New to 914's, NEED HELP! Unleaded? Performance parts? Anything, Just got hold of a twin carb converted 914 lump, and now need some adv Options

[fall-apart-dave]

I have a VW Baja Bug, which I have just sourced a 1.8 914 engine for. It has twin solex carbs fitted after scrapping the dead fuel injection system + a Baja exhaust etc ready to go into my car, but I need some advice.

The car:



The new engine:



Firstly, I have looked round the net and so far found out that it maybe will work fine with high octane unleaded petrol, possible with some additive in there. Can anyone shead some light on this for me?

Are there any parts available to pretty the engine up? For VW's you get get hundreds of chrome, aluminium and alloy dress-up parts, wondering if there is anything like that for the 914? Or am I going to have to polish, paint and make parts to pretty this engine up? Here's a pic of my old engine before I sold it (not all chrome fitted when pic was taken).



I have a nitrous oxide system sat in my garage at the moment, jetted with a pair of 25 shot jets from a previous bug engine. The VW engines coped with it nicely as they are low compression anyway and the kit is only a small one (each 25 shot nozzle was for either inlet, so each side of the engine got a 25 shot on the rare occasions I used it, effectively being a 50 shot system). You all know what question is coming - Has anyone ever fitted kits to 914's, or know enough about them to advise whether this is just a bad idea or a really stupid one?

Lastly, other performance parts for a 914 engine. I'm struggling to come up with anything, other than people trying to sell me things like big bore kits and duration cams from a VW Type 4 engine that "should fit just fine..." Can anyone offer any advice about this at all? Are the type 4 parts suitable, or would I just be downgrading / moving pointlessly horizontally? Can anyone point me to any parts to make the engine give a little more?

Lastly, are there any hurdles to watch out for? Things that regularly go wrong? Tricks, traps or nacks to keeping the engine running smoothly? I have never played with a 914 engine before, have heard rumours about them being fitted into a bug, now I've got mine fitted but it's still not on the road.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I live off the East Coast of the UK in Northumberland, my email address is fall-apart-dave@hotmail.co.uk