pour that gas on the weeds and lite it up that'll kills the weeds!

Thought about that, neighbors are pretty close though.

Had the same problem when I pulled my tank. Filled a couple gas cans, rhodyguys gas can, lawnmower, edger.................

well..... how "much " do you like them??? [or not]

Dan,
Like the idea of your holder you made for the ECU, any better picts so I can fab my own imitation?

Dave

Hah, thats why I keep my 78 F250 with twin tanks! That thing is great for getting rid of old gas as it will burn anything! 20 year old gas and it runs fine....

Pulled the tank last night, replaced lines, fuel pump, put tank back in, put some fuel back in, hooked the battery back up.

Crank, crank, crank, crank

Hmm, nothing

More cranking

More nothing.

Hmm.

Doh! Forgot to hook those little ground wires on the engine block from the FI harnes. Duh!

Crank, VROOM!

Drove it around last night for a little while, filled the tank. I know I have to adjust for a 1.8 FI system on my 2.0, but seems pretty smooth.

One issue I have noticed, my throttle takes a Looooooooooooooooooooong time to return to idle. It's smooth, just seems to take forever, like I don't have a spring. I do have a spring from the arm to the plenum. Should there be another spring?

Anyone have any pictures of L-Jet throttle return srping set-ups? Maybe I don't have it on correctly?

In the end, I'm really glad I bought new injectors, all new fuel and vac lines and a new fuel pump along with other little things. Eliminates many possible issues.

I did drive it into work today, started right up this morning, nice idle. Sans the throttle return issue and just setting it for 2.0 liters, I think it's good to drive!

The slow return to idle is due to your deccel valve. First, make sure you've got it plumbed correctly -- axial (center) fitting goes to plenum, radial (side) fitting goes to air inlet elbow. Next, consider running in the adjuster screw to set the regulation pressure lower. Finally, consider ditching the damned thing. It doesn't do anything anyway.

I just checked, got it hooked up correctly.

I know it doesn't really do much of anything.....well, books say it eliminates backfire on decel.

I have some caps and will plug it off when I get home, see what that does. If it pops or backfires on decel, I'll buy a new one and install it. If it runs and sounds good under all conditions, I'll just leave the ports plugged off and not put one back in the system.

I think most of the D-jet systems I've had, I've removed the decel valve. Never seemed to make a difference.

Nice job Dan! Interesting to see what the mileage will be. How about power? About same, up or down?
Tom

This picture shows the correct spring for the throttle body...Looks like you have a Djet one on your setup... Throttle should snap back quickly..Looks like that is a Bus spring to me for the 1.8L Ljet

Right now it's hard to tell, less than the carbs, but I have popped the top off the AFM yet. I downloaded all the pictures and narative from the link Geoff posted above. That's kinda my next step, hook up to an LM1 so I can see what the FI is delivering to the engine.

I know this system as-is can feed a stock 914-4 2.0 no problem. It's just getting it dailed from the 1.8 it came from to the 2.0 it resides on now.

It has really good torque, dies off really fast when the RPM's get up there.

Another thing I still have on the punch list is swaping out the dizzy. I still have the old school Bosch "022" (Spendy!) and just have the vac ports plugged off on the TB. I do have the stock vac dizzy I'll probably install.

Thanks for the link again Geoff.

That helped me do a little Static and Dynamic adjusting. Runs pretty smooth and seems pretty strong. Fires off every time.

Time to start logging the fuel economy.

I forgot to mention I was able to correct the slow to return idle issue. It was nothing more than the TB shaft being a little gummed up from sitting for who knows how long.

Decel valve was taken out of the system, then put back in when I determined it wasn't the culprit.

Snaps back to idle just fine now, no popping on long decels, everything seems to be doing what it's suppose to.

Dave,

I have a timing light that you can use the TDC mark and adjust a little knob on the back for desired timing and just use the TDC mark on the engine. So I'm covered there.

Although, I still have my old "022" dizzy set at 27 degrees total.

I have the stock L-Jet dizzy I plan on installing pretty soon. IIRC, 5-7.5 idle with hoses disconnected and pluged. I'll double check the book on that one.

If you'r offering to let me borrow a calibration tool, that would be sweet!

