So, I have had a slight barely detectable bucking thing going on for a little while whenever you accelerated and a bit of throttle lag. I chalked it up to the throttle contacts. However within the past week it got exponentially worse. I will start from startup to end.

1) Initially it started fine. However, today the last 4 times I have tried to start it it would get to the point of sustained ignition for about a half a second and then sputter out. Every once in awhile it will start and sputter along without my help for about 2-5 seconds. If I catch it during the sputter time and feather the throttle about 20% of the time I can catch it and it will sputter for about 5-8 seconds and then come to life.

2) It will rev fine when the clutch is out. Idling though is hit and miss. Sometimes it will idle at the absolute minimum and sometimes it will idle at 1k.

3) As soon as I engage the clutch if I do not have the engine above 3krpm it will slow to less than 1krpm regardless of throttle position. It will then accelerate very slowly until it hits 3krpm when it will finally find itself and surge forward.

4) To shift to second I have to get up to about 4.5-5krpm before I shift otherwise it will repeat the same symptoms as in first.

5) For 3rd it will bog down more than 2nd or 1st regardless of what I do and same goes for 4th and 5th.

6) Whenever I slow down and stop it smells like straight gasoline and I have been getting terrible mileage, not sure on exact numbers. Also, it is spitting out some black smoke out of the exhaust.

Been reading a couple other threads and have some theories. Bad valves seem like it could be a cause but would that account for the revving fine when the clutch isn't engaged? Shit in the fuel tank seems highly unlikely as it doesn't seem to do it when I rev the engine while the clutch is out and the smell of gasoline doesn't fit the "starving engine" MO. I figure something somewhere is just flooding the engine with way too much fuel and it is getting drowned until you get it to a sufficiently high rpm. My problem is though due to my in experience I can't narrow it down in my mind to at least a couple systems and I would like to avoid replacing everything just to find out it was the last thing I checked after I tore the engine apart and spent 2 grand .

Any suggestions/troubleshooting help would be greatly appreciated. This is my first 914 and so I am still learning about everything. About to replace the shocks and springs this weekend and due to this new development I guess troubleshooting has been added to my list since she is my only means of conveyance.

Random pic of her:

Better start telling everyone the basics:

Year of car
engine size
Fuel injected (if so, djet or ljet) or carburators

I'll take a first guess with no real information that you don't have spark in at least one of your cylinders, probably two (combustion needs air, fuel, spark). With the engine running, start pulling leads from the distributor and see if the idle changes. If it doesn't, that cylinder has a "problem". Or, you can also carefully touch the exhaust pipes from the cylinders one at a time: cold pipe = no combustion.

I used this method to figure out two of my cylinders weren't firing. The car ran surprisingly well on only two cylinders once it got going (I had two bad injectors, no gas from those = no smoke or excess gas smell)

Oops , got all into describing it in the post and forgot the most important part. It is a '74 2L with Djet

First, look through the engine bay for any hoses or wires that are not plugged in to the right places, or are unplugged. I would double-check the plug for the head temp sensor, myself.

Then check the ignition system. Are all of the parts in good shape? Are all of the adjustments in spec?

Then check the fuel system. Is the pressure reasonable? Does it drop or spike when the car starts to misbehave?

There is also an excellent set of articles on D-jetronic injection here: http://members.rennlist.com/pbanders

--DD

Thanks for the tips so far guys, going to try them out tomorrow after I throw my shocks on.