Daily Driver just wants to know, calling all DDs! Options

[malcolm2]

I have not driven an aircooled VW as a DD for 30 years, and that was a 68 bug. As most probably know, those cars had a speedo and a gas gauge. Very little feed back.

I am curious about how the 914 should run. I have a freshly built and fuel injected 1911 engine, with larger valves on 1.8 style heads. I am running a 75 exhaust. I am getting lots of feedback from the car and I think it drives great! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif)

This car seems to have lots of power, compared to the 68 bug. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) I run to about 3500 rpm then shift to 2nd. Thru the gears at about the same rpm, and usually wait to shift to 5th 'til about 50 mph and it cruises between 2800 (55-ish mph) and 3200 (70-ish mph) in 5th. That seems strange, cause they put the blinker indicator right at 3000! It gets blocked all the time (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

I still have lots of power left at 70. If I give it some pedal at 70, it will hop right up to 80, no problems. My ODO is broken, so MPG is unknown, but my goal is to maximize that.

CHT seems to like the 3200 cruising. I notice about a 50 deg drop after a few miles on the interstate, which makes sense. The VDO CHT gauge with the spark plug sensor on #3 runs between 325 and 350 normally.

I am being clear, can everyone follow? How does that sound, as far as DD operation?

Clark
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving-girl.gif)

['73-914kid]

I agree with using 4th on the freeway if you're close to 60mph, but shifting at 4k-4.5k RPM? I've never heard that on any engine except a rotary. type IV's redline at what, 5700 RPM? So you're using 75% of your RPM band just shifting around town? No thanks.

I would shift at around 3000 RPM when I had my type 4. And no, that's not lugging the motor.

Sounds like a way to wear out an engine quicker than normal. More time at a higher RPM is going to wear rings, valve guides, valve seats, and bearings faster. Maybe I'm overly conservative because I drive my car every day, and don't want to spend a bunch of money on the above parts because I spun the thing close to redline every time I shifted gears.

Drive it how you want though. People always say I drive like a wimp because I don't spin my motors on a regular basis. And no, I don't, because I need them to last and can't afford rebuilds. If it was a weekend driver, I'd drive it like I stole it, because if something broke, I could hop in my other car, and there would be no problems.

My 2 cents about shift points in a daily driven car....

[McMark]

Sounds like a way to wear out an engine quicker than normal. More time at a higher RPM is going to wear rings, valve guides, valve seats, and bearings faster. Maybe I'm overly conservative because I drive my car every day, and don't want to spend a bunch of money on the above parts because I spun the thing close to redline every time I shifted gears.

Totally disagree, spinning the engine isn't going to wear it out. BUT, I also don't think you're harming the engine by short shifting it. The way I look at it, the power band starts at 2500-3000 so you shifting just when the engine starts to make power. You're trying to move a load, and to do so effectively you should keep the engine in the range that makes the most power. I'm not talking about hard WOT acceleration, just let the engine do the least amount of work by keeping it in the power band. In that sense you're "wearing out" your engine by constantly running it in an inefficient RPM and unnecessarily loading the engine.

But this is all somewhat irrelevant because neither case will ever have a side-by-side comparison that would actually result and RELIABLE data to favor one over the other.