I checked the oil in the 914 and it read about a half quart too much!( I'm always very careful when adding oil or doing a complete change as I recently did). The last time I drove it, the car idled too low at a stop light and died. Had a hard time getting it restarted (but with help from the traffic behind me telling me I'm #1), I finally got it started and crawled home.
The engine rebuilder was messing around with the weber 44's and jetting them down for the now, 2056 engine and he also reset the floats. fuel pressure is 3.5 psi. I thought that one of the floats stuck and either flooded it out ,or starved it of fuel. Then I figured it was because too much pressure from too much oil. I took out the extra to bring it back to normal.
OIL SMELLS OF FUEL !!. I will drain the (brad penn) oil completely out and replace filter.
but, what should I do next? start over with the carbs?
I followed the advice from pelican parts on the jetting, can't say at the moment the size of jets/ac/or emulsion tubes (most likely f11). 517 miles on new rebuild.

I'm a fuel injection guy, but from my days of Chevys in the fifties, that sounds like a stuck float

I'll second the stick float opinion.

You can't be just "messing around" with Webers. I have always had good luck with my 44idf's but there is a specific series of steps to rebuild and adjust the carbs. Properly adjusting the floats, involves precise measuring and some metal bending to get them just right. Do a search both on this sight and maybe a Google search for Weber 44idf rebuilding and adjustment. Try here. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_quer...and+adjustments

Dave,


Do you have enrichment circuits on those 44s? Check my post #5 here to see what they look like:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=207017

Thanks to both of you for the advise. I'll start by letting all the oil drain, meanwhile I'll pull off the carbs and do a discovery/reset project. I'll note the current jets/ac/tubes sizes... Thanks again

What kind of Weber's? Made in Spain or did they come from Weber carbs direct?

Had the same issue last year. Finally replaced the carb with a Spanish version and problem went away. All Weber's are not the same!! Bad castings.

Can you balance each barrel of the carb. I never could until I replaced it. No problem now.

It has been a few years since I bought the carbs for the 2.4L I had. I'll look at the receipts for more information on that, thanks

Are the carbs synchronized? Is each barrel of the car synchronized together? That is how I started to identified the problem.

They were new carbs and worked OK for a couple of years and than one failed. But it took me months to figure out it was a bad carb body.

I have been driving it for about a year with one of the bad ones and one Spanish one. (If it's not broke don't fix it theory)

But I just ordered another Spanish one because the bad one still does not sync that well, stumbles at idle occasionally and I don't want to get stranded.

The sticking float makes sense to check. You might want to do a search on carb and venture sizes. 44's with big venturi's might also be an issue. Mine came with 44's, ran great at high RPM but not low. So I sold them and switched to 40's but I should have spent the money for quality carbs.

Any advice you got on jetting will be "ballpark only",you need to carry out various checks with your jetting on YOUR engine, possible reasons for your situation are the follows:
carbs are too large ,
carbs need rebuilding,
venturi's too large,poor vacuum signal,
idle jets to large,
too much fuel pressure (try reducing it to 3 psi ),
float issue as mentioned,
aftermarket needle and seats,some don't hold pressure and leak,
poorly adjusted accellerator pumps,
blocked /dirty aircleaners,
engine not tuned properly.
Reading that saying these carb kits are "bolt on out of the box" is total BS,don't keep running your engine in this condition otherwise you will incur serious engine damage ,fuel is a very poor lubricant.
Lots of guys on here have a wealth of info on carbs,other good reference is the Samba.com ,aircooled.net,CB performance, to name a few.
Shame your engine builder didn't take the time to sort this before handing this engine over to you,best to talk with him afterall his name is on the build,good luck

I checked on the carbs last night, they were built in Spain. Is that good or bad?

That's good.

Yes, The carbs are all balanced correctly to each other. The engine has a recent rebuild and tune up after 500 mile break in period.
It has titanium push rods so lash is 0 when cold (I can spin them with my fingers, but no up/down lash).
Hoffman Heads said stock venting on the 2056 engine is perfect and we eliminated the one vent on each of the heads.
I have yet to expose the floats for a look see...
I've been teaching Mike 6-cylinder header 101. He is working out great for me...I will show him 4-cylinder header 201 soon.
Thanks for every- bodys help with my carb issues.

Dave, verify your fuel pressure. Also, if the carbs have the as manufactured venturies, 36s?, they're prob too big for the 2056. I think you should be in the 32mm range. Pretty simple swap. You'll need to do a baseline setup and dial the carbs in, again, after changing them out. The CBperformance Weber book will be your new friend. Modern fuels tend to leave white deposit build ups in the float bowls over an extended non-op period. simple task to pull the tops off of the carbs to look at the bowls.

If you just energize the pump, no cranking, you may see fuel spilling down one or both of the carbs.

I'll opine that after this you'll need a top end rebuild. An extra half quart of oil is a ton of fuel to get by the rings.

pretty sure they come will 36mm,a guy that came to my friends shop had a set of new Spanish Weber sidedraft 44mm and they had 36's straight from a supplier in the UK.
That's a really large venture size even with a cam and flowed heads,would expect it to be a little boggy @ lower RPM.
I wonder if the OP's carbs are rebuilt ?,for a new engine that's a must really.
Kevin that is the best test for the fuel pressure,my Zenith's did it till I dropped the pressure back,looking down the velocity stack @ idle I could see the fuel venting off down the throats,not all the time but not good,the needle and seats were just sealing and @ their limit,I went down to 3.2psi problem solved,I may try 3.0 psi.
There is NO way you can tune your carbs with this going on.