Derelict 914 - k24 powered

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

There's an LS swapped 914 that has a couple tiny vents on the hood that look neat. Pretty sure it's been mentioned early on in this thread and he says they are more than plenty for his swap. I've thought about doing similar but I'd have to adapt something off the shelf to work or have a custom set made through Send Cut Send. I also don't want to deal with water intrusion to the frunk. Not that this will be a wet weather car.

I had hoped to get further along this weekend but sometimes plans don't quite ....  uh... go to plan?

So I made some templates that didn't quite work out for the upper rad mounts. I mean it's a good thing that it's just cardboard and a little wasted time, but also I realized I should probably start with the lower mounts first. Then I can move to the upper.

Here's v1 of the lower mounts. I think they do what I want them to do which is locate the lower bosses of the radiator. I wanted to go light on materials, so a couple bent up sheet metal brackets are all that's needed. The flanges that meet the frunk surface will get a couple drilled holes for spot welds. Nothing fancy here.

I had planned for the rad to be leaned forward more but hood to mount clearance became a problem. If I lower the bottom bracket height and add an angle it's still possible to do the lean but it doesn't really gain me more space. It also kinda complicates the shrouding I'll need to do. Top mount is still in the planning stages.

The past few weekends have had me out of state for my youngest daughter's cheer competitions. Barely any time to tinker and even if I do have time I'm exhausted. This weekend was still super busy but I managed to carve out a chunk of Sunday to get to work. I messed around with the lower rad mounts a bit. I didn't like how things were progressing and was already eye balling the $13.21 muffler from amazon. So I started working on that instead.

I believe this is for an E250. It's a Walker SoundFX 18819 with 2.5 inlet and outlet. Packaging wise it was about perfect for what I had planned. It tucks nicely where the stock 914 muffler goes with room to wiggle around.

Now to connect the dots. Previously we left off with a 45 connected at the stock TSX flex joint. I knew I wanted a cat and packaging wise I had room for one. This also meant no resonator so hopefully this isn't a problem. If it is, I'll figure something out.

I trimmed the 45 and tacked it to the cat. With that in place I took a 180 bend and trimmed to fit up to the other end of the cat. I don't know how this happened but this all fell into place without much fuss. I thought it would require more effort.

I looked at it for a bit deciding where I wanted to place a flange for easy service. It seemed easiest to have it placed directly at the muffler entry.

You can see the old Boxster trans mount in the background. I plan to use it for a hanger mount but the first attempt didn't end up working out. I started creating something before realizing there's an axle that needs space.

I then whipped up a tip for the exit. I test fitted the rear apron while in the placement process in case I decide to use it. Less work later if it's already planned into things.

So I moved on to the rear hangers. I thought about rigid mounting it to the rear trans mount. Instead I decided to try out the rubber isolators hanging from the chassis. I bent up some flat stock, drilled a hole, rivnut to the chassis, and tacked a hanger rod on both sides. The arms coming off the muffler are still a work in progress needing some bracing and nubs here and there but this thing is holding up the full exhaust now. That's pretty neat!

Packaging wise I'm stoked how everything came together. I really hope it's not too loud or drones like crazy with zero resonators in the system.

From the rear you can see the muffler. I forgot to take a shot of it without the trans jack in the way but honestly I think once the car is on the ground you wouldn't think much of it. It looks like it should be there.

In reply to captainawesome :

That looks like a good solution for a tight package space. You can always apply some black VHT header paint to the muffler if you think it's too visible.

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

That was my thought as well. I plan to take the car off the cribbing blocks to get a better look at everything at it's natural elevation this week. The rear apron covers it completely, I'm just not sure if I want it installed or not.

Thinking about this a little more, I may be able to fashion a Helmholtz style resonator around the cat area. If I branch it off right before the cat entry into a short resonator capped off, it just might fit. Since I have the beefy trans bracket to hang that section off of I won't be worried about the weight. Hmmmm. I think it could work.

I've been wanting to see the car back on the ground for a while, so this afternoon I did just that. We have a big winter storm coming in tomorrow and it's not going to be possible when that happens.

This was a nice motivator. I like. A lot. Prepare for photo dumpage.

That looks RIGHT.

I think it'll look even better with spacers. The patina even looks right on it

Yeah, some spacers and i think you're money.  Stance is right on for this car and those wheels IMHO. 

Looks great!  Muffler fits in there nicely and looks about like a stock one.  I'm also a fan of the patina currently on the car.  The XJ is lookin good back there too!

Agreed on the spacers.

I'm still planning out lighting and am a bit conflicted. This could go either way and maybe y'all can help push me in the right direction. I have been thinking about using some 5x7 modern style headlight assemblies in the lower part of the bumper where the fog lights are. I would probably use an amber lens on the signals, but then there's also some recently developed headlights that fit those housings. They are pricey though and I'm not sure the car will look good being all ratty with new headlights.

And then I was thinking of these for the fog light holes.

I'm afraid these two would be too modern for the car but sometimes this stuff works out better than expected.

This style I have on my XJ and they look way better in person than expected. Also great light output.

Here's what they look like on my XJ. Surprisingly they don't look out of place but still not sure it would work on the 914.

Agree on the modern lights looking out of place on what's otherwise a patina/retro mesh wheel exterior.  
 

I get function comes first, but I'd lean towards more traditional lenses for the bumper fit ones.  Can you fit high output ones hidden in the flip-up portion? 

