to do list, done list, and a few questions Options

[era vulgaris]

So I've been working my booty off trying to get this nightmare of a car I have into a safe, reliable, and drivable condition.

I've replaced the leaky brake master cylinder (which had been leaking for years, and is the reason the base of the pedal cluster and the floor under the pedal cluster are nonexistent. Thanks, Scotty Boy, btw, for omitting to mention the leaky BMC and non existent e-brake, and telling me the car was safe to drive 500 miles! That's classy!). Replaced the brake lines and hoses. Sourced an e-brake handle, and reconnected the e-brake lines.

To fix the oil that was hemorrhaging from the engine I replaced the oil cooler seals and the oil pressure switch. Found the oil pressure switch threads were stripped...argghh!!!! JB Weld is holding them on for now. Oil warning light still works, so I'm not worried about it at the moment.

I've rebuilt the non-functioning ignition system: new ignition coil, converted to electronic ignition, new cap, rotor, plugs, and wires. Set the timing.
The wires that came on the car weren't even all matched! WTF!

I've replaced every weather seal...ALL of which were deteriorated or not present.

I've sourced a lower dash pad, as well as driver and passenger armrests. All of which were missing.

Got new tires to replace the cracked ones that were on there (again, no mention of this when told the car was safe to drive 500 miles!). BTW, the car had 245/50/15 on the front and 225/50/15 on the rear. What idiot puts bigger tires on the front?!!!!
My new tires are 225/50/15 all around, and pretty happy with them.

I've spent days and days trying to get the doors (in particular the driver door) to close correctly with the windows up. Finally succeeded!!!!
Now I just need to figure out how to get the windows to roll up and down with those new scraper seals. They stick and won't let the window roll down.

Once I got the car to where it would go and stop, I had to chase down the 2200rpm idle. Step1: replaced the ancient and incorrectly routed vacuum hoses (some of which were not even connected and left lying open on top of the engine. And some of which were clear hard plastic weirdness) with brand new OE german hoses and routed them all correctly. Idle dropped to about 2000rpm.
Step2: pull the AAR and plugged the ports for it. Idle dropped to 1500rpm. Aha! On to something. Left AAR to soak in WD40.
Step3: replaced the oil filler gasket, replaced the manifold gaskets, replaced the intake runner boots, replaced the cold start valve gasket, replaced the large and small injector seals. Idle down to 1200rpm. Now we're getting somewhere!

I'll be doing a valve adjustment this week. But could that really be the cause of ~400rpm too high of an idle? Anything else I should check?

BTW, I have one green injector and three yellow injectors. Does this matter? Which are correct for my car?

Next on the list:

-rebuild pedal cluster. Currently impossible to accurately adjust the clutch because of the play in the pedals. Shifting into first is a nightmare! Also due to the fact that I don't have a wooden pedalboard, so I'm not sure where the clutch pedal is supposed to stop.

-patch floorpan....and I mean almost all of it. Putting the car on jacks to do the brakes felt like I was gambling with my life! I'm going with the POR15 floorpan and trunk kit. I don't have the funds for a real floorpan replacement, so this'll have to do for now.

-tackle the body rust. This one I don't know if I can really tackle. There's so much painted over, non-prepped rust that I'm just terrified of even going down this road.

-weld in the missing engine shelf under the battery tray. (Something that would've been nice to know was missing when I bought the car! I guess cutting out the engine shelf was the "rust repair" that I was told was done!)

-source carpet, source a backpad.

-fix non-sliding passenger seat.

-fix the right headlight that doesn't pop up all the way.

...I'm sure there's more!

Finally after several months since buying what I was told was a sorted and great car, am I able to actually get out and drive it. Man, does that engine sound great! Still a lot of work to do, still a lot of issues to fix, but at least I can get out behind the wheel of this thing now!
Oh yeah, I pulled those shitty looking decals off that up close looked like they'd been printed by a dot-matrix printer! Just need to paint the front bumper solid black and I'll have a normal looking car.

[era vulgaris]

Also, does anyone know what these front calipers I have are? Dumb Ass PO (scotty boy) said they were '73 911 A calipers. According to the PMB website A calipers weren't around until the late 70's. Either he got the date wrong or the model of caliper wrong.
Either way it'd be cool to know so I can order pads for them.
Thanks!

[76-914]

That JB Weld will probably hold. If the WD alone doesn't free the AAR then put it in the freezer for an hour then energize it w/12v and squirt WD in it. Do that a few times and it should seal. After you set the valves time it again. Also, you have an air bleed screw on the side of the TB and maybe an idle adj knob on the top of the ECU. Have fun.

EDIT: the green inj is for a 2.0 the yellows are for the 1.7

[era vulgaris]

Yeah, I've got the air bleed screw all the way in. I haven't messed with the mixture screw on the ECU yet, because my plugs look good when I pull them (based on my experience of what plugs should look like with carburated engines).

Thanks for the tip on the AAR. So far I've been fine without it though. A few revs and several seconds of holding it at 1500 rpm, and I can keep an initial idle. Maybe once I get the idle down further I'll maybe need to put it back.

So are the green injectors ok to use on a 1.7? I also noticed that the electric plug for the green injector was oriented the opposite way of the electric plugs for all the other injectors. Does it matter which way the electric plug is oriented?

[mepstein]

Bruce stone has a set of 4 rebuilt injectors for a great price. Either buy them or find a 4th yellow injector and send to mr injector with $60 and they will be cleaned, flow tested and look almost new.

I do have some spare parts that I will send you for the cost of shipping. Let me know what you need and the year of the car and I will do what I can. Mark

[MMW]

Glad to see you posting again & also to hear you are getting the car moving in the right direction.

