I'm in the process of building a new motor for my 914.

Would people be interested in pictures and a detailed description of the process?

Here's a teaser, engine pulled from the car in about 2 hours:

 

Yeah...I would be.
What do you have planned?

 

Hey Marc, going to do a build very similar to a Jake Raby 2270 engine. It'll have a 78mm stroke and 96mm bore. Currently the engine is a 1.8 (66mm stroke) that has a 96mm overbore kit, but nothing else really special. I've never been really happy with the power band - the carbs are too big, the stroke too short, the compression ratio too low and the cam too mild.

What I'm looking for is a nice sport driver that'll have a lot of torque throughout the RPM ranges.

I'm not yet sure what cam I'm going to use... I'll probably go with whatever Jake recommends.

Fuel will be supplied by twin Weber 44 IDFs.

I'm going to try to stick within a $2k budget. We'll see if that's possible (so far, it's looking good).

 

I started writing this for someone who doesn't know much about engines, so forgive me, but I don't want to retype it again!

I thought I'd document the rebuild of my 914 air cooled engine.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the removal, but I built a little wood dolly and basically, lifted the car up, rolled the dolly under the engine / transmission assembly, undid a few bolts, and then the engine was out!



The first step was to drain the oil:



And then remove the blower fan, fan housing and alternator:



After removing the carburetors and distributor, all of the engine "tin" (the sheet metal directing airflow over the cylinders) was removed. I've also disconnected the transmission and removed the exhaust:



The next step is removing the oil cooler (that radiator looking thing above the oil filter), removing the engine mounting bar and putting the long block onto an engine stand.



Here's the engine on the stand ready for more disassembly (you'll note I set up a little work area!):



A long block assembly is an engine that is complete up to the heads, but with no accessories installed.



After removing the valve cover and the retaining wire "bale", you can see the valve train. The pushrods push on the bottoms of the rocker arms and the tops of the rockers push against the valves, opening them to let fuel and air in or to let exhaust out.



Once the rocker assemblies are off, the pushrods are much more visible:



Now, the pushrods are pulled out of the pushrod tubes:



And the pushrod tubes are now pulled out of the engine (one end has an o-ring that mates to the case and the other end has an o-ring that mates to the head - the pushrod tube allows the oil that's lubricating the valve train to drain back into the case):



The sheet metal under the cylinders, which helps direct the cooling air directly over the cylinders, is removed.



The lifters (these are little metal cylinders that "follow" or "ride" on the camshaft lobes and, in turn, "lift" or push against the pushrods) need to be removed. They are in the holes in the case that the pushrod tubes came out of and can be pulled out with a magnet or your finger. Here, I've pulled them all out and have turned them upside down so you can see the part that actually touches the cam. Note the pitting and wear on this surface:



Now it's back up to the head to remove the 8 nuts that hold the head onto the cylinders. 4 are inside the valve train area (and are well lubricated) and 4 are outside, which require some penetrating oil.



The head now lifts right off! Here it is, upside down on the work bench. You can see the spark plug holes in the chambers, and you can see the valves. The larger valve is the intake valve and the smaller one is for the exhaust (the hot exhaust gases have more energy, being both hot and expanding under the pressure of the explosion, so they can easily escape from the combustion chamber through the smaller valve).



And this is what the pistons look like inside the cylinders:



Now, we need to remove the pistons.  After sliding the cylinder up enough to expose the wrist pin, the snap ring (retaining ring) can be removed and the pin removed. Some people hammer it out with a punch, but because of the limited access to the back side, I elected to use a slide hammer to pull it out. The slide hammer shaft goes through the pin and a nut it placed on the back side. After a few taps, the pin is out far enough to clear the connecting rod.



The piston can now be lifted off!



Now that the heads, cylinders and pistons are off, this is called a short block:



And here are the heads, cylinders and pistons on the work bench.



The next step will be to split the case and remove the rankshaft and the camshaft - maybe this weekend!

 

GREAT stuff. Thanks for doing this. Keep the details coming.

 

Agreed.
I was just getting ready to say all that...
Thanks for posting!

 

Here's an updated...

I'm facing a dilema about my budget... I was hoping to do this engine for about $2k in parts, but I just spent the about an hour this evening on the phone with Jake Raby. We talked about engines of course - but primarily we talked about cylinder heads. He is a very firm believer that the heads are pretty much the most essential part. And I see his logic - that's the problem!

On the one hand, I want to keep the cost low and keep "project creep" to a minimum. On the other hand, I want to do this job once and want the best results I can get.

The million dollar question (really it's just a $1500 question): do I get brand new heads which we know will work well with my combo and take the guess work out of tuning?

 

Oh boy...
Agreed.
It's been awhile, but I've always been under the impression the heads are very important for big hp too...that the 2.0 heads way out-flowed the 1.8, etc.
I'm sure anything you can do will make a huge difference, as compared to a stock 1.8 head.
What are you considering anyway?

 

Here's the head that Jake is recommending for my 78mm stroke / 96mm bore combination: http://aircooledtechnology.com/store...cat=283&page=1

Another plus of going with what Jake recommends is that his cam selection will be a sure thing.

Even if I try to get my heads rebuilt, it will be had to match them with a cam that would fully utilize any porting/polishing work I have done.

And that's my dilemma! Remember, I'm a cheapskate... But I also don't want to go through the effort and buy other components if they won't be used to their potential.

I guess that's the "value" question... And, I think that in the long term, I'll be happiest if I do it right and do the best I can.

 

very cool to see, I'll be following this thread

 

Get good heads... No point in doing this motor twice.. cry a little twice or a lot just once. Sure it may hurt.. but the rewards will be that much sweeter (Gosh i like spending others' money )

 

Jake is the guru and sells a good product. Do it right and you wont be sorry.

 

You guys will be pleased - I decided to get the new heads. I ordered a set of Jake's LE200s this morning!

 

Is that 2K per head for a total of 4K just for heads, for a type IV????

 

$2k for a pair of heads.