Hi all,

I have just purchased my first 914. I come from the world of 911's, and I am familiar with 914's. I've been reading everything I can about them lately, and I'm really excited to get to tinkering.

Mine is a '73 1.7, Sunflower Yellow, fuel injected. It's pretty plain-jane, but I dig it. I'm going to be spending a lot of time making it mine, but until then, I need to ask a fuel-injection question.

When the car is cold, the car starts up perfectly. However, it seems to buck a little bit. The RPM's don't seem to fluctuate, but it definitely doesn't run right. If I give it some gas, it does help and by 3rd gear, it's fine.

In addition, the idle is clearly extremely low. It doesn't really want to die, but it barely registers on the tach. I have spent a lot of time reading Brad Anders's website, but there's obviously still a ton I need to learn. I haven't done much of anything to it since I got it last weekend, but I checked the knob on the ECU, and I noticed that it's turned fully clock-wise. Surely, that can't be right. I did open the air-bleed screw just to raise the idle, but I have made a note of where it was so that I can put it back if necessary.

As a point of note, I did remove the input hose on the AAR and found that it does pull a strong vacuum.

Anyway, if you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them. Here's a picture of my new baby.

Nice looking car!

Mine was running a little cranky at low rpms. Plugs had some carbon on them. Cleaning them up seemed to do the trick.

That is a beautiful car! I had a brand new Sunflower Yellow '73 1.7. Only new car I've ever had and it created the addiction I've quit trying to cure. Fortunately there's a sympathetic support group.

Can't really help on the issues you're having but you didn't say whether the conditions change after it gets to operating temp. I'm sure you'll get it sorted out.

delete

What part of Kansas?

Start with a complete tune up. Valve adjustment first. Check for 29 lbs fuel pressure.Then set dwell, then timing. Once that's all correct you can set the throttle position switch. If the tps is not properly set the ecu knob has no affect. Check all vacuum lines for frayed ends and such. Check condition of fuel lines. You'll hear lots more about fuel lines later. Give us some hi res pics of the engine bay. There are some folks here with some good eyes.

Btw, welcome.

You should go through the car:

1. Get valves adjusted
2. Get timing set to spec
3. How old are the fuel hoses?
4. Fix vacuum leaks
5. Look at the plugs and wires
6. Clean your distributor (how's your cap and rotor?, trigger points clean?)

There is a rumor hear that yellow ones are faster, but us blue 914 owners know that's not true.

Nice Score! 73 is a great year!

7. Remove the advance plates inside the distributor, clean a re grease these plates, they stick.

Thanks for all the kind words, guys. A bit more info.....

If the car is warm, the bucking goes away, but the idle is still pretty darn low.

The engine "pops" whenever I let off the throttle, especially in the lower gears. It seems to get a little better as the car warms up, but it does not completely go away.

I'll try to get some pictures of the engine later today. I'll work on the checklist this week, and see where it leads.

It's a 40 year old car.
The basic check list is where to start.

Nice looking car and it seems like you are headed in the right direction to be able to enjoy her.

Nice car. Flush the brake lines too

Welcome

I love that color (yea I'm biased mine is the same)!

Post more pics!

Nice!

.....WELCOME.....

I spend my time between KC and Wichita! Nice car!!

First of all, to answer a question, I'm in far SE Kansas, though I get to KC and Wichita fairly regularly.

Anyway, I was asked to provide some pictures of the engine compartment to see if there is anything glaringly wrong. So, here goes:

Another

One more

Wow! That looks like a nice unmolested 1.7. Everything looks to be in place that I can see on my phone. I'm betting it just needs all the settings reset. Have you had a compression check done?

Alan has reached out to me to get together and look at his car. he's less than two hours away and as luck would have it I'll be passing thru where he lives in a couple of weekends in my 914. I'm doing a little road trip for a bbq get together and I will naturally have my tool box with me. But that doesn't mean you guys should not try to help him with his problems. Keep the suggestions coming. We all know how satisfying it is when you fix it yourself.

Btw Alan, you and the family will be welcome to come have some of the best bbq you've ever had with us.

I am originally from north east Kansas. A small town called Ozawkie that is located on Lake Perry. The pictures look good, how is the area under the battery?

The car still has a couple of rust issues, i.e. engine shelf, jacking point, but the hell hole looks solid.

Anyway, with the help of Curt and his grandson, we were able to make some significant progress today. I replaced all the vacuum lines, fuel injector seals, intake manifold sleeves and gaskets, checked the distributor advance/retard.

Today, we were able to verify the dwell angle/timing were perfect, found and repaired a couple of fuel injector hose leaks, found/fixed an engine misfire, checked the CHT.

My next list includes a real valve adjustment, fixing the exhaust leak, replacing the hard plastic fuel lines, and buy a new CHT. But, the car runs a heck of a lot better than it did yesterday! I'm so grateful to Curt for donating his time and energy to help a brother out. It's going to be a fun summer!

For winter you might want to add a dual heater hose set up. Auto Atlanta sells a kit with a Y-pipe and enough hose to run from the fan to both heat exchangers.

It was good meeting you guys today. My days drive turned into 350 miles. I'm worn out. The bbq was awesome. Car ran perfectly. Only bad part was those damn straight roads in Ks.