What is the most significant improvement you have made to the engine in your 912/ 912E?

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From: Bob Harriman;  ; I bought my 69 912 for $6,000 about 4 years ago. I live in Victorville, Ca. Body and paint are in great condition. I put new shocks, ball joints, exhaust, tires, stereo (pioneer CD), and floor mats. The car is lowered with Fuchs that are polished. Nitto directional tires look b*****n. Everyone thinks it's a 911 until I show them the 912 on engine lid. The elevation here is approximately 4000 feet. I would drive the car down into the Los Angeles area, but on my way back, the climbing of Cajon Pass, I would experience some engine overheating. One day the motor started knocking and before I could get pulled over it was shattered. Cracked case spelled disaster. I cried while sitting and waiting for a towtruck. Every time I experienced heat I would take it to my mechanic (HA HA). When I took the car back to him to rebuild the motor he charged me $5,400.00 and it never ran right. It lost compression due to holes on pistons, caused by pinging. This happened twice. That isn't even close to all the problems I had, the list is too long to even type. Every time the pinging occurred I would take it in, and every time he said It was fixed. I contacted PCA and they recommended Andial Road and Racing in Santa Ana Ca. Andial builds all the North American GT racing engines for factory Porsche. The day I took the car there, Jerry Seinfield's 2000 cabriolet was getting tuned (WOW!) Andial took the motor apart and told me my bearings and cam were worn past spec. I only had 1700 miles on the rebuild. Anyways, Andial rebuilt the entire motor. It took 2 months. They baked all the bearings, cam shaft, and other wearable metals to harden them, which was a timely process. When I got the car back it was beautiful. The way it runs, looks, sounds, and performs. They powder-coated the motor, Rhino-coated the engine compartment, and replaced all the insulation and rubber. (I will send pictures as soon as I get a scanner). The cost was $6,700.00. It was well worth the cost. I also sued ***** ***** and retrieved $5,000.00 of my money from the first engine rebuild. My 69 912 is now a beauty inside and out. Lesson: Don't hire a VW mechanic to work on your Porsche. P.S. I can't wait to hang with you guys, I love this web site, keep up the good work. Anyone feel free to chat with me.

From: Chris Otto; ; The lil car is home, again, hopefully for good. A all new "bitsa" engine with a big bore kit, stock cam, and otherwise stock internals. Now that the new Webers are getting sorted; well lil car is starting to be FUN FUN FUN to drive, not to mention actually being driveable. Amazing what good rings and non broken pistons can do for a 912!! Incidentally when the tranny was pulled, for overhaul, well another problem surfaced: what
rear control arm suspension bushings??..the ole "rubber donuts" had become multiple pc.; KA-lunk. Well, with new poly. bushings in it..gee what a difference; except for the noise the left side is making; sort of like the Titanics hull plates working..hmmm. However, the absolute sheer DE-lite of running the lil car up and down thru the gears on a bunch of S. Michigan backroads this afternoon was a really great ending to a beautiful Spring day in Northern Indiana. That 912 4 singing thru the Borla beats any stereo!! Regards..Dennis F. Otto

From: Rose, Revis PO; ; Rick, Best improvement to the engine I did was in the lubrication department. Lets face it the lubrication system is at best adequate, and the filter and magnetic strainer leave a lot to be desired. Building a powerful engine, especially a 912, is very expensive. A new crankshaft is $1,700.00 and has a $800.00 core, I don't know about you but I don't want to buy one. First off I installed a full flow oil system with an oil cooler and an Accusump.  But hay Revis, why? Glad you asked. In 1938, I'm sure that a canister type bypass oil filter worked very well on Volkswagens. Canisters are not my gripe, it's the application that bothers me, only about 10% of the total oil is circulated though the filter. It all passes though the Magnetic strainer. Oh could some of that dirt be non magnetic? Yes, and in theory a 50 micron( 1 micron = .001 millimeters) chunk of sand would pass though the oil system 9 times before getting trapped in the oil filter, not good. Main and Rod bearing journals don't take well to that kind of abuse. The cooler w/ thermostat, the oil works well if it's not to hot, but too cold anit good either.  An Accusump is the next best thing to a dry sump without going there. What's it do? It acts as a capacitor sort-o-speak, similar to a capacitor in an electrical circuit, like batteries they store a charge. In an oil system an Accusump when needed discharges to maintain system oil pressure. They can be wired up via solenoid, to start feeding that peace of German engineering pride before you start it. (Yes, nasty things do happen during startup.)  That may not sound as cool as a hot cam, but when you get in to a long sweeper at the track it's a lot better seeing that big red light on you dash come on.  Keep the 912 faith. Revis PS See y'all at Sears Pt. this week end

