Project Blue Book

When all else fails there's Condor and WD40 :thumb:

We went to see Chiefs 914 yesterday.

Looks nice and low and sounds a lot of fun around the corners.

A lot of work to get it the the standard set by the Red Baron, but the car is 42 years old and in remarkably good condition for that.

I suspect the garage will be the most used room in the house for the next [12*] months!

:thumb:


* feel free to insert your own number!

A while ago there was a Porsce Post with a lot about 914s. I chucked most of mine when we moved. Anyone still got it?

PS, I agree with Keith about the wheels. Stick them on the Baron to get some continuity with your fleet.

Keith, never thought of myself as a Jason King look a like....you remember I have no hair right?
I totally agree that these cars are cool. Chasing Pete round a few islands yesterday got the tyres squeeling with such a smooth progressive tail out oversteer They handle great, and as Pete says, this one is 42 years old..... :thumb: Still trying to muddle through the fuel injection issues, but it does run better already. So many plans for this one......can't wait to get my teeth into it :food:

O.K still trying to get to the bottom of the poor running...
Now i'm no expert with this type of early fuel injection, but I have to say I am really enjoying learning and fathoming out how it ticks. As previously explained, i'm going through each component and stripping and cleaning to see if I can have a 'Eureka' moment. This even now has not happend, but I keep finding lots of little faults which you think must be it, but alas no beer!
So this weekend I have stripped the throttle body.


So behind this little black box is the stuff that can play up! I buzzed throught the contacts and found one on the idle side of the track not working.

Cleaning with a good contact cleaner and some carefull use of 2000 wet and dry sorted that out.

You have to be very careful and use a delecate hand with this stuff.
Still amazing that this is 42 years old!!
So now we have everything working and a nice '0' resistence
:thumb:

So I re-asembled it all back up and fired her up.....Still the bl@@dy same :bonk:
Well one down and all that...........
The next thing on the list was to replace the thermostat cable. This cleaver little bellows expands when it reaches 90c and shut/opens (Not sure which way around it works) two flaps that are shut when cold to allow the engine to warm up quickly.

With this snapped the engine can overheat. Theading the new cable up through the tinware and around a pully was fun. I have to get Mrs Chief to help out.
So with this one ticked off the ever growing list I moved on to the distributor. Getting this little bu@@er out was fun. I honestly cannot remember the last time I got involved with stripping one. It must be 25 years ago easy!

So someone has put electronic ignition in and replaced the points. But the interesting thing is in the bottom of the distributor is another set of points that trigger the fuel injectors. Very simple but effective. The unit just pulls out.


I gave these a good clean and removed the old grease which was more like wax after all this time. The points base rotates against it's self to allow vacuum advance. The plate was tight so I spent some time cleaning and re-greasing. Also the little earth wire had come adrift.

On assembling everything back together I realised that the electronic ignition trigger was tight and slowing the vacuum advance. So I filed it's base plate to free it up. Now I thought all these little things must add up to something. Well put it all back together, but not having a timing light anymore (Like who has nowadayz) I put everything back to some whitness marks I had put on at the start. I figured i'd get it running and time it by ear for now. Well turned the key and it won't even run now :grin: i'm getting good at this mechanic stuff don't you think?
Anyway, I thought i'll leave it for now and go and see PeterS for a coffee and catch up. I'll look at it with fresh eyes next week sometime......no rush, still lot's to do to The Red Baron :roll:
Well no further forward, infact further back than before. Until next time.
Peace out from PROJECT BLUE BOOK.

Sterling work mate you are an inspiration :floor:





sure you will crack it

keep up the good work chief, you'll crack it soon!


Ian

Chief

I have just dropped you a text - I have a timing light. Finding it might be the challenge......... :?

I seen a 914 on the road out side my place today , i think its the first real one ive ever seen , "redish" in colour it was pretty rough , gave him a wave, it growled past me , nice sound .

Thanks fellas,
I will get to the bottom of this :frustrated:
Phil, thanks for the offer, I appreciate it :thumb:
Keith, best snap one up quick before there all gone :floor:
I have to say, the more I work on this car the more I like it.
I had some of the tinware off yesterday and it cleaned up like new!
The black paint still looking shiny

I absolutely love this! :flowers:

I've always had a soft spot for the 914, I think you've bought just at the right time Chiefster. They are going to follow the 912 skywards soon.

I can't wait to see it develop.

Cheers,
Paul

Thanks Paul, you're a good lad
Project Blue Book has been a little slow of late, but let me explain. I have not been sitting on my ars@ honestly! I need a ramp in the garage and having tired bones from years of motoX and other perusits I find it hard to be rolling around under cars, so I have been looking into a moblie ramp to help out. This has lead to another problem.....my up and over doors will just get in the way of popping one of the cars on the ramp then being able to get out of the garage. Having spent some time looking at options I decided on a Horman sliding door. This will allow easy access and the car can stay in the air. The only down side to this was the fact that I have a 3" drop on the tiled floor :roll: So I've had to dig a trench and concrete it to take the weight of the door.

So tiles up....

After the concrete I used some self leveller and left it to cure for a week.


Fortunately I have a stash of tiles left over from laying the floor.



There we have it. 40mm insulated, powder coated with a nice wood grain.

So all I have had time to look at on Project Blue Book is the fact that there always seems to be water under the front of the car :? Now I know it's air cooled so it couldn't be the dreaded 996 radiator leak :grin:
Now I did wander where all the lacquer off the paintwork had gone (Bear with me here, it's leading somewhere!)

So I started to take the lights apart and saw this


Hmmmm full of water. But what could be blocking the drain hole :?:

Uuugh, yep a stinking mess of shards of lacquer :grin: So that's where it all ended up!

A good swill out with the hose and all good, just did the same with the other side and at least it's dry now. I harp on about this but look at the condidtion of the headlamp bowls. This car is over 40 years old and they look like new! So the garage is coming on. I have got to get a White Board put up now to start documenting parts and things that need to be done, maybe a couple of cupboards as well.
So there we have it for now. Not what you would call progress but.....
All the best,
Chief

Chief said:

Not what you would call progress but.....

Click to expand...

Every little helps. Looking forward to see what you do with the 914.

Very posh door chief!
Good to get rid of that water though, it'll defo go faster now!


Ian

I hope you found a good home for the Koi carp Chief? :grin:

Good choice on the garage door, I've had a Harmann for over 10 years and not a squeak out of it! :thumb:

Cheers,
Paul

Urr .. its pubic lacquer.. lovely :thumb: