer is correct and this car stayed in one family until very recently.