Hey everyone, I've been busy the past few months but haven't really been posting what I've been up to anywhere, but I figured this crowd would be into what I have in the oven. So, I bought a sad old 74 911. It was talkin to me. Everyone here knows that nagging feeling when a car keeps you up at night flowing with ideas like a blank canvas. Knowing I had to do something about it, I snapped up the car with plans to either make a 74 3.0 RS clone, or a lightweight Carrera MFI hot rod, so I chose the latter as I'm all about lightweight with twin plugged MFI throttle response, which if you haven't experienced first hand you need to. I love the first series of impact bumper cars from 74-76 as they used the superlight mag cases to the motor and trans, and the body is just as light as the earlier cars, whereas everything post 78 just started to get fat and heavy. This car tipped the scales, before I started tearing it apart, at just 2320lbs. The car had some rust, so I had some cutting and welding to do. The floor pan was replaced, the front suspension pan was replaced, a good bit of steel around the windshield has been replaced. All by me of course. My latest project has been installing RS flares which were used in 73 and on very early 74 Carreras while Porsche had stock remaining from 73, then late 74 they swapped to the SC flares used until 89. The RS flare has a slight different and softer counter which is hard to spot, but they look great. The engine is of course out and I will document that build. The ultimate plan is to have the car be not more than 2200lbs, which should be easy, but with about 270bhp. The mag case will be shuffle pinned and all necessary work mag cases require will be done, but the real squeeze is with twin plug, high compression, DC60 cams, and proper 39mm intake ports and 38mm exhaust ports breathing through MFI. Thankfully, I have ALL of the necessary MFI components and the throttle bodies and stacks are being machined and the MFI pump is being set up for this build. Good MFI parts are a bit rare and unfortunately hugely pricey as is the required work on them, but it's worth it for the go they offer. color is the real deal from Glasurit, single stage Continental orange. love it Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
very cool project john. i like the 74's alot because they are simple and lightest of the G bods im doing a 3.0rs type car on a M491. im down to 2575lbs the last time i checked with half cage. went with the heavier car because i wanted the body, brakes and suspension. i might be able to take another 100lbs out before it difficult. luv the MFi system you have, ive driven boatloads of them over the years when they weren't worth anything. they sound and look great with nice response. but it may not be the best match for my motor since its a lazier 3.2, rsr dome type slugs, twin plug on 64 cams. its just a warm over street motor which is ok. Arron in cali would be the man to help you set it up the M-pump if you are doing open heart surgery in swapping out the injection cam. he was referred to me by magnus whos had a few done by him.
The MFI pump is being set up by Mark Jung with a V94 space cam sourced from a company in Germany that now, get this, makes them new based on 3d diagrams of the original V94 space cam. It will be right. Good luck with your project, I was right on the fence doing the same thing but for those silly Michelin TB15 tires and all the fiberglass I would have to run on the fenders, unless of course I wanted to have a couple sources in Germany fab up a proper set of 3.0RS flares for multiple k Euros, then of course I'd have to source a good 3.0 motor.......slippery slope for me
Some of the rust that had to be dealt with was pretty bad, but it's all good now: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Once the flares are welded up, I'll do as I've done with the rest of the body panels to date: crushed glass blast with my trusty 80 grit pressure pot and giant compressor, treat the bare metal with a conditioner, rinse, dry, then spray PPG DP48LF primer and transport to the paint shop. Continental orange has multiple personalities based on lighting. From deep orange/red to a bright vibrant orange and everything between. Same color for this car, just the hood and fenders in different lighting: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Nice work. Must be a few like minded porsche people on this forum, I have a 75 that I bought for conversion parts sight unseen. When it arrived was too good to wreck (eng had pulled studs) and already had rs butt welded flares. 3.2 is in now, suspension mods next and off to licence, then the real fun begins.
Thanks for sharing your build/project. Always enjoy these! Porsche builds always the best, full of surprise parts, etc.
The passenger bottom windscreen corner is an issue with these cars, especially the early examples as the gauge of steel used was thinner than later cars. Good because they are lighter, but rust can eat them quick not to mention welding thin metal is hard enough already. I had to dice the repair panel into a few pieces as the contour just wasn't right. 'Ease to fit' applies here haha Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Glad the front suspension pans are readily available and of outstanding quality as this one was clearly toast! Replacement of these are a bear (Porsche actually has them as a normal service item as they know they will rust out!) as they incorporate front suspension a-arm pickup points making proper height and measurements paramount. I think I had 35 hours in doing this beast. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Little bit of work over the weekend. Cut the driver side flare and just about have the new flare fitted and ready for welding. Cutting these things always involves frayed nerves as once it's cut there's no going back. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Very cool...thanks for sharing John. I look forward to following your progress and seeing the finished car.
