You will love the watsons streetworks harness. The wiring layout for the lights is nothing like VW's, but it works. Make sure and have the bentley manual handy when you do the steering column and wipers. ;)

I got the hood struts installed with the hinges and they do indeed function fine. Hard to believe that much force is required but I guess the good old T=F*r holds true.

I am really tempted to get the hood mounted, but the logical side tells me not to until the wiring is done and the gas tank is in. BUT I WANT TO SEE THE HOOD MOUNTED!!!!!!!!!

Can you give me the compressed and normal lenght of the strut please?

Not sure where you want me to measure from. do you want the hinge bolt to the body pin measurement, shaft length, or full strut length?

I talked to FAT performance and they also recommended replacing the valve springs considering they are almost 20 years old now. They may not be broken but could be fatigued by remaining compressed, which I guess is debatable but I'd rather just replace them than drop a valve and blow my engine up. So now I'm looking into valve spring compressors for the 914 2.0 heads with the 3 studs. I found this one on CB performance which claims to work with T4 heads, but does that mean it will work with 914 2.0 heads?

http://www.cbperformance.com/Product...oductCode=6504

Anyone else have a tool they use?

Also, my DTM shipped today! :cool:

Anyone? How do you get your valve springs out? If you have a good argument for why I shouldn't replace them, I'm all ears.

Hi

When I worked in VW shop we had valve spring tool that bolted to the head using the rocker studs and compressed all the valves at once. I've half made one I will post a photo soon

Steve

Hi

I just did a rough drawing of the tool I was talking about. It had a hole for the rocker stud to poke through. To take strees away from the rocker stud I used 5/8th bolt with a M8 thread tapped into the head of the bolt, the bolt was fitted hex end against the rocker post and 5/8th nut was then used draw the tool down.

It worked in car as well if you put some compressed air into the cylinder.

Steve

http://i1184.photobucket.com/albums/...d.jpg~original

Actually looking at my drawing I see errors in my post.

The tool needs to fit inside the rocker box on the top edge and the sides so that it can wind down far enough to colapse the springs.

Hey Steve,

I know I could make one, but I was wondering if there was already one being made. Those heads you've shown are vw heads, correct? They make tools for t1 heads and apparently for T4, but I'm concerned my heads are different than T4 heads since they are in fact 914 2.0L heads. The cb performance tool posted above claims to fit t4 but I don't think they will work with Porsche heads.

Hi

As far as I know the 914 head use the same rocker gear as any Type 4 would and as the tool locates on the rocker shaft posts I cant see why the CB unit wouldn't work, plug location is different and there is maybe differences in chamber shape.

The thing I like about the tool I tried to describe is that its very controlled as everything is bolted down securely.

Steve

I made one out of an old rocker shaft, an old jack handle and some scrap 3/16 flat steel cut and ground to a radius. Bolt it to the heads and it works well.

NO_H20, do you think you could post up a picture if you get the chance?

Here you go.
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/b...1.jpg~original

Awesome, thanks! What did you use as the cylinder to go around the rocker shaft? Old rocker arm? I will be headed down to the porsche yard this weekend to get some shafts and rocker arms.

I started thinking though... Should I not just take my heads off and use an easily available spring compressor? Will a spring compressor that I can rent from (autozone, oreilly, checker, etc) work with the heads off? What are the downsides of completely removing the heads? other than needed new gaskets.


Other notes, my V2 DTM stage IV kit showed up at my door today. Very happy with the fiberglass quality.

Gotta get started on the wiring.