how to put a Porsche 914 motor in a bay window bus

[RatCamper]

[76magicbus]

All the fuel injection stuff will work too ?

[drober23]

You need to use all of the FI components from the '79, and it should work fine. If the '76 has an ECU (brain) in it, remove that and use the one from the '79.
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DJ

'75 Westfalia, '79 Deluxe, and some others...
(more busses than sense)

In a time of chimpanzees I was a monkey

[raygreenwood]

The 1.7L head was pretty much made for the domed piston. See that dimple near the quench area? That was made to optimize and steer the mixture pushed up by the dome into the quench area.

They were not really originally made for or envisioned with the 914 in mind. They originally came in the 411/412. Every 411/412 1.7L with fuel injection except for California used the domed piston.

They run very well. Typically about a .080" dome rise on piston...and about .075-.079 deck around the piston edge.
Be careful using these in a bus. 8.2;1 is stock compression....but if you remove the head gasket (about .028") like you should....that reduces deck to about .051". If you remove base gasket and seal....it usually removes another .011"....so .040" deck. This is good for cooler running as it gets the flamefront out of the jug and into the head.......but your static compression goes up to about 8.5 to 8.6 depending on chamber volume and camshaft overlap.
Ray

[76magicbus]

Thanks I guess I got some work ahead of me ! Lol

[68greenvw]

Well I'm new to this VW Bus business. I have a '68 VW Transporter Westy. My engine just died. I could rebuild it but I was wondering if the 914 engine would work on mine.

[Wildthings]

[VDUBONDUBS]

hey guys i just wanted to jump right in since you guys seem to have a good grasp on the t4 eng. well......i have a 71 square and i also have a raby built t4 eng with no home(carbs) if i were to put this motor in my square....is there anything i should know before hand? oh and the square is auto

[busdaddy]

Sounds like a question you should be asking Mr. Raby.
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[VDUBONDUBS]

i was looking for somethin more along the lines of reasons why i shouldnt or what to look for or what needs to be changed. thanx enway tho!

[fusername]

you will need some stuby little manifolds, and you will love your new car! go pop on over into the typ4urm over on shoptalkforums.com, they used to have a sticky just for this conversion, but it has since been released into the wild buta quick search should turn it up.

also the stock aircooled vanagon rear engine support works beautifully on the T3 conversion.

err, i mean, its a super hard conversion and you need to sell me the square and the engine. I'll let you keep the auto trans tho.
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[VDUBONDUBS]

sweet man thanx! thats kinda what i was lookin for! so would the auto trans be an issue u think?

[MrBryan]

Sorry for reviving an ancient thread.. but if I can source a 914 engine with these specs to replace the 411 w/injection in my 78 Bus:

1800cc engine out of a 74 Targa Bosch L Jetronics fuel injection,8.6 :1 compression,85 hp

I am looking at
1) dipstick & filler in wrong spot
2) compression ratio wrong/harmfully high -- which can be fixed by using bus pistons?
3) use my fuel injection components from 411

if it is known good for less than a grand vs my 411 may need rebuild... is it a decent option while I take my time rebuilding / selling mine? I know nothing about internals so I would be learning or paying for work to modify the 914.
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78 Bus with FI & 74 style exhaust, 411/412 engine

[Wildthings]

Several people have run the higher compression engines successfully. Takes careful tuning and a watchful ear to do so. Yes you will want to run high octane gasoline, but the price difference should be offset by a slight increase in gas mileage. Set your timing at around 26° BTDC at 3500+ rpms hoses off and see how it runs.

[raygreenwood]

[MrBryan]

Thanks ray -- sorry where did the D-Jet stuff come in?

The engine says it was L-jet (but has carbs included which I could remove from the price) and I assumed my setup is L-Jet as well..

Mine performed well through all rpms so we can assume it has an appropriate cam... which I could swap in or buy then? or am I only concerned with the cam gear?

