Porsche Piston

[saltfactor]

Ok, so come to find out, my bus has a 1.7 litre 914 motor. Well, when the exhaust valve spring broke the other day it allowed the valve to contact the piston. The damage to the face of the piston does not appear that bad but the material is dent/distorted from the contact at the edge of the domed area. You can easily see what caused it. The valve of course is bent too. My question is, who is going to sell me a single piston for this motor? Thanks for any resource information. Later, -K-
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'74 Westy
'60 11 Window Standard Microbus
'65 Standard Beetle
'61 Double-Door Panel (Sold)
'78 Standard Transporter (Sold)
'66 Panel (Sold)
'70 Fasty (Sold)
'70 Standard Transporter (Sold)
'68 Type 3 Fastback (Sold)
'69 Bus (On tour somewhere)
'70 Fastback (Sold)
'59 NSU Prinz!!! (On a racetrack someday in my dreams)
'66 Buick Wildcat (Sold)

"Come to kindly terms with your Ass for it bears you" - J. Muir

[spectral method]

um... a wrecker? Isn't the question more like 'who is going to bother replacing only one piston?'
Cropertunity - take the chance to do some work to the motor!
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Jules

[Randy in Maine]

I am the cheapestassguy you will find on this forum, I would still replace them all with new. New is new, used is used.

Better yet, send that block out to me. I would love to have it. They are getting hard to come by anymore and that isn't likely to get any better in the future.

[saltfactor]

I swear I'm not the "Ghetto-rig" king. I'm pretty sure I have removed the last traces of duct tape and bailing wire from my shop! I talked to my local VW wrench and he says "let it ride", so I'm just gonna run it. Later, -K-
_________________
'74 Westy
'60 11 Window Standard Microbus
'65 Standard Beetle
'61 Double-Door Panel (Sold)
'78 Standard Transporter (Sold)
'66 Panel (Sold)
'70 Fasty (Sold)
'70 Standard Transporter (Sold)
'68 Type 3 Fastback (Sold)
'69 Bus (On tour somewhere)
'70 Fastback (Sold)
'59 NSU Prinz!!! (On a racetrack someday in my dreams)
'66 Buick Wildcat (Sold)

"Come to kindly terms with your Ass for it bears you" - J. Muir

[spectral method]

Ya never know - it might just add that little bit of turbulence to the swirling mix for a little quicker combustion. Hey man - if there was one thing I would have if I could only have one thing it would probably be race tape!
_________________
Jules

[evster59]

Well almost the same thing happened to me. Last year 2 days before Jerome I dropped a valve. The piston was dented and scratched but after pulling the head there was no damage to the liner. I put a new head on it and have been driving it daily for over a year no problem. Good luck!!!!

[saltfactor]

Good deal. I think it'll be straight. I'm gonna pass a cylinder hone through the jugs a couple times to 86 the glaze and replace the bent exhaust valve and button 'er up. Should be "all good". Later, -K-
_________________
'74 Westy
'60 11 Window Standard Microbus
'65 Standard Beetle
'61 Double-Door Panel (Sold)
'78 Standard Transporter (Sold)
'66 Panel (Sold)
'70 Fasty (Sold)
'70 Standard Transporter (Sold)
'68 Type 3 Fastback (Sold)
'69 Bus (On tour somewhere)
'70 Fastback (Sold)
'59 NSU Prinz!!! (On a racetrack someday in my dreams)
'66 Buick Wildcat (Sold)

"Come to kindly terms with your Ass for it bears you" - J. Muir

[wgargan]

wait, arnt you supposed to have the dished piston. someone tolde me that the domed high compression piston would cause to much heat whil pushing a big ole bus. Is that true. have you experienced high engine temps?
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Current ride:

1983.5 Watercooled Vanagon 'L' Automatic transmission

[saltfactor]

I'm not sure if the domed pistons caused the overheating that is evident from this engines internals(severely scuffed pistons/skirts). But I'd bet the missing tin section over the alternator didn't help.
_________________
'74 Westy
'60 11 Window Standard Microbus
'65 Standard Beetle
'61 Double-Door Panel (Sold)
'78 Standard Transporter (Sold)
'66 Panel (Sold)
'70 Fasty (Sold)
'70 Standard Transporter (Sold)
'68 Type 3 Fastback (Sold)
'69 Bus (On tour somewhere)
'70 Fastback (Sold)
'59 NSU Prinz!!! (On a racetrack someday in my dreams)
'66 Buick Wildcat (Sold)

"Come to kindly terms with your Ass for it bears you" - J. Muir

[ratwell]

You'll have to check the engine code to figure out what the stock compression ratio of that 914 motor was. Some were the same the the bus 1.7 motor and the pistons therefore will be the same.
_________________
'78 Westfalia CDN
'76 Doublecab
Read the Baywindow FAQ

[Randy in Maine]

Well I am probably out of my league here. I stole some of this from the Pelican Parts website sometime ago and some of it I remember from the 70's. I can't remember what I had for breakfast, so this is iffy at best.

Go over to PelicanParts.com and snoop around the website.

I think the 914 engines came with a W Code until late in 1973 when they added EA and EB (I think the EB code might be more for the 1974 1.8 L engine). The engine ID code is usually found on an aluminum tag just behind the left rear intake manifold tube. Frequently they are missing.I don't think the engine code in a 914 is stamped down in the left front like a type 4.

Bore is always 90 mm on a 1.7 liter and a stock compression of about 8.2. Most pistons were Mahle Pistons (the USA ones were usually dished and the European ones were flat tops). The flat tops gave you a slight compression bump to about 8.5 or so vs. 8.2, and a lot of people rebuilding a 914 would use the Euro pistons for the compression bump and they were a squeak cheaper. Other pistons were Kolbenschmidts "Kolbens" and some were dished and some weren't. They were not real popular in the 914 crowd because they were not built as well. I am not aware of anyone using a domed piston in a 914, due to valve interference. I think in 1974 they had to get smogged for CA and that is when they went to the 1.8L which was kind of a pooch but came with the L fuel injection from the D series they had before.

Pelican will sell you 4 new Mahles for this thing, that will give you pretty good rap and power, but you won't get 100K out of the engine in a bus.

Good luck!