Engine build suggestions, Engine suggestions Options

[brooks944]

Hi, great to see the world back! I have a 74 with a 1.8 that was rebuilt with a Webcam, 96mm cylinders an 40 webers. The car has never been right and rich to the point of washing the cylinders. The engine has been out, back in and still not right. My trusted shop thinks it’s a timing issue as well as another local shop who is well known as a 914 pro. I am pretty confident it’s not a carb issue, lots of jet and even other carbs have been tried.

My question is the shop with the car has a 2.0l GA motor that another customer gave him on some other work that’s been in storage. Instead of continuing to struggle with the 1.8, should we use the 2l (assuming it’s a good case, etc), my cylinders and cam to build a 2056? Should match the carbs, but look forward to your input and suggestions.

Thanks,
Rick

[Jack Standz]

The car has never been right and rich to the point of washing the cylinders.

My trusted shop thinks it’s a timing issue as well as another local shop who is well known as a 914 pro.

I think we have all fuel issues worked out. Fuel pump was changed to match the carbs.
Thoughts?

Sorry, don't trust your shop. Why would they suspect a rebuilt 1.8 motor with carburetors that has fuel issues has a "timing issue"? (Of course the motor could have fuel issues AND timing issues. Or maybe their troubleshooting is way off and you have compression issues or something else).

If it's an ignition timing issue, why can't they adjust the timing properly? If it's a mechanical timing issue, why did they put it together wrong or why can't they fix it?

You might seriously think about going someplace else. And since you swapped out the fuel pump, what pump and fuel pressure were you running? (One guess is that you had too much fuel pressure that was overcoming the needle/seat & was flooding the motor with fuel). So, put a proper fuel pump for carburetors on and run a fuel pressure regulator with appropriate fuel pressure & let us know if that resolved the problem.

Best wishes for a successful fix!