914 engine replacement options - Advice and Opinions please, What are my best and easiest options? Options

[UberElectricEagle]

Greetings,
I'm new to the 914's so please forgive my ignorance.
I have a 1972 1.7 with dual carbs (weber 34) that is slowly giving up the ghost. I'm going to keep driving it until it quits or I find a replacement motor. I'm trying to figure out what my best and cheapest option is to put a good and solid running engine in my 914. Yes, more power would be awesome, but just a working motor would be great too.
What I was thinking I would like to find is a decent and solid running engine that someone has removed from their car for whatever reason.
-What are my plain stock options? 1.7 1.8 2.0 ?
--Can all my 1.7 components switch over into a 1.8 or 2.0 or would I have to get some different items like bigger carbs or a different distributor?
-What kind of fair price can I expect to pay for a fairly complete and running motor?
-What could I expect to pay for a rebuild if I went with that option?
-Can I just use any type 4 engine (say from a VW whatever) and switch all my tins and components over, or are they set up differently for the 914?

I'm looking for all opinions or what you would think you would do so I can look at every angle here. Any guidance in the right direction or ideas would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Sam

[tat2dphreak]

1st... find out what's wrong with your 1.7... maybe you just need rings, or the heads freshened, or something simple as timing... what is it doing? low compression? back fire?

-What kind of fair price can I expect to pay for a fairly complete and running motor?

depends, but I have been in your shoes, and I can honestly say unless you hear it running and can do a compression test, a used motor is a CORE and should be priced and treated as such. for that reason, I recommend 1 of 2 routes... that you can be safe on... a raby kit(you build your own engine) IIRC the prices are starting around 4k. or get an original customs 2056 longblock and be done... 125hp for 5k and you are done. you aren't in Texas so I don't know who near you would be trustworthy to rebuild, as a 3rd option, but maybe someone here does know someone.

-Can I just use any type 4 engine (say from a VW whatever) and switch all my tins and components over, or are they set up differently for the 914?

72+ BUS engines are a low-compression version, and will work, but not great.

--Can all my 1.7 components switch over into a 1.8 or 2.0 or would I have to get some different items like bigger carbs or a different distributor?

depends on what's wrong with the 1.7, but yea, you can use the heads and even the 34icts on a 1.8, 34s are too small for a 2.0 the crank on a 1.7 is the same as the 1.8. distributor? depends on what you have, a stock djet or ljet carb will work fine, a 009 or 050 isn't optimum, but will work in a pinch (pm if you need a 009, I have 2 with pertronix installed) but basically all the dizzys will work. anything more than the 1.8 will probably want new carbs, or you will want it to have 100% of all the FI parts in working order to swap back to FI.

-What could I expect to pay for a rebuild if I went with that option?

depends on the shop, but if you want to DIY, then raby's kit is a good deal if you aren't familiar with these engines. if you've rebuilt type 1s and type 4s before...

it's been my experience with these cars is it's usually cheaper in the long run to do it right the first time, that said, you might find a good running 1.7 or 1.8 that someone is ready to pull close to you for under 1000, and that would be a wise choice if you aren't ready to drop several grand...

good luck on the search!!