Running Rich, Fuel Injection to Carburators Options

[BENBRO02]

I finally got my 914 on the road but switched to carbs to save money. The car runs rich. I have heard that the stock cam is not the perfect profile for carbs and also that the car needs to be run slightly rich to keep the engine temperature down. I have never adjusted a carb before and was wondering if I should try to lean the mixture myself or if this is better left to an expert. I recall that if an engine runs lean bad things can happen to pistons and valves.

[DRPHIL914]

And once you pay a mechanic to fiddle with the carbs...the FI will be less expensive overall. Sell the carbs, put the FI back on. You can do this yourself...its not that hard.

I agree- absolutely - my bet is your mechanic didn't know the bosch FI and wasn't willing to learn so he THOUGHT he knew carbs( but maybe not the intricacy related to a flat 4 vw/Porsche motor) - so everything mark said earlier here and Jeff B and many others will tell you MPG and performance you are way ahead with FI... -
I bought my car not running- the guy said he tried to work on it but could not get it running and was going to put carbs on it because he said it was"easier" - which I doubted from the start, as I had a 69 Austin healy with dual webbers 30 years ago and that was a bitch to keep tuned and running ugh!! SO all I did was dig into the FI d-jet stuff here on this site, and one week into owning my car I had a new rebuilt MPS , cleaned the tank lines injectors etc and car fired right up!! it was not that hard!! - from there fine tuning and a few vacuum leaks but car purrs like a kitten- I get over 30 mpg on highway- that is 10 years of pain free driving a car since no retuning carbs, cleaning out idle jets bla bla bla -- eat, drink, drive, fun! L-jet may be even better than d-jet as long as you have a properly functioning air flow meter. The ECU's are almost indestructible and rarely fail.
- Find a member near you to come over and get you going- you can do this yourself if you want.
Good luck - I hope you see this is just encouragement, not trying to give you a hard time, but just good advice based on experience.

Phil