For the short term, just playing things by ear and keeping track of how many notches I moved the dynamic spring and how much I moved the static arm. All CCW of course.

should be the same timing, 27 BTDC at 3500rpms hoses off and plugged. Then when its at idle 7.5 BTDC with the hoses on....
Should get ya more hp and torque as the timing has to be spot on.. Check when its all done and see if the timing is advancing...and the fuel pressure regulator is pushing the psi up at WOT...like 42lbs. With Ljet if the vac hoses are quite right you won't get the WOT mix right due to improper vac to the regulator...no extra fuel...

Ah, that makes sense.

The "022" dizzy has no vac pots, thus they are capped on the TB right now.

I have a pressure gauge and will check my pressure at idle and WOT, see if there is any changes. I'll look up and verify specs as well.

The biggest difference between carbs and FI is the smoothness, especially in low RPM's and when cold and starting the engine under all conditions. I love the simplicity of carbs, but it's hard to beat even just the couple of sensors FI has to change the delivery depending on the needs.

Something carbs just can't do.........carbs really do suck!

Just wait until you get it all working right! Hah, it will make a great DD for you...
Mine starts right up even when it is 20 degrees outside!

The Ljet will be smooth too with lots of torque once you get the WOT and dizzy right. I love it in my Westy..

Actually, specs are 7.5BTDC with hoses OFF and idle speed adjusted to 750-900rpm. Here's the procedure:
-- engine warm
-- remove vacuum line to dist and clamp shut (note idle speed will increase)
-- adjust idle using bypass screw on TB to 750-900rpm
-- set timing to 7.5BTDC
-- reattach vacuum line (idle speed will drop)
-- set idle speed back to 750-900rpm

The effect of all this is that you won't be able to see the 7.5' timing mark when the vac hoses are connected. Because the vacuum retard has so much authority, under idle conditions the timing is actually occurring AFTER TDC. Strange but true.

Also, be sure to leave the vacuum advance fitting open to atmosphere -- only connect up the vacuum retard fitting.

One more thing: the reg maintains a constant fuel pressure with respect to the pressure at the reference port (which should be connected to the manifold). So fuel pressure isn't really increasing as you open the throttle; it's tracking the higher manifold pressure. Pressure across the injector remains constant.

Wow, nice car Dan. I have a carbed 2.0 sitting in my garage but my stock L jet 1.8 runs so good I cant get up to replacing it. I get ~ 38mpg all highway.

I ran through the first tank of fuel, but won't start logging mileage until it's a little more tuned, which is this tank.

Geoff is correct, it's pretty amazing the amount of torque the L-Jet provides. The idle and low RPM driving is so smooth.

I'm still running points and will convert to the electronic points when I install the factory ign dist.

I've been having fun putting my foot into it, so mileage really won't be stellar these first couple of tanks. I'll post results anyway. After the newness wears off of having FI, I'll chill out and see what kind of "normal" driving can achieve.

Haha, told you so! Now when are you going to put a Raby Cam in it? Jump upto 115hp and really rock.

This thread is a good inspiration for all those 1.8L Ljet 914's out there! Thinking of going to dual carbs, forget it! Retain the FI and go 2.0L or 2056 with your Ljet and really have some fun and still it looks totally stock! The Ljet makes for a nice Daily Driver setup, soo smooth.

Yeah, yeah, you and Troy can rub this one in, you've earned the rights to it.

I think as long as you have a correct cam, the displacement isn't much of a factor. If you really wanted the ability to feed bigger engines, it's a simple matter of making sure your intake runners will support the flow along with injectors. The rest of the system is just simple math.

We'll see how it fairs over time, my guess will be nothing less than great results. If so, it'll be source a 2270 with proper cam and install L-Jet on it. Probably hotwire and O2 sensor so some 944 parts.

Bored with six conversions (Can't afford them anymore anyway) and I can't bring myself to start welding steel top or flares on this one.....so engine is kinda all I have to fiddle with.

Maybe the exception of the tranny? I wonder if Jamie still has that "H" geared rebuilt unit?

Actually I sold that. I do plan to do more than one this winter. Figured it will be a good extra winter project for my v8 cars. I just need to track down 2 more "h" gears to do them. No rush though as we all know I don't have a 914 that runs

if you try a 2270 you'll have to set it up for lower rpm torque and not for higher rpm power, the long runners and small plenum is gonna restrict high rpm power.

geoff was talking about the bus plenum being larger.... maybe some thing to that, and not sure what could be done with the stock manifolds at the heads and the tubes to the man/plenum.

geoff ..... geoff.......

Well, first tank of fuel didn't really yield anything to write home about.

