Slipstream - February 2004

Photo provided by Chris Alvarado
It Really Is Not The Cars, It Is The People
by Joe McGlohen
Ithought this would become easier after some time passed,
but it hasn’t. Several years ago I was doing “unauthorized
Tech Sessions” at my place on 914 topics as maintenance on
my 914 racer dictated. I made a lot of new friends doing this
and the company made working on the race car a lot more
enjoyable. One of the frequent attendees was Doug Burnett.
Early on in our friendship he told me that he wished he was
physically stronger and could do more of the physical work. He
explained that he was frequently on medical leave because he
was fighting a rather rare form of Leukemia. This hit pretty
close to home. I lost my dad to Leukemia in 1995 have a niece
that has been in remission for many years. Doug may not have
been a lot of physical help but he was a lot of encouragement.
...Those guys wouldn’t even let me hold a
wrench or screw driver...
The Burnett home is just a couple of miles from mine and
sometimes Doug, sometimes with Mary Helen, (his then
expecting wife) and then later, all three including their new son
Benjamin, might drop in when they were passing by if they saw
me at work on the car. His love of 914’s was really amazing. He
bought John Sandusky’s blue 1975 car (not running at the
time) and had several things done to it to get it running. I
think he probably bought every book ever in print about the
914, and became a wealth of knowledge on the cars. Doug was
a rather amazing, kind and gentle man. His first career had
been as a youth minister until he decided he really needed to
make a living to support a family. He had become an IT project
manager with James Martin and Associates. (Martin is one of
the most respected and prolific authors published on IT).
About a year ago Doug lost his battle with Leukemia. He
had undergone a bone marrow transplant in the fall and there
were serious complications that developed. Mary Helen kept
me abreast, but it was rather painful to follow because of my
own family experiences. In April, Mary Helen asked me to help
her dispose of Doug’s 914. It had come home the last time from
a short drive in late summer of 2002 with Doug and several
neighbors pushing it. About half a block from the house it had
abruptly stopped running. Shortly after that, Doug’s condition
started downhill and never got better.
Proud new owner of Doug’s 914, Chris Alvarado
Photo by McGlohen
One Sunday afternoon Tom Petruska went over to the
Burnett home with me to try to determine the problem. All we
could determine was hat the engine was seized, and none of
the usual indicators in valve train or starter were evidence to
diagnose the issue. We drained the oil and Tom dissected the
filter. No Clues. We pulled plugs and could not see the issue.
A few weeks later I went over with my trailer and picked up
the car, and brought it to my home shop. I put out a call on the
MRPCA Yahoo list for volunteers, and up popped four folks;
Howard Kimbro (more frequently seen working a corner at
our DE and race events), along with Joe Yoder, Andy Garner,
and (thankfully) one of the most knowledgeable 914 guys
around, Clay Perrine. Early one Saturday morning we gathered
in my garage and in no-time-at-all the engine and gearbox
were out. Those four guys wouldn’t even let me hold a wrench
or screw driver, other than to hand it to them.
By early afternoon we had identified the problem. A valve
seat had dropped, bounced around a bunch before breaking
into pieces small enough for one to wedge between the
Cylinder wall and the piston, effectively locking that piston.
After a fair amount of discussion the consensus was that all the
A close-up look at some of the damage done to the head
valve seats needed to be replaced, and the engine needed a top
end down to the rod bearings. We were not sure that the
damaged head could be repaired. I went looking for parts and
services as economically as possible. I was amazed at all the
help and cooperation I received. Here are some of the folks
who helped and how.
Mayo Performance donated my choice of a couple of
reparable heads. I could have either of them if it would be less
expensive to repair than the one that came out of the car. Lyle
Cherry, who is nationally famous for his Type-1 VW race
motors and about the only one still working on Type-4
(i.e. 914) cylinder heads picked the best of his three choices and
put all new seats and roughed in the valve job, charging a lot
less than his usual rate. Tom Petruska (Mayo Performance)
donated the shop labor needed to finish out the valve job and
assembled the heads. Many, many Thank You’s to Tom and
Mayo Performance!!
The pistons and cylinders in the car were very low miles, so
we had hopes of finding a single new euro P&C to replace the
damaged one We needed one fairly new, or a full set of in-spec
used Piston-cylinders as well, since the one in the damaged
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