I'm tempted to just try it out but if it's not so onerous to put the correct cam and pistons to do it right perhaps that's worthwhile.

p.s can't drive my current engine anymore it is spewing smoke so I'm hoping to do something less involved to get an engine in and then work slowly on the other.
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78 Bus with FI & 74 style exhaust, 411/412 engine

[raygreenwood]

[MrBryan]

Thanks again Ray, I was confused by the use of l-jet and d-jet to describe the cam I thought it referred to injectors and afc etc of fuel injection.

I'll have to do more reading to understand all that stuff.

It's sitting on a bench so I presume I can only do a leakdown test or half assed compression not cranked by the starter + bell housing or just take a risk.

Can you humour me one more ignorant question and tell me this -- if I buy this engine what other parts should I get to not stress it? Cam + possibly pistons?
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78 Bus with FI & 74 style exhaust, 411/412 engine

[raygreenwood]

Well.....these are tough engines if not abused. And if it really was a 914 engine....and the carbs were done well and tuned well....it should have received much less overall abuse kn its life than a bus engine.
If it has all its sheet metal and heat exchangers etc.....from a 914....which would somewhat prove (along with the location of the engine # which is on the case in a totally differnt place than a bus, 411 or 412).....then your first coarse is to check crank end play, pull the valve covers turn it over by hand and check function and movement of all valves.....and if the guy will let you.....pull each set of rockers.....about 15 minutes per side and lay a straight edge across the valve tips. Thats about all the condition testing you can do without pulling the heads of and looking.
Without being able to test run it.....its really not worth $1000. Unless you can show compression and oil pressure......its possibly just a core engine. There is absolutely nothing special about a 1.8L 914 engine. The sheet metal and heat exchangers may be worth $150-200 if they are complete and in good shape, but with the engine only being say....a good core if nothing is obviously bent or broken (which does not mean that it is not worn out with collapsed pistons, flat cam, dead lifters, leaky valves and worn out bearings).....then as an unproven core its worth about $300. Add that $300 to the 200 for sheet metal and heat exchangers.....and the whole pile is worth about $500. If you wont keep the carbs and you have no way to test them (and depending on what they are and if they are complete with linkage and manifolds)......add a max of $100-150.
$650 max.

But to answer your question.....if it is all in good shape on the bottom end ......you strip it down totally, check and clean or replace oil pump, measure piston skirts and bores. If they are original....and no rust or scoring ....they are probably Kolbenschmidt in Mahle cylinders.

I would have a basic regrind of the valves done if there are no spring, keeper or retainer issues and there is enough valve margin, check the main bearings and if they are clean and still anywhere in tolerance...reuse them.
Buy a set of double thrust cam bearings from Jake Raby.....and get a new webcam with matching lifters.
If there is nothing immediate to replace you can have a good running clean engine for about $300 tops with a gasket set. Ray

[MrBryan]

one more revival / hijack:

I nabbed that 914 engine but now I have it back and I note the EFI systems are different -- not a big deal because they snipped the main part of the harness going to the ECU so i'd have to use mine, which I note has a 7 pin rather than 6 pin connection .. . but reusing my AFM that is fine. (right? ... )

If I managed to figure out the hoses and hook up my harness & ecu ( form a 1.8 411) to this l-jet 1.8 914 should everything be theoretically OK?

Because of the amount of work that may be needed to complete the unfamiliar set of hoses etc I'm tempted to just steal the parts from this especially the heads with more even valves than mine but it would be good to know it is a possibility to run this one with my harness.. thanks again.

edit: re-reading this thread I see that maybe the heads might be different on the 914 than my 411/412? both are 1.8...

Here's the engine:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/by4l30hbb15gtdf/2014-08-14%2011.46.08%20HDR.jpg

here's where they snipped the harness *##$#$ with different style AFM connector than mine

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3o23pvmrsj8o6ki/2014-08-14%2011.46.34.jpg[/url]
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78 Bus with FI & 74 style exhaust, 411/412 engine