My car hasn't been running in about 6 years. I picked up an engine from a parts car and today was the first time I've heard it run.

I've got the fuel pressure set at 34 psi per my chilton's manual, I installed a petronix electronic ignition and I recently went through my fuel injection wiring harness to make sure all of the ends were in good shape. I've got between 125 and 150 psi on all 4 cylinders. I've got a new set of plugs, wires, cap and rotor. I just put new fuel lines throughout the car and relocated the fuel pump.

It wants to start, but dies almost immediately. I've moved my timing around on either side and it seems to be close based on how hard it tries to start.

I'm not sure what happened but I got it to start once. It idled at around 3500 rpm and it was popping a little. I think the popping may have been because my timing was off and I needed to adjust the timing gear one tooth to give me a little more room for the distributor. Other than that it would respond to throttle input and it sounded pretty good.

I could have an air leak somewhere, but I would think it would still start as long as the air leak wasn't too big. Anyone have any other ideas? My distributor is pretty beat up and I was thinking that possibly my trigger points may be a problem. I've got another distributor to try so I'm going to swap distributors tomorrow.

So many places to start. Not sure where chilton got 35 from. I thought it was 29. High rev most likely is an air leak need to get that fixed. Are the trigger points working? Cht? The list goes on and on. Need to get methodical. I would start with looking at the vacuum lines. Djet really can be cranky with vacuum leaks and they are very common.

After you swap the dizzy, and make sure the trigger points are not worn out, there are a fair amount of items to check. Chiltons info is sometimes inaccurate.

2.0L FP should be 30 or 29.5 to be exact.

Points at .016 or .017 max.

Check your outputs in ohms on the TPS. www.rennlist/pbanders is the best thing for you.

Also there are really good articles on Pelican, and Auto Atlanta's owner has a book on 914's.

Many things can be out of whack, but it is all fixable. The popping is either timing or your decel valve or a real bad leak. Check all hose fittings and locations with starter fluid, but it needs to be idling first. Did you do a timing light check? Are you seeing TDC at idle? Can you check dwell. 50 is good. Make sure the meter can read a 4 cylinder.

You should also check the head temp sensor near plug 3 coming through the tin on the passenger side right near the intake pipes.

Make sure plug wire #3 is under the pipes and not near the Manifold Pressure Sensor. That may be your entire problem. The voltage in the wire makes the MPS go apeshit with a shovel.

Also check your bleed valve on the throttle body. Also check all your ground wires. They will make the engine run really badly. Lot's of work, but you did ask.

Check all plug wires at both ends for a tight fit, and especially check the coil wire as well. They can all cause rough idle and eliminate acceleration of any kind off of idle.

That high an idle on a DJet is typically the Aux Air Valve. Take a CV ball bearing and put it in the hose that goes from the AAV to the air cleaner. If it immediately lowers your idle to 950, which is perfect, then you have a BAD AAV.

If your PCV is bad, that will mess up starting and idle big time.

What are your spark plug gaps? They should be .026.

Like I said, Chilton's info is not that accurate.

The Pertronix sometimes shorts out right away. I don't know how to check them.

Immediate dying might be a filthy fuel filter or even rust in the tank and lines. Very common. Check the filter and shine a flashlight into the tank, but don't drop it in! Use a big flashlight. If it isn't shiny and clean, you have problems that must be fixed. Usually means yanking the tank and doing a POR15 procedure, which I recommend. PM me on the tank redo, if that is it. I have excellent experience from March.

Good luck, and I hope even one of these things helps.


John

Will go through the list tomorrow. The lines are all new, the tank is clean and the fuel filter and pump are both brand new. I haven't gotten it to idle beyond that one time, so I'm not sure where my timing's at. I've got a cap on the back end of the aav right now just to make sure that's not a problem.

Plug gaps are at .028 and all of the wires are tight, but I will move #3 to under the intake runners tomorrow.

All of my ground wires are good, but I should clean up the contacts just to double check.

The reason I think it may be the trigger points is because when I took the distributor out to put in the petronix there was a ton of white dust that came out of the bottom when I tipped it upside down. I'm thinking it probably got some water in there and corroded.

White dust is powdered or GROUND then powdered aluminum but the dizzy is not all aluminum at all. May be old lubricant or birdshit.....sounds nasty.

Make sure it is the correct dizzy according to pbanders.

The good news is that all the 1.7 and 2.0 trigger points are the same for DJet dizzy's. But the dizzy's ARE NOT interchangeable. Part numbers are key for your model. Assuming GA, but even then the GA engines with DJet have DIFFERENT Dizzy's. There was a later trigger set made, and that works with all trigger-based DJet systems too. The key is the trigger arms that ride on the dizzy. They must be in good shape.

1973 dizzy is 0 231 174 009

1974 dizzy is 0 231 174 011

One is different from the other, so make sure you have the right one. Mark your rotor before you remove so you don't go 180 out putting it back in. Check the o ring while you are at it.

And they have different vacuum advance parts that are not interchangeable.

Good luck!

John

Cht plugged in? That'll keep it from starting.

could be a bad ignition switch too. Car will start and run in crank position, but not when you release it.

One kind of trigger points for VW?Porsche D-jet, may also fit other makes. ANY VW/Porsche D-jet distributor will work, albeit the curve may be wrong for the application.

The Cap'n

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su-c4MUjJZ0

After swapping over the petronix into the new distributor look what she does! It had to be the trigger points being all nasty and full of stuff. I pulled both distributors apart and I found out the vacuum advance wasn't holding a vacuum on my other distributor either. I still need to figure out the aav stuff, but no popping at all.

Well that's getting closer!

Mine sounded a lot like that until I replaced all the vacuum hoses. There is a lot of air getting in theres somewhere - should be easy to find.

Ok we're up and running. Idles around 1000 rpm and starts up immediately. My idle problem was just the idle screw being too far out, but my major problem I solved was the trigger points. I still need to adjust the fuel pressure down from 34 psi and I need to check my timing. I haven't driven it yet since I still have a few more small problems, but we're definitely getting close.

Overall I am extremely happy with how everything's going. Hopefully I will have it ready to drive this weekend. I'm going to get it registered tomorrow so I'm ready when the time comes.

Woohoo!

I know the feeling of starting after a long time chasing demons out of the car!

I am in CV demon hell. Need some parts to arrive.

Good luck!

John