After about 5 months of work including front and rear bushings, bearings, brakes, shocks, fuel lines and hoses, complete clutch, strip, clean engine and powder coat tins I finally reinstalled the engine on Friday. Yesterday I got everything connected. Today I started it. After cranking to bring up the oil pressure I hooked up the coil and it started.

It idled nicely at 800 and then it raced up to about 1800. No surprise. I haven't yet sorted the vacuum hoses. I was feeling pretty good until after I shut it off and walked back to see gray smoke wafting up from the engine compartment. I disconnected the battery and tried to diagnose the smell. Not oil, not electrical, not rubber and nothing leaking.

My guess is that it's residual engine cleaner burning off. Has anyone experienced this?

I also overfilled the crankcase by pouring in 4 full quarts. Been a while since I did a 914 oil change. Engine is a 2.0.

Thanks to everyone who has helped me along on this project. This community is half the fun of the ownership experience.

Any thoughts on the smoke?

Jack
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Does it have a new cam/lifters or reusing old broken in components?

As for the smoke I wouldnt worry much on a rebuild as theres probably all kinds of stuff that will burn off.
I would be more concerned about where it is coming from.
The cylinders and exhaust will start burning crap off right away.
The case and heads will take longer to get that hot (and have a lot more thermal mass)

Be sure you have a fire extinguisher ready and filled.

Tom

I should have mentioned that the engine was not rebuilt. It has about 46k on it and runs great, excellent compression and uses little oil and doesn't leak. There are no "broken components."

I was not referring to "broken components" but "old broken in components".
I was just going to suggest that IF you were using a new cam, that you needed to follow the break in procedure.

Ah, got it. Thanks for clarifying.
I went through a sequence of starting it, letting it run till warm then letting the smoke dissipate. I repeated this several times and the smoke lessened each time. Pretty sure it was coming from a combination of cleaning residue and the heat paint I put on the exchangers. I did bake the exchangers in an industrial oven but the temp wasn't as high as needed to fully cure.
With as many changes as I made during this process I'm thrilled that it started and runs well. Can't wait to drive it.