914 Engine Into My Beetle
Progress as it Happened

 
Start with a rebuilt 1.7L Porsche 914 engine
stock, except for the addition of a hot cam
the engine is carefully slid into place, and mated with the porsche 901 tranny, and bolted up
some slight clearancing required. this is accomplished with a rubber hammer.
I ground the ends off a couple fins of on one cover just to get the extra clearance, in the end nothing hits anymore
Exhaust is trial fit, the heater box replacements and the muffler had to be bent slightly to clear the apron, no big deal, just bolt it up and step on it with a jerking motion.untill it nolonger touches with the engine movement.
Cooling fan and shroud trial fit, it is also at this point I discover that the carbs conflict slightly with the stock sheet metal.
creating cardboard templates for the stainless steel firewall.
stainless fitted. it is secured using nickle plated screws, the screws have a large head, and some of the shaft has been ground off so it doesn't stick through too far.
shroud is painted and final assembly begins
Carbs installed
Seats are sent of to the apolstry shop
and a pic of them in the car, quite the difference
Polishing the Alt.
Note, nothing likes to stick to polished magnesium, clearcoating chips so easily
eventually I'll send it off to be clear powder-coated
I rewound my semaphores to work on 12 volt without too much heating up, worked quite nicely and they still snap when turned on.

my old valve covers, I should have used these, instead of using the rubber hammer. but these were sent off to a good home on someones project 914

Heres the engine after the complete assembly
Notice the coilpack and lack of wires going to the distributor.
This setup uses the 009 body to set the timing and advance but uses a magnetic pickup and fires a much more powerfull spark.
the polished fan looks good, but the clearcoat chips off so easily, there are a couple chips in it already and they turn grey within hours.