Okay, I thought I had this sucker whipped, but I need help. When I bought the car it had dual weber 44s, a leaky 1.7, and poor breaking. This is what I have done in the past few months:

Porsche Flywheel
Clutch
Pressure Plate
Pilot bearing
Release Bearing
Shifter bushings
Tore down engine to case, all new seals.
Tranny input shaft seal
Tranny console seal
New rubber mounts
Reman front calipers
Resurfaced rotors
New pads
New front hardlines
New soft lines
19mm Master Cylinder
Rebuilt pedal assembly
Flushed & bled system
Dual dellorto frd34b carbs (rebuilt)
Alum fuel line in tunnel
CB performance 3.5psi pump & filter
Ball joints
Turbo tie rods

That's all I can think of right now, I've done a lot. Right now the engine is much louder than it was before, it sounds like a diesel even though I set all the valve clearances. The engine starts up quickly and idles smooth though, before it took half a can of start fluid to get it going and wouldn't idle. But the biggest problem is when driving. Any moderate throttle you give it, the car bogs down. I've played with the carbs the best I can, can't really tell what I'm doing. I tried to check the timing, but I couldn't see the mark at all even though it;s clearly there. I need some in person help before I go mad. I want this car on the road!!

Any takers? Oh yeah, I'm located in Wylie, northeast of Dallas.

Dan

I'll be in Hurst Texas this weekend.
Got to attend Wedding
44's on a 1.7 explains the bogging and crappy running. YOu would need some SERIOUS head work and big Honking cam and way cool Headers to flow enough air for 44's Probably have to squeeze them down with smaller venturi too.

Loose head pipes can make a hell of a racket. make sure the Heat exchangers are sealed good. it will also run better for it.

did you sinc the carbs? what jets are you running?

He dumped the 44's and is now running Dell 34's.

What kind of racket? I agree, exhaust leaks can be loud. Timing must be set before you tune the carbs (I am sure you know this). Can you tell us more about your problem setting the timing?

Loss of power could be fuel starvation, maybe clogged pump jets?

I am in the process of trying to tune a new set of Dell 40's, so I know your pain. I am out of town the next 2 weekends and most of next week, but will help anyway I can. McKinney is not far from Wylie. Look for my pm.

Yes, I ditched the 44s and I am running the Dell 34's as mentioned above.


The racket is in the valvetrain. I know everyone says a good valetrain is one that makes some noise, and I adjusted mine to .006 intake and exhaust. It sounds like a Ford F350 turbo diesel. I'm also getting a knocking, which could be a rocker hitting the rocker cover. When I had the covers off one clearly showed a rocker had been hitting it, but the clearances were waaaayyy off. Like 1/4in of clearance. So I just figured the adjusting screw was so far out that it was hitting the cover. The only problem is, it wasn't making the knocking noise before and now with adjusted valves it is. So I'm confused there.

I tried to set the timing before messing with the carbs, but I couldn't see the mark. When I had the engine out and the fan off I checked for marks. It definitely has a TDC and 27 degree mark, but at 3500 rpm I can't see the mark even if I twist the disty around. (I tried looking in the front notch and the rear notch with a little mirror) The total dwell and point gap is set and good though. I have no idea how to check individual dwell, its a dual point mallory disty. The coil is a new bosch blue.

I've read through the dellorto stuff you faxed me and I'm going though the carbs again this weekend. Hopefully a jet is just clogged, but this dell 34 is very simple. Way less jets and adjusters than the 44s had.

Hmm, sorry don't know anything about Mallory dual points. But no matter what when you twist the distributor the timing mark should come into view. Are you turning it the right way?
I had that problem of the adjusters hiting the valve cover. eneded up modifying the cover with a ball peen hammer. now I have room for the too tall 911 screws.

Other things to consider:

Are you running a stock cam or some other "carb friendly" cam?

Also, the stock vent for Dell 34s is 28mm. That is small for the 39mm intake valves on a 1.7L. Do you know what size vent you have? The largest vent available is a 30mm for your Dell(~32-34mm is probably ideal). If you get the timing right and are still bogging down under throttle, you might consider trying the larger 30mm vent (and possibly adjusting the idle and main jets as well...not sure what you are running now).

Please don't take this as gosple. I am only relating what I have read about carb theory. Hopefully, others with more experience will chime in. There is great 914 mechanic in Plano (Wes Hildreath) you might consider as well.

good luck

I turned it every which way I could. I'm glad you did the ball peen hammer thing, because that's what I planned on doing. I just didn't know if I'd mess up the cover doing that.




I was told by the PO that is has a carb friendly cam, dunno if that's 100% true or not. Funny you mention Wes, because I planned on taking it to him to fine tune everything after I put it together. I just figured I could tune it enough by myself to actually drive it there.

Ok, so I ran across a thread about adjusting hydraulic lifters versus solid lifters... hmmm I thought. I looked through the POs receipts and notice the purchase of hydraulic lifters. So I think that's where all the noise is coming from, and I go out an readjust the valves according to the hydraulic method. The result.... I have no compression, I guess they are solid lifters after all. Now I have to adjust the valves again, but at least I was able to add clearance in the valve covers for the rocker arms, so it wasn't a total loss.