From: Casey Welsh; ; The engine on my 912E is still pretty much stock. So the best thing I have done to my engine is a complete tune up. New plugs, plug wires , points , fuel and air filters and push rod tube gaskets. The car runs and drives GREAT.  The one thing I would like to do is lower the rear end. So if anyone out there knows the process of lowering the rear end please e-mail me. thanks. Casey Welsh

From: (Robert Burn); ; Compared to many I am quite a wimp when it comes to modifications and improvements; my 912 is quite stock. As soon as the 12K mile factory warranty expired, I put on a Delta Mark 10 CD ignition system. When it bellied up about 15 yrs ago, I replaced it with the latest model. I know that this is far from radical, but that is the most significant improvement to my car...  Bob Burn

From: MAZukas;  ; Replace the rings, lapped valves, replaced some valves & synchronize the carbs.

From: BUTZI P;  ; Actually I went with the Bosch 050 but since I've got the Hi-6 Crane Cams ignition I kept melting the rotors, so with a little research I found that Echlin makes a rotor for a Volvo Penta marine engine that does not have a ceramic resistor, thus nothing to melt. Been running like a champ ever since. If anybody experiencing similar failures of this nature I would be happy to get you the part #. Peter Baldauf

From: Rodney A. Harrison;  ; 1) Attending the High Speed Driving School offered by PCA Nordstern Region in 1991. 2) NPR's 1720 3) Tuning with in an inch of the cars life (timing 7, dwell 50, floats and accelerator pumps adjusted, value 4/6 and "loose" 4) Weber's (not as driveable, but clearly more 3500+ power) I am running an SC cam (little change) and Bursh exhaust (worse?). The Koni adjustable helped, but can't tell if it was the KONI's or the new tires, as both were done at the same time. Sat, 9 May 1998 followup:  As a note: I finally have the 912 running and dialed in after a frustrating rebuild. Now the car is back in daily work use.

From: J & R McConnell;  ; My 912 has no smog devices, I'm told that added appx. 10-25 horses. If anyone has smog control devices for sale, please let me know! Jeffrey McConnell

From: TSutan7539;  ; 1722 cc racing piston w/9.5 comp, Balanced & blue printed, Webers carbs, racing cam, larger oil pick up, full flow oil system, external oil cooler, full flow exhaust, MSD ignition system, 8mm spark plug wires. 66 912, Tom Sutan

From: James Scranton;  ; Right now I am rebuilding the engine to its original condition.

From: Joe Russo;  ; Rick, When I took ownership of my 912 it already had a 1720 kit, reground cam and Weber carbs, so it was already "hotter than stock." Since then, I have concentrated on trying to make it breathe easier and burn better. I added K&N filters, a Crane CD ignition and a Bursche exhaust.
The CD ignition made a huge difference in all aspects of the engine's performance. It starts easier, idles smoother, revs better, and makes more power all around. Also, this type of ignition seems to compensate for a lot of carburetor adjustment problems. I use the Crane version rather than the MSD-6 (the Crane is a little less expensive and comes with a built-in adjustable rev limiter,) but tests in Grassroots Motorsports magazine showed them both to produce similar performance gains. Whichever you prefer, I would definitely recommend this upgrade to all owners.
Also, having the carb linkages rebuilt so that they worked correctly made a HUGE difference. Balancing the carbs is a wasted effort if the ball joints in the linkages are so worn and sloppy that the throttles don't open evenly.
Finally, just this past weekend I replaced the old Bursche 1 1/2" exhaust system (with heat exchangers) with a brand new Bursche 1 5/8" to 1 3/4" "stepped" system (with all elements of the heater system tossed in the trash). Although I haven't been on the track with the new system yet, I did blast up and down my block (much to the neighbors' dismay) and it revs noticeably more freely. Of course, I don't ever run a muffler, which also greatly helps the engine's breathing. If anyone's interested, this exhaust was purchased from Vic Skirmants' 356 Enterprises and is made by Bursche just for him.
Someday I'll have the money to have the heads done, etc...   Regards, Joe Russo

New! 912 Registry Members can share technical information, add technical information, and access quality, up to date technical information on our 912 Wiki.