284 miles (Real miles, not Porsche's optimistic assement of speedometer readings)

11 gallons of fuel

25.8 or 26 mpg.

Eh, it's an average with very mixed driving, test driving, sporty driving, some freeway, some light foot, some heavy foot.

26mpg is a far cry from what I'm shooting for though. Time to source an LM1 and tune by the AFM numbers.

Dan,
not bad for your first shot at the tuning...for a mixed bag of driving that sounds pretty good for a 35 year old car
I am getting about 29-30mpg with freeway driving, running 70+ and high ambient temps. That is with slightly tweeked D-jet and stock 74 exhaust.

Yup, I also have the backdated exhaust.

Upper 20's isn't bad at all for mixed given the age and state of tune of the thing. I have it set by "ear" and "feel" where the engine seems happiest erroring on the side of a little fat, rather than lean.

It runs great, TON's of torque.

I know for best mpg, I'll dail it back and loose some of that upper end, but that's cool.

I think the combo that you are talking about is the bus ljet plenum with the 914 2.0L runners which are bigger. This way you have more intake charge air in the system and the bus plenum is better than the 914 2.0l design (sidedraft).
This is the setup I was going to try to run with the 2.4L motor I wasgonna build..running modified Djet just no time for getting the project moving along.

but back to Dan's engine, I think staying stock is a good thing as the smaller runners help increase the intake velocity for better low end torque. If his goal is 40 mpg then he should stay with the stock setup.
Dan, I am back in Seattle next week if you want to get together for some LM1 tuning. I'll be in Seattle only for 30 days...so I also want to see RichD.

Geoff,

I catch up with you next week for sure. It'd be good to visit and show off the new 914.



I did try to install a stock 1.8 vac can dist last night. Couldn't get it to fire off. Odd, but I didn't replace anything so could've been a bad condensor? Even found a pertronix kit (used) I have no idea where it came from. Tried that, no go. Had to put the old 022 dist back in, fired right up. Weird.

Wondering if I might yield slightly better mpg with the stock dist over the 912 dist? I'll source some points/cond/cap/rotor and try the install again.

LM1 tunning is needed at this point. Power isn't an issue, I'm shooting for max economy.

Second tank, mostly in-town driving, actually, very, very little HWY miles. Only yielded 21.1 mpg.

I did richen up the dynamic by 4 teeth, more low-end, but fuel economy suffered. Dang, just no having the cake and eating to.

Geoff, if you're around this weekend, let me know. I can swing by, set using the LM1 and then drive a couple of tanks, see what the mpg average is.

Runs really good, sold on L-Jet for sure.

3rd tank I set the dynamic back to just a couple teeth from stock 1.8. Still runs out perfect, maybe slightly cold=blooded for about 2-3 minutes, but that could be other FI parts causing it.

Yielded 26.8 mpg this tank.

I'm going to swap out for the stock dizzy this week. I'm still running the Bosch '022' (A real one) and love the advance curve, but wondering if the retard/advance vac lines will help with fuel economy?

If not, I'll just swap it back out.

With my day to day driving being 90% in-town, I think If I can bust into the 30's for MPG, I'd be doing really well.

Does that mean I'd make 40mpg even on an all freeway trip? Probably not. But I bet the 914 might touch upper 30's on a freeway trip?

30MPG on in town driving would be pretty substantial!

As a comparison I pretty much get 30mpg on my CRX SI in town. Lots of heavy footing there. I also have done 44mpg on the highway, and still looking to better than number..

Granted Honda is different from VW, Im cruising at 70 at 2500 in 5th.

You'll get there.

I get 36mpg hwy on my 75 with a 1911 and L-Jet.

Great thread and it taught me stuff on the L-jet that I didn't know, nor could get from the Bosch book.

Cool!

My next step will be an "H" 5th I think. I have more than enough torque to pull it. I know it won't help with the in-town driving, but on local club events it'll yield some good numbers.

A couple of things I will do to increase the MPG will be:

Alignment, I know I need one and should have done this long ago.
Ignition, try the stock dist, maybe even migrate to stock CD box and TDC plugs?
Finalize engine state of tune, LM1, set the AFM

After that, I think the fuel economy is about as good as it'll get unless I crack the case open, start changing the cam, P/C's etc.

I went to a Mallory Optical distributor just to keep things stable and reliable WITH the vacuum canister on it.

Also, the alignment is CRITICAL. I was getting 4 mpg less highway before I got my front alignment done.

