1. The motor is much quieter than I expected even when fully warm. I expected more valve train noise. I was worried it would sound like a VW bug. NOT the case. It has a nice machined sound at idle and at speed. Tangerine Exhaust is very nice in sound. I experimented with and without V stacks, and put the Vstacks and ITG filters back on. A bit better low-mid range, and deeper intake sound, particularly ad lower rpm.
2. Power builds nicely pulling well from 2000, and strong from 2500-3000 straight to 6000 RPM. I had expected the motor to peak at the 4000-4500, not so. Is very strong up to high 5000's, and peaks at about 300 by the but dyno.
The car is wonderfully driveable, virtually no flat spots, pulls strong at all revs straight to redline. Carb transition is also excellent with an occasional balk in off/on throttle situations but I think that is a driving style thing. Its almost like how I have to manage my old carb'd motorcycles. I love the sound and feel from 3500-5500, and I cant wait to be able to really push the car on some twisties.
3. Power is subjective, and it is by no means very powerful (guessing 130 at the wheels). My Hemi V8 Jeep, and M3 have tons of power and torque all over, so no comparison in feel, but the car runs to and maintains 90 effortlessly.
4. The motor LOVES to rev. This is my biggest surprise, I read that the motor was a low-mid rev torque loving motor like older Subaru motors. This motor however loves to rev and pulls straight to redline. Len Hoffman says the motor and valve springs can take 6500, but that 6000 is the recommended redline. I generally dont go past the old indicated redline of 5500, but it pulls to the top very fast ion 1st & 2nd, I have to watch it as I dont have an electronic rev limiter yet.
5. It took a bit to get the accel pump shaft set correctly, I was having a starvation and momentary hesitation when applying light throttle. i.e. Hold in 3rd gear, spon motor to 4K. When I would let off the throttle and then lightly/slowly apply, the motor would hesitate and mixture lean out. Deeper in the throttle or return to hard accel fixed it, but that's not practical for daily driving. I slowly increased the accel pump shaft setting to eliminate the hesitation. The mixture goes a little lean, but there is no hesitation or momentary stumble. I wanted to increase the squirt as little as possible, just to eliminate the light throttle hesitation. I think I am there.
6. Mixture/AFM readings - It is richer than I would like at idle. Once warm is about 11.9-12.3 at Idle. At WOT it is a solid 13, and normal driving and at speed across the rev range goes from 12-14.5, only going to 15-16 when applying light throttle to maintain speed. I have the air needle things at 3.5 turns out, I may go farther in time.
7. Rev matching - - Its been a while since I had to rev match to grab 2nd gear in a tight turn or to down shift, but that's a mistake I will only make once
Its fun to blip the throttle while up and down shifting. 8. Warm up - I'm surprised that even after an hour or two of driving and hard driving the carbs really dont get warm.... But it is winter..... We will see what hot summer weather brings.
THANK YOU to all in this forum who directly and indirectly helped me with the build. I couldn't have done this without 914 world, especially the motor. Kept me from doing many dumb things, and helped me along...
