1.8 L-Jet to 2.0 L-Jet. Any advice? Options

[mapguy]

Howdy,

I have just torn down a bone stock '74 1.8 L-Jet from another 914 with plans to build it back to stock. Plan is to drive my 914 with this engine while I build the original 2.0 the way I want it. I get experience building my first type 4, and get my teener back where it belongs. On the road.

I have the parts available to swap out the crank, rods, and P/C from a '76 2.0 to make it a 2.0 L-Jet. I'm very tempted to do this, as I rarely turn down cheap horsepower! No replacement for displacement, right?

Any land mines I should look out for? Main concern for me is the stock L-Jet system. I understand I might have to tune the MAF for the extra displacement, but I can't find anything discouraging me otherwise. I found an article that details a 3-step process for MAF tuning, but am too lazy to look up the link. Do tell if you know something I don't.

More details:

As implied, stock '74 L-Jet system
Stock '74 1.8 heads (41x34, I believe)
web cam 142/lifters
necessary machine work
Cylinders honed and new rings (I have a set of 94s in excellent condition)
Full re-seal on engine and all peripherals
New fuel lines, vacuum lines, etc etc...

One other thing, I haven't built many engines, but all the ones I've been involved in pop through the intake when first firing them off, and one in particular did it several times before finally lighting off (my old bus engine was a PITA to get running first time). Won't this be dangerous for the MAF on first start? All my experience is with carbed engines. Does this just not happen on FI engines?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[mapguy]

you can use the 2.0 bus heads. New ones of those are available for $400 each, about the cost of rebuilding your old 1.8's.

Don't the 2.0 bus heads have much smaller valves? I was planning to stick with the 1.8s I have due to the larger valves and the fact that they appear to be in great shape. I would consider bus heads if they are better for this application, but that might come down to a wallet-driven decision. If the 1.8s are cheaper to refresh, I'll go that route.

This engine was in pretty good overall condition when I tore it down, just really dirty. It had never been apart, and other than the cam and lifters (toast) looks pretty good on initial inspection with mics and fingernails and what not. The cylinders still had the hone marks in them, no sunken valves, etc. I'm hoping the machine bill will be pretty small to get it ready to reassemble. Machine shop will be the judge of that, though.