John

Renegade,

First, I'd like to thank all who have answered my questions during this project. Without this forum and the recently shutdown Porschev site, it would not have happened. Pelicans tech articles have also been a great source of info during this process.

My conversion started about 6 months ago when the 2.0L engine in my '73 started knocking. I had plans of doing a V8 conversion when the car was purchased but wanted to drive the 4 a bit longer while putting the V8 and necessary conversion parts together. The knocking 4 changed my game plan and 3 months of driving the car after a 20 year absence from Porsche's just started to feel good again. I spent months researching V8 conversions and exchanged information from many who have been down this road.

My impressions:

I've put about 1000 miles of local, short trip driving on my car only one problem. CV bolts loosened after about 100 miles but I was warned to watch for this and caught it before causing any damage. Frequent checks of CV bolts have not revealed any reoccurrence of problem.

The installation of conversion kit (Renegade) was very straight forward and went in with no surprised. I sweated potential problems (leaks, overheating, clutch problems, bad handling, starting issues when hot etc.) but have not had a single problem to date other than the CV bolts mentioned earlier. My kit consisted of just about every option available from Renegade and no shortcuts were taken or deviation from their recommendations or instructions. Their radiator/fan setup works flawlessly and comes fully assembled out of the box I also used their high performance CV axles, clutch, rear springs, wiring harness and not yet installed a/c-heater.

Engine was custom built by Wild Bill's in CA.. They were recommended by Renegade and supplied the engine I wanted via a couple of description and how I was going to use this car to build a reliable high performance power plant that would not rip the guts out of a stock 914 transaxle. It had to sound right... a little thump idle but something that would work in a air conditioned car. It also had to have good street manners... not wanting to cut off at stops, in traffic and not a PITA while cruising at slow speed. I has performed flawlessly. Specs. Are 390 HP, aluminum heads, intake, valve covers, oil pan and front cover. 600 holley was bench flowed by Bill and required no adjustments to date. Engine was purchased 100% complete, top to bottom and required no adjustments after starting. I may play with timing a bit in the future to tweak HP just for kicks. Bill has built many engines for Porsche conversions and other light weight V8 converted cars. I pretty much depended on his past experience with respect to parts compatibility. A job well done here and someone I will use again if ever needing to custom build a V8.

Driving impressions: Hard to describe having this much power in a914 but I'll list some of what comes to mind. Prior to conversion, I was running the original 2.0L four that had been rebuilt just 20,000 miles ago that had been switched to 48 dellorts to carbs and stock size European p/cs.

Stock 901 (rebuilt 2 years ago) seems to handle power fine. I just don't use first gear as recommended by the conversion gods. I've avoided burning the tires down on take off but do find it easy to get the stock tires loose if any extra throttle is used taking off from a dead stop. I've never been much on roasting the tires on anything I drive and feel the stock trans. Should work fine as long as it is driven with common sense. Engine RPM (stock gearing) is 3000 at 73 MPH with 165x65x15 tires and it feels like I could use another gear for highway cruising. 90-100 MPH in top gear puts engine at about 4000 RPM. I've seen 135 on one short run down the highway but did not happen to check RPM. I'll reframe from those speeds until installation of 5 lug conversion, new front struts and more rubber in placed on road. (stock wheels/tires are posted 4 sale in classifieds)

I had invisioned a really loud sound to be heard in passenger cabin with a V8 right behind my head. This is not the case. Engine is supplied with headers but uses quiet Dynomax t turbo mufflers. Carrying on a conversion in car while cruising down the highway is basically the same as with the 4 cylinder. I removed the factory bay insulation during stock engine removal as well as rubber passenger mat. I'll not replace the engine bay insulation but might install the rubber piece just to get it out from under my bed. =)

You must pay more attention to your driving with the additional power. Changing lanes while using the extra power requires a recalibration of how fast cars are passed and how quick the distance between you and the car in front of you closes up. On several occasions, I've had to make a pretty sharp steering inputs to avoid making fender contact.

I find it hard to do the posted speed limit on highways. Car seems to really like 70-90 MPH and is really smooth there. Having the extra power, I for some strange reason always want to be the guy leading the pack. Maybe it's because I can. Who knows, but I feel that it will take a ticket or two to change my driving style. Maybe it's because my daily ride weighs in at about 5500 lbs., is underpowered and doesn't make for a good lane changer (spelled for expedition).

I know many out there hate V8's in Porsche's but it is something I have always wanted to do. It has satisfied my itch to have a hot rod engine in a car that really handles. It has been a pleasure to get back in to turning wrenches after a 20 year absence and the 914 is a car I really enjoy working on. I've still got much to do...paint, suspension upgrades, heat-a/c and interior.

Once again, thanks to all that have responded to my pleas for help.

John


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