To buy or not? '76 2.2L nice, Opinions please! Options

[yarin]

I went to look at 1976 914 a few hours away from me in NY. I had a very good first impression. The interior is great, VERY little visible rust in the trunk and corners. The car was repainted the original color some time ago, it has a few chips here and there. The current owner bought it 2 years ago and didn't really do anything to it. The guy before that lived in Maryland and supposedly didn't do anythign to the car either. Which brings me to the point of concern:

HERE are all the PICS!!!

(IMG:http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~yarin/Picts/914-bing/DSCN7096.jpg)

Someone, some time ago bored the engine to 2.2L according to the current owner. They also installed a cheater front oil cooler with rubber lines running under the car. A nice FRAM oil filter to go along with it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

(IMG:http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~yarin/Picts/914-bing/DSCN7122.jpg)

The guy took me for a nice ride around, thing is damn loud when the pedal is down. Car has Weber 40 IDAs according to him, 4 to 1 headers and some exhaust. Car was making so much damn noise but not actually going anywhere. Then I drove it around for about 10 minutes. First off the transmission required some serious muscle to get into 1st gear, good thing in my book. I was amazed though... absolutely NO grinding in any gear. You can slip it into first gear while moving 5mph. I was amazed. But then I put my foot to the floor..... lots of noise... barely any pull.

Don't get me wrong, i didn't expect this thing to be fast. But I did drive a relatively stock FI 2.0 last week and this thing was a dog in comparison. The Webers belched up once in a while and the exhaust popped a bunch goign downhill off the gas. All normal as far as i know.

These are my guesses about the extreme lack of power:
Webers need tuning
valves need adjusting(they might tap a little, i'm no expert)
valves leak.. however there is no blow by, car doesn't burn any oil at all, no smoke, no nothing
maybe the compression rings are bad and the oil ring is good?? help!

The previous owner instructed the guy to use 87 octane fuel, said it doesn't need anything more. So this means the engine was built for low compression. But why is it so damn slow?

The suspension seems very tight I was pleased. The rears have white KYB adjust somethign or other. Rear shock tower brace. The fronts have some sort of upper camber plates... correct me if i'm wrong. Couldn't tell what springs, i'm assuming stock t-bars. Either way, pushing down on all corners resulted in a stiff feeling. BUT the offset on the wheels is way off, look at the rears... they rub the fenders hardcore. The rubbing caused the fender to heat up so there are marks on the ouside of the fender on both sides.

(IMG:http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~yarin/Picts/914-bing/DSCN7126.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~yarin/Picts/914-bing/DSCN7132.jpg)

LAstly... when the car was up on the lift I spun one rear tire... all is fine and dandy EXCEPT the other tire spun in the SAME direction! So this car has some sort of limited slip diff?? So overall the transmission and chassis seem to be the strong points of this car.

The mechanic in the shop didn't have time to do a compression/leakdown test so I told the guy I might send him $50 to get it done. This might shed some light on the engine situation.

Please browse through all the pics, let me know what you think... all comments are welcome. Nobody steal my car just yet... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool_shades.gif) Guy wants $5900. He think he overpaid for it 2 years ago. What's the general opinion so far?