I've had lots of garage time the past couple days. Unfortunately the end result isn't fancy or what looks like hours of template work, failed or flawed ideas, and considerable head scratching. I am happy to report that the top rad mount is finished. It's a 1/2 bar with a couple bolt on brackets. I tried some more elaborate stuff but felt like this was the best answer. The bar itself is welded to the sheetmetal but I may go back and have it a bolt in affair. I can't think of any real reason to do that as of right now other than when I do other stuff with the rad out it will be annoying. The lower mounts need a couple holes drilled for the spot welds to officially anchor them in place.

I kinda like the look of patina with new lights and stuff.

It hints that something a little sneaky is going on.

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

Yeah it can go either way which is why I'm hesitant to make the decision. Worst case scenario I spend a little more on lighting that doesn't work out. Amazon return may be on my side.

I just received my new digital dash. I spent a lot of time contemplating so many options. Making a Honda dash probably would have been the cheapest option but still would have required tinkering and packaging wise may not have worked. I originally wanted the Haltech dash, but the cost was higher than I would have liked. I priced out some digital OEM style face gauges but they start to get expensive fast and are still not able to monitor half the data I can with this. In the end I settled on the PowerTune digital dash which talks to the Haltech Canbus for data. Less wiring required because Canbus which will be nice since I'm planning to at some point do the whole wiring for the car. Display wise there are lots of customizable options available. They seem to get lots of positive reviews overall for tons of applications. Best of all this was half the cost of a Haltech at $539 shipped from Mako Motorsports in Australia. 

I may have a coworker 3d print me a dash pod for it to bolt in like stock. That would be the easy button.

I will need to wire my fuel gauge to a spare AVI on the Haltech if I remember correctly using an inline resistor to get a usable range.

I think the VSS wiring still needs figured out but I at one point had some info that pointed me in the right direction.

Pretty stoked to have this here.

This morning I had a couple of hours to tinker before getting peeled away. Thursday evening I had spent an hour or so kinda working on a template for the coolant expansion tank, so that's what I wanted to try and flesh out in metal. 

I'm really stoked with how it turned out. Now to decide how I want to mount it to the firewall. I originally thought about rivnuts directly through the firewall. That's still possible but they stick out quite a bit and I'm not sure how I'll be covering the interior side of the firewall yet. So maybe weld some studs to the firewall or just weld the bracket itself to the firewall with some spot welds.

My engine lid didn't have the torsion springs so before committing to any specific location I grabbed the parts car lid and installed it. Definitely glad I didn't make a permanent decision yet as getting the cap off would have been difficult. Didn't snap a pic with the torsion spring but this position is about where it will end up.

Tomorrow I hope to have the final decision on the expansion tank mounting method, fuel regulator mounted, and start the intake air box mounts. Maybe even finish my planned shifter cable firewall pass through. It would be nice to have them all finished. Speaking of finished, I have about 13 unfinished items that will get a dedicated day to wrap them up. I've been hesitant to lock anything in permanently until all of the systems are in place and there's no need to correct placement. It's getting close to where I can check those items off the list for good.

In reply to captainawesome :

This is coming together great. Nice work!

In reply to AxeHealey :

Thanks! Just trying to chip away at it a little at a time. 

That's how  it gets done, one small step at a time and it all adds up.

I'm with you on futureproofing.....nothing more frustrating than having to redo something you thought was finished because it gets in the way of something else.

Well I jinxed myself. I realized I couldn't mount the expansion tank until the airbox is mounted. So that's what I attempted to do today instead.

The airbox is from a 02 Acura TL 3.2 that I picked up in the local JY months ago. I liked the size and it points somewhat where I need it to go. The first top two mounts were pretty simple. Just some bent up metal with rivnuts that got tacked into place.

With it mostly in place I spent WAY too much time making the lower bracket. There's not much room to work with at all. I spent most of my time making the template which has a lot of various bends. That hard work paid off because the first attempt in steel fit right into place. I really wanted to tack it into place but there are various tabs that need removed and a gnarly sheet metal patch that needs attention. All of that will need done once the engine and trans comes back out. I also plan to snorkel fresh air in from the fenderwell.

And with it installed in the car. I tried to make sure it's easy to service but also allow an easy path for intake connection. The opening is oval but a 3" coupler fits perfect. My intake elbow at the TB is currently 2.75". I found an elbow that transitions from 2.75" to 3" that runs the same 135 degree bend which seems like the easiest solution.

Luckily this is mostly sorted now. I may take a break from bracket making for a few days and find something else to mess with. Or just make some more templates.

I decided to spend a few minutes on the photoshop fleshing out some ideas. I think a small dam added to the lower lip of the bumper, side skirts, spoiler, b pillar, and top all finished in a charcoalish gray/black would look great. Maybe a similar darker color on the wheel centers or the magnesium color I painted the valve cover with.

I can't seem to find any pics of 914s that have the a pillars matching the top and b pillars so that was thrown in there as well.

Silver wheels.

And a couple gifs to show the differences.

In reply to captainawesome :

It may just be the texture of the Photoshop but, to me, with the roof and B pillar black, it looks like it's got a soft top which I think looks odd.

I could get on board with the windshield frame, roof and B pillar black though.

Not that you were asking.

In reply to AxeHealey :

I think it just looks more like a soft top in my photoshop.

Edit: I also think the color will be a more muted black than what is in my images. Like more gray or charcoal.

air box looks great!