Where to start? Off the line is boggy., But only sometimes... Options

[Nogoodwithusernames]

Haven't been on much lately, but I have had the 914 out a couple times when the weather has been nice, and have noticed that often (but not every time) when pulling away from a stop it's very boggy and low on power and won't pick up revs, sometimes even cuts out, if I rev it a bit before starting off it helps immensely. And once it gets going it also picks up in power and immediately revs much more freely.

It has semi-recently had a couple vacuum lines replaced and an ignition tune up (though the FLAPS didn't have the right heat spark plugs, off by one heat range)

Idle seems good and is pretty steady around 900, cruising seems to get some boggy-ness occasionally too, where I'll feel a bit of a drop in power then feather the throttle and it'll be fine again for a bit.

I don't know how soon I'll get around to trouble-shooting, we are trying to move currently, but I would like to be somewhat prepared for when I have a couple free minutes to start picking at it.

Any idea on what systems or components I should start with?

[VolksSled]

With all due respect and you did ask
I’d say to start with
You have to ( imho )
almost drive the car ( 914 ) constantly
For it to really be happy and run right every time



( I now at least start the car up everyday and drive it a good amount every week end )

They new it was a Porsche at chick fillet which I thought was interesting

[r_towle]

Clean and regrease the advance plates in the distributor

[emerygt350]

What flavor is it? Definitely sounds like advance issues as towle mentioned.

[Nogoodwithusernames]

VolkSled, you probably have a bit of a point there. Cars do love to be driven.

I'll see about going through the distributor again, I did do that with the ignition tune up but perhaps the grease I used was too tacky. I'll pull down one of my manuals and see if they spec anything about the grease to use in there.

[JeffBowlsby]

A drop of 30wt oil in the center shaft recess annually lubes the advance plates. A regular maintenance item that many forget.

[Nogoodwithusernames]

Jeff, I knew about the oil drop on the felt there, but you're saying that is what lubricates the advance plates?
I am pretty sure I did a thin smear of grease on all the moving parts, which is obviously way more viscous than oil, and could definitely be causing an issue if the advance plates are usually lubricated by the oil.

[r_towle]

The oil dropped into the top is for the lower shaft, washers etc.
The impact of sticky advance plates is bogging off the line when hot because the advance plates have not returned to zero advance.

It’s just a maintenance item.
I tend to remove (take pictures of position with cap removed) the distributor, remove points and vacuum advance canister. Then remove the advance plates together being careful not to drop the single ball bearing in between the plates.

Clean and regrease between the advance plates.
Reassemble
Before you reattach the vacuum advance canister, verify they move freely and quickly snap back to the zero position.

Rich