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.

[Seaside6]

I had similar issues when I first got my car in November, 2003. I tried reducing the idle jets but it did not help.

A friend with early 911 experience showed me a trick that totally fixed the problem - we removed the idle jets, one by one, and blew compressed air through the jets and the openings that the jets came out of.

The low end flat spots were totally gone and the super-rich exhaust smell cleared up. The car immediately had increased power, was real smooth all the way up, and I am sure it was performing as Porsche expected it to when it left the factory. As far as I am concerned it might as well have fuel injection. And, I was able to return to the larger idle jets.

As time went on the degraded performance would reappear and I would go through the compressed air routine and the performance would return. The problem was that sediment from the fuel tank was clogging the carb and compressed air was moving the current obstructions out. Replacing the fuel filters never helped, the sediment was still getting through.

I finally pulled the fuel tank and had it teated by a radiator shop and the problem never returned. The car continues to run great.