AND, don't get the widest tires you can fit on your rims. Stick with a mid size tire (185-195 section width) and you'll reap the MPG benefits.

Good luck!

On all my cars I have my fun tires, then my run around tires.. Which are typically rock hard skinny's.. If I plan on driving over 200 miles i'll swap em out. I see a 3mpg difference on my Audi between my 18's and my 15's, and about 2mpg on my honda.

JEEZZ!

just go get a prius!!!!

these cars are s'posed to be fun to drive and as a side beni they get pretty good fuel economy!!!!

the thing is ..... Dan can NOT just get a car and drive it.... he's got to constantly be "tim the tool man tayloring" it until he gets bored with it, then sells it for another project thats needs much more work than he got rid of!!!


he's got an angel of a wife!!!

Monster Squareback is keeping my hands off the 914 for now.



I keep eye-balling 924's in the local area......roof sections.

Skinny tires slightly over inflated will help net a fraction more MPG.

Running 185/65/15's @ 35psig cold.

4th tank yielded 28mpg with part of that coming from a weekend 914 drive up Mt Baker. I think I would have done better with just 'normal' driving. Plus about 1/2 way through the tank I switched to the stock 1.8 dist with pertronix. The FI really likes this set-up even better than the 022 I was running.

I just filled the tank yesterday, it's taking much longer to burn through a tank of fuel now. I wen't 330 actual miles on my last tank. It's nice to have an easy 300+ mile range. I'm shooting for 400, but I honestly don't think I'll make it unless it's all on a long easy freeway trip.

interesting thread- not trying to hijack your thread,--- but also looking for some advice on this subject. since i am 1 year into my 75 914 2.0 d-jet, just finished a trip to Florida- first road trip, Got 31mpg going down - running 75-78mph, but on way back at 70mph, got 34! . Pretty happy with that, next tank in town to work was 26mpg.
Now, i have a fast idle that is hurting it and a couple other issue, but new tires(195), new injection, but wondering with d-jet how i can improve it- also just put in new sshe with triad exhaust, and this has helped as well.
(and i have not taken it in to have the valves etc checked).
any other suggestions?
What is the best mpg anyone has had out there?

phil

Don't forget to adjust for Porsche's or maybe VDO's inaccuracy of the speedo.

I've never been in a 914 that was less than 5% off, most are 10-15% off actual speed.

Mine is 8% off with my 185/65/15's. So I always subtract that off the total miles traveled when calculating mpg figures.

Otherwise I would have already touched the 40mpg mark!

I plan on sending my speedo in and having it re-calibrated with my current tires.

Annoying to see 70mph when you're only going roughly 60mph.

"Look, look! We're going 100mph!"

Or maybe a Metro

Best corrected mpg I have got is 33 going to Portland Ore..At mostly 75-100mph I have gotten 30mpg going to Yakima..
I run the 75-76 ECU so when you life off the petal the fuel is shut off til 1800 rpms...that helps a lot.
I don't run hard tire with high psi either..
Dan, sorry to miss you but I'll be back in 5-6months. You could contact Blair if you want to borrow the LM1 setup. Good to see you put in the correct dizzy with optical ignition as that does help. Put in the TDC's to improve spark too.

26.0 1st tank initial FI fire-up
21.1 2nd tank turned it up (richened the AFM), more power, mpg suffered
26.8 3rd tank turned AFM back still running 022
27.8 4th tank installed stock vac 1.8 FI dist

5th Tank since FI conversion was 27.25mpg (no changes, just drove it)

So it seems I've hit the peak of what's possible unless I really start changing up the internals, adding an "H" 5th or just simply do more freeway driving. These are essentially in-town miles.

I'm getting an easy 330 real miles out of each tank of fuel and that's not even running it dry. THAT makes me happy. Cost of just about any other mods won't yield any payback. So this is pretty much it for this project.

Driving it daily for months and plan on continuing to drive it daily.

Thats damn good for in city driving, Dan. A nice long freeway trip to see what the mpg would be interesting.

better than many new 2L powered cars.

and much better than a 15mpg six conversion!

i think you need another car to turn into a six so you can have one that puts the silly smile on your face when you romp on it 1

So when you gonna swing by and check out the progress on the Monster SB Troy?



Very happy with my 914 right now. A lot of work has really turned it into a great driver.

Yesterday I was heading home, it was cold and raining. No leaks, windows nice and clear and I was comfy inside listening to tunes. That's when you know you've done at least some things right.