I've been driving the 914 since finishing up my side shift conversion, but now I'm looking into tuning up the engine and fixing some leaky push rod tubes. I've got a few questions.

First up, I think my engine may have been bored, but I don't know how to determine this. This is causing me some issue in figuring out how to set the dwell and timing since I can't just look up the specs according to engine size. The engine came with dual 40 Webers, so maybe that simplifies it?


Second, how do I figure out which dist. I have? It doesn't have a vacuum, just a small barrel-shaped attachment, like a solenoid or relay.

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Third, I've got this hose just laying in the engine bay (yellow arrow) that leads to nothing. I'm thinking this may have been part of the fuel injection system? It's the lower hose coming from the left side firewall, before it transitions to a larger braided hose (yellow arrow)

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Fourth, check the purple arrows. Should there be studs and nuts here?

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Fifth, underneath the engine now. My boot that directs cooling air to the alternator is shot (red arrow) But I also found and area a little behind this that is open to the cooling fan (green arrow). Is this normal? It seems like this is an air leak causing less air to get to the cylinders.

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After building a 1776cc for my bug last winter nearly from scratch, I'm debating on whether or not to just drop the whole shebang in a couple months and overhaul during the winter. Aside from the leaky pushrod tube, the engine does not use oil, and runs really strong.

The cylinder with green wire attached to the distributor is the condenser along with the contact point. The yellow arrow on the braided rubber/plastic line is for the charcoal canister line all the way to the front.

They are the rear upper case bolts,you need to get something back in there asap.
Distributor is a 009 or 050 Bosch (less common) or copy of,not sure now but think they time @ around 7.5 degrees at 900 rpm plus or minus,someone please correct me if wrong.
Not the best choice of distributor but many are running them with carbs.
What ever distributor you have won't be effected by engine size so don't worry about that,set your points and dwell as per standard setting.
That rubber boot is for the cooling duct for the altenator,a bit hard to change,it is cracked but still doing something it is up to you really ,but don't stress too much.

Thanks. Yeah, those bolts had me worrying. Any recommendations for a dist?

Charcoal canister is part of the injection system, correct?

No. Is the charcoal canister still on top of the fuel tank? Those lines are a part of the evap system. The open lines can be part of the gassy stench with carbs. The whole evap system is displayed nicely in your Haynes manual. The failed boot on the alt direcs cooling are to the alt. Not sure if 914rubber sells them but busboys(?) and other vendors do. Source one.

A vacuum advance unit such as the SVDA sold by aircooled.net would help ,think its modeled of like a 1974 bug dizzy sorry but can't remember the end number something like 034,the 009 shoves in a lot of advance fast which the T4 motor doesn't like and you have a flat spot till the engine speed catches up,from memory the 050 is a little better but have never used one.

Try to find the one with the hotspark pointless module ($130) then you will have less tuning to do,you need to tee off the vacuum port from one point of each carb.
You won't get any more power but the engine will run smoother over lower rpm driving range.

Yeah, charcoal canister is still there, lines intact. So without the fuel injection system in place out back, I've got nowhere to hook these lines to. What are folks with dual carbs doing?

I got an inquiry into John at aircooled.net, but it looks like I'll need to figure out how my carbs are set up before I can proceed. I'll be upgrading to a SVDA regardless.