914-6 carb question Options

[carcam]

Long time Porsche owner new to 914's except a college car (1.7 L) in the late 70's. Just picked up a nice 914-6, complete restoration about 10 years ago and I love it. The engine is basically stock, bumped to 2.2 L with a Solex grind cam, nothing else. On a recent local Porsche club event, the guys behind me couldn't take the strong gas fumes and my clothes do smell like gas after a long run and it sucks down the gas- haven't checked the mileage but it's no Prius. Obviously running too rich or something. I don't want to jump into these Webers myself and the car runs, starts, and idles perfectly. Strong mid range and awesome above 4,000 rpm. The previous owner says it's dialed in and all the old carburated cars are like this and that's why everything now has fuel injection. I don't have any local Weber experts and the techs I've talked too are reluctant to mess with such a good running car. Any advice? Change of clothes, add AC and roll up the windows, switch to fuel injection or turn a couple screws and problem solved. I know this is a very technical forum and something most of you could fix over a beer or two but this is all new to me. Thanks for any advice.

[dug]

Follow the above suggestions to check for fuel leaks.

I had a 914-6 with Solex cams in a 2.5 liter short stroke engine. In order to eliminate a bit of a flat spot I increased the size of the idle jets. It got rid of the flat spot, but it had the same effect you describe of making following teeners eyes water.

In this day and age of modern technology, guessing what to do is silly, and bad for your engine.

I suggest you invest in a quality wide band air fuel meter. For around $400 you can get one with dual inputs and data logging. The Innovate Motorsports (no affiliation) LM-2 is the most accurate A/F gauge according to a magazine shoot out of all the top brands.
http://www.innovatemotorsports.com/

This will allow you to monitor both banks of carbs and watch your A/F ratio while you are driving under load. Then you will know exactly how rich you are running and tune the carbs without doing a bunch of guess work and basing your decision on your nose.

cheers,
dug