Havent check in for a couple of weeks looks like you are working quickly! sounds like you have a killer recipe for your motor. what revs plan on running? my 3.2 is torquey but i miss the revs of the early motors. seems like the 2.2 and 2.4's were the hottest factory cars even comparable to the limited 2.7 RS and 3.0 RS who's CR is way low in caparisons. hey you got the nice short pedals? i cant remember what year when they switch over to the long pedals for the dr, dentist and lawyers in 76-77 maybe? i m looking for a shift knob like yours for my tribute car... if you are planning to replacing it please let me know? as for a slippery slope... man the combination of things that have been done and can be done are almost endless. my plans are already being dialed back! motor parts are crazy pricey and are near 308 levels or have surpassed them now which is ridiculous give the share numbers that 911s were built? orange is striking, a fellow in SD did a pretty nice long nose on a M491 running on TB's. he is working on another M491 car morphing it to a 3.0RS or Iroc . good choice using single stage... they appear much more period correct than that wet lip gloss sema look imo. Look forward to your next phase of your project.
Very interesting, thank you for sharing your Porsche project here John! Looking forward to more nitty gritty details of your progress...
I indeed do have the nice short pedals Not sure about the shift knob yet..... I'll keep you posted. I know for certain I will use a Rennshifter though, outstanding upgrade. Re the motor. With the early 70.4mm cranks you have to be somewhat careful with revs. An early short stroker, when set up right, revs easily to 8300rpm. Long stroke motors are, I'm told by fellows who race them, are good through 7800rpm all day with the occasional 8k as long as high grade flywheel bolts are used and it's all interally balanced. With these early motors (2.0-2.8) rev range is all about in/exh port sizes, camshaft, compression, and type of induction. The MFI throttle bodies are currently out being bored to 39mm at the intake ports with 41mm butterflies ultimately opening to 42mm at the top. Magnesium stacks atop the throttle bodies meet them at 42mm and open up to 50mm at the top. Haven't decided on airbox or individual filters, but I really like the look of the MFI box on the SC RS for instance. The exhaust ports will be 38mm fed into headers (who needs heat!) spitting out through a 2 in 2 out RS muffler. Motor will be twin plugged, around 10.5:1 compression and either DC60 or DC62 cams with valves controlled by Eibach springs. The 7r mag case will be shuffle pinned. Carillo rods are already in hand as are pistons, bearings/gaskets etc. 92mm bore so the engine will be 2.8L. She will be good for around 270-280bhp and street friendly. Mind you: early factory S heads had 36mm intake ports. Later 3L race heads had 41mm or 43mm intake ports, but also used a 3mm larger valve than 2.7 heads. My build largely comes from a fellow in Germany who built the identical motor with the expected results (think he got around 282bhp at a very high rpm), so thankfully I'm not going into the unknown here. As for engine parts cost etc, everything has been really quite reasonable, especially compared to the 308 motor I built. The only thing that's killer is the MFI parts cost, machine work, pump set up, and wait times. There are only a few places in the world that do it and man are they backed up. The MFI stuff and work is easily the most costly aspect of the entire project. The juice will be worth the squeeze though (keep telling myself that).
Driver side flare welded up and ground. Cutting, grinding/fitting, welding, grinding, take about 6 hours per side. Ready to blast the body now. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Fun with blasting today. Went through 5x50lb bags of crushed glass media and called it a day. Not too much evil was discovered, just a bit of bondo in areas I was not expecting. The honey-do list calls. Finished moving stuff from one side of the shop to the garage side, so now I finally have the entire shop to play in. The foundation to the other side of the shop had a massive crack and was despressed 6inches. The fix required 9 helical piers, lots of jackhammering, then repouring the garage floor. So until that was fixed all manner of stuff was stuffed into the shop. I recruited pops to sweep the floor.... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Sort of a difficult question as it all depends what you want to do with the body and engine, and what body and engine you begin with. In my case, the engine has to be MFI ($$$) with a 7r case ($$$) and the body had to be a 74 or 75 very early light G body with no sunroof (difficult to find). I'm figuring $50k-$60k to do the entire build, and that's with me doing 90% the work as I'm not painting the panels nor doing engine machine work. That includes the cost of the car itself which should be sub $20k, but these early light sunroof delete cars are going through the roof lately. Paying a good shop to do something like this would probably creep up to at least $80k-$90k. Juice worth the squeeze? Well, I really wanted a 74 or 75 Euro Carrera but didn't feel like dropping $300k for one, so I'm taking a US car, giving it a Euro Carrera look and beefed up 2.8rs motor. So, same as a Euro Carrera but I won't feel bad (ok, as bad) driving the thing. If anyone here have driven an early Euro Carrera they'll know what I'm on about, they are just fabulous.
Small update. Took about 4 hours yesterday to blast the other side of the car a bit. After going through another 250lbs of 80 grit crushed glass on this one side I am about done stripping the car. Engine bay wasn't terrible and not too much new evil was discovered. Trying to figure out how to remove the wiring harness which traverses the tunnel from the front to the back..... will post once that's figured out
Lovely project, do like idea of light car and revving engine with ITB's. Interesting to see what wheels you will have. Instead of going with individual air filters I would suggest to use one big air filters, with my ITB set up individual filters vs. one big did hurt power some 15hp (and this was from barely over 100hp engine)
