Weird sound, scarey sounds followed by even scarier s Options

[pyCube]

Hi everybody... I am a new 914 owner and very much loving it. I found a slick little 1974 2.0 and until recently, all had been good. A few days back I started noticing a very subtle clicky knock sound that really was only audible at low rpm, like at idle. I've been pouring over all the info I could find in an attempt to figure out what was going on, or if I was just being overly paranoid about my new toy. In the meantime, I havent been driving it more than a spin around the block on occasion. Then it happened. I was gonna take it to the store tonight, not more than a mile away, and as I shifted from 1st to 2nd gear, the whole sound/feel of the engine changed. It got very muffled and 'poppy' sounding and it seems to be shaking the car a lot more. Like when I got it home and hopped out of the car with the engine running, it was rather strongly shaking. Other than the freaky sound and big vibration, it "seems" to be ok. I still had power. There was no smoke or leaking of any sort.

Anyone have any ideas on what might be going on? What should I look for when I get the will to go investigate?

[scotty914]

first i would pull allthe spark plus to see if one blew, then while you have the plugs out do a compression check to see if one cylinder is low due to a leak some where. a clicking sound can be lots of stuff like an exhaust leak or a blown spark plug.
after you finish on the top side climb under neith and check the exhaust to make sure it is still tight, then do a valve adjust ment to set the valves correctly. then do another compressin test to see if the values the first time changed. if you have a valve that is way off with low comprssion that gets better you could have lost a valve set.

some will say do the valve adjust first but it can cover a bad valve seat, if you find a big difference before and after it can narrow down what is going on.

also the compression test will seem low due to the motor being cold but that is okay it is more for trouble shooting at this point.

if all seems well after all tests take it for a drive to heat it up and test again to get an idea of the health of the motor

then report back with the info you get