[bulitt]

Those look like "M' calipers.

[era vulgaris]

Bruce stone has a set of 4 rebuilt injectors for a great price. Either buy them or find a 4th yellow injector and send to mr injector with $60 and they will be cleaned, flow tested and look almost new.

I do have some spare parts that I will send you for the cost of shipping. Let me know what you need and the year of the car and I will do what I can. Mark

As far as I can tell all the injectors are working, although I haven't done the "jar test" to make sure, but it doesn't sound like I'm down a cylinder or anything. Is there any danger in using a green injector on a 1.7?

I guess I might eventually try and find a 4th yellow one and send them off.

Also, my car info is in my signature. It's a '72 1.7

Glad to see you posting again & also to hear you are getting the car moving in the right direction.

Thanks, man!

Those look like "M' calipers.

Awesome, thanks for the info!

[jaxdream]

" M " calipers have about a 3 inch center to center bolt mount pattern , " A s" have about a 3 1/2 inch bolt pattern. Ms will work fine for a -4 , heck I believe that - 6s originally came with "Ms" up front .Get er goin !!!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif)

Jack

[76-914]

Yellow inj's are a dime a dozen. Place a WTB: in the classifieds. Don't pay more than $20 for one. I don't think it will matter that much except for one rich running cylinder. You should not have to close the bleed screw to get a normal idle.

[era vulgaris]

Cool, thanks guys!

I figured the air bleed screw shouldn't be all the way in. I'm pretty sure I've covered all the bases for vacuum leaks (forgot to mention I also replaced the throttle body gasket). I'm hoping the valve adjustment will help with the high idle. But beyond that I don't know what else to check.

And I also checked the PCV valve when I was replacing the oil filler gasket, and it seems to close all the way. Is there a good way to test it to know for sure? For some reason I keep finding myself suspicious that it might be the PCV valve.

[bulitt]

Get a propane torch and crack it open (don't light it). then move it around near the hoses with the engine running. If you have a leak the idle should increase.

Looks like you made it to Lafayette Village tonight!





Minus the decals...

[era vulgaris]

Ha! Yup that was me! Ever since we've had this nice weather I've been driving it everywhere just to get a feel for what it needs.
I was sitting outside at the first 4-person table at Driftwood with my girlfriend and some friends. I wish I'd have known you were there. Would've loved to give you a tour of the rust....some of it is pretty epic. There's floor patch panels that are just affixed on with black goo and move about when you touch em...and that's just the beginning!
Also would've been great for you to ride along and tell if some of the things I'm experiencing are normal, since this is my first 914.

Do you ever go to the cars and coffee events at Waverly Place or the Raleigh Grande?

[era vulgaris]

So I did the valve adjustment today. All but one (#3 in) were too tight. Set them all to .006 and no change in my 1200rpm warm idle. I'm waiting on the new fuel injectors I ordered from Bruce Stone, and once I get those installed I'll reset the timing and see if that helps.

On a related note, Scotty Boy are you the ass-hat that put gasket sealant on the CYLINDER HEAD side of the valve cover gasket? If so, I've got a bit fat middle finger for you! Scraping that hardened sticky shit off the head was an unholy PITA! If not, then that means in the ~8 months you owned the car you never did a valve adjustment - one of the most basic and most important maintenance tasks you can do on an air cooled engine.

On another related note, is it normal to have to remove the bail on the driver (1&2) side in order to remove the valve cover? The engine tin on my car is bent down just enough to prevent you from tilting the valve cover forward to remove it, and the bail prevents you from tilting it upward to remove it. Only solution was to remove the bail. Not a big deal, just curious if that's normal.

[boxsterfan]

I think exhaust is supposed to be 0.008 on the valve adjust. Don't know about the bail wire on 1 and 2.

[saigon71]

If the matched set of injectors don't fix your high idle, try turning the ECU adjustment knob toward full rich a click at a time.

It took setting mine to full rich with the air bleed screw nearly closed to bring my idle within spec.

[JawjaPorsche]

I think exhaust is supposed to be 0.008 on the valve adjust. Don't know about the bail wire on 1 and 2.

Correct me if I am wrong but valve adjust is the same for intake and exhaust: 0.006 for 1.7.

Green injectors will not work very well. Spray pattern too much plus your mpg will decrease.

[Dave_Darling]

The only valves that have the 0.008" spec are the 2.0 exhaust valves. The 1.8 and 1.7 uses 0.006" for both intake and exhaust.

--DD

[era vulgaris]

If the matched set of injectors don't fix your high idle, try turning the ECU adjustment knob toward full rich a click at a time.

It took setting mine to full rich with the air bleed screw nearly closed to bring my idle within spec.

Thanks I'll give it a try once I get the new injectors! Is that CW or CCW?

Green injectors will not work very well. Spray pattern too much plus your mpg will decrease.

Good to know! I figured that might be part of the problem.

I'm hoping the new matched, cleaned, and tested injectors will fix the wrong-ish feel the engine has. Right now I feel like my 1.6 Ghia has more bite off the line than my 914. Although I've tuned the hell out of that Ghia for that last 2 years, and everything on it is well up to spec. Hopefully once I get everything sorted with the 914 it'll feel more nimble.

[ClayPerrine]

The only valves that have the 0.008" spec are the 2.0 exhaust valves. The 1.8 and 1.7 uses 0.006" for both intake and exhaust.

--DD

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

And that is only if you still have the factory sodium filled exhaust valves. Most head rebuilders replace them with stainless steel valves.