1974 914 1.8, the mystery of the EC-A and EC-B Options

[wonkipop]

i'll be dropping the information we have gathered over Dec 2021 in with a set of posts.

the material was prompted by mr b ( @JeffBowlsby ) who observed that for the 74 MY there was an EC-A and an EC-B engine. mr b's thought was that the EC-A was a 49 states car and and EC-B was a californian car for emissions.

mr b's view was rational and reasoned. 73 EA engines are 49 states. 73 EB engines are california. 75 engines are documented in factory literature as EC-a (49 states) and EC-b (california). the logic should follow?

BUT

as per the mystery of the 914, the truth about 74 1.8s turns out stranger than fiction (or common sense?).

the material is not necessary to running a 1.8 or having fun with a 14. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

its for historical purposes and as information to 74 1.8 owners to assist with restoration if they want it.

[Van B]

@wonkipop
My car was not a frunk can. It is a rear firewall car with the OE stud and everything. I can also see, thanks to the original tank, that at no point was an evap can ever mounted there.

[wonkipop]

@wonkipop
My car was not a frunk can. It is a rear firewall car with the OE stud and everything. I can also see, thanks to the original tank, that at no point was an evap can ever mounted there.

i know @Van B .

two possibilities.
given when your car was made (dec 73).

1. cars with early engine bay cans could have got frunk can emission booklets until printed stocks of emission booklets were used up or if the emissions warranties were not withdrawn from stocks it got included with the car, or stocks of Nov edition had not arrived from printers for inclusion.

2. PO of your car replaced a missing emissions warranty with a new one and its not the one that came with the car. StarBear has done that for instance - his emissions warranty did not come with the car.

its probably #1.

given that you have a december 73 made car.
and we know there is a november edition warranty that replaced or superseded oct version. by rights your car should have come with a later nov edition warranty?
common sense says that.

we don't even really know where and when they put the warranties in the car.
did they do it at the factory and slip it in the glove box?
did they do it at the VW North America warehouses after the cars got to the USA?
did they do it at the dealer and they just had boxes of warranties to fill out and drop into the cars?

my guess would be that the warranties get included with the car close to the final point of sale. if nothing else for security.

its not hard to imagine a dealer with an out of date box of warranties not keeping up with things and you get these kinds of overlaps. esp so where there is a quick sequence of revising editions.

that would be my explanation.

what we do know is there was an Oct edition, thanks to the one you have.
and we know that there is a month worth of frunk can 1.8s that ends Nov 20 1973.
and after that there is a Nov edition and it goes to the end of 74MY and after Nov 20 there is an engine bay can and it goes to the end of 74MY.

and the two editions one month after the other track the change in the system and it accords with the change in components in the cars.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)