I tried cranking it but got no oil pressure after a whole minute - I was told to expect something after 10-15 seconds. Anyhow I went a spoke to Brad and he suggested I remove the spark plugs and also remove the feed pipe to the oil pressure sender (which is an aftermarket unit sitting on top of the engine - the problem was that it had to push out the air in the pipe before it could even start to measure pressure) until I saw oil appearing there.

I did all that and cranked and cranked and cranked - probably around five minutes before I started to get oil out of the pipe. Then I replaced the pipe onto the sender and continued to crank. Eventually I got around 10psi, so I was happy. Problem then was the battery was pretty much flat. So I put it on charge.

2 hours later, after dinner, I went into the shop to try again. I was so nervous about it starting that I didn't even open the shop door.

Anyhow I cranked it, with the HT connected and it fired immediately! In fact, it seems the adjustment on the carbs is so out that I had to hold it closed to keep the revs at 2K, otherwise it was intent on going to 4K+.

It was obvious when it started, so Marie and the boys came to celebrate. By then the shop was full of blue smoke, so Marie opened the door and set up a fan quickly to allow me to breath. I held the throttle between 2 and 3K for 20 minutes (to keep the oil pressure up and to help break in the rings etc.) before killing the engine and jumping for joy. Meanwhile, no leaks and no smoke after the first two or three minutes. I was also getting good oil pressure.

I just ordered a racing ignition, starter switch for the dash as the existing switch is rather flaky. So now i can address the carb settings and also try the shift and clutch. Then I will drive it to a trailer and have Brad do the tune up, set the carbs and make it driveable.

So now i move from a 'project' to a real car...

Richard

Congratulations!!


I can't wait until I can claim the same, but right now it's still for me!

Congrats....wait till the first drive...that's when the big grin starts.

Yeee Haww! Ya got it going.

I haven't followed this one (since I sold you the roller...) Which engine and parts did you end up using? Different motor or did you repair the one with it? Same carbs? If so, no doubt they were out of whack, that may have been what killed the first motor on the track.

sm

Congrats Richard . I know it was a long drawn out process. I fired off another engine build yesterday and delivered it today.. it feels good achieving some minor success every once in awhile. Now to finish up 4-5 more cars...



B

You gonna drive this car to the WCC Richard?

Congrats Richard! You boldly went where many 914 "home" mechanics would like to go.

Hey Richard,

That deserves a (or 2 )

cheers,

Jeroen

Congrats! It's always fun to fire up a new motor.

Somewhere in a Weber manual there is a blurb on setting up your new carbs to a "baseline" idle mixture setting (2.5 turns out from the bottom) and then a feeler gauge to set the idle speed. It works pretty well to get new carbs up and running.

That's neither here nor there for you, but for the future for other folks. If I can find the manual, I can post the numbers.

Tom

That's great. Enjoy.
L. McC