Well, SHE RUNS!! I thought that this would just be a quick 'freshening up' job on a car that had been sitting for a while. Six months, four thousand dollars, two engine pulls, 4 electrical fires, and two and a half solid moths of fighting with the injection system later, I was finally able to drive a 914. SWEET. It was surprisingly powerful. I was setting myself up for a lot less power so that I wasn't too disappointed, but I was pleasently surprised. The handling is pretty rediculous. It'll pull WAY more G in the corner than my Elcipse(which I have pushed PAST the limit), and it's not even workin that hard.
More than anything though, I REALLY GET IT now! I bought the thing thinking, "Yeah, that should be a pretty fun car with lots of potential to make it serious." But now that I've driven it I understand the character of the car. It may not be the fastest thing out there, but it's a BLAST to drive even when you're just creeping around town. Now I'm suddenly really happy with my purchase.
I still have some bugs to work out. It starts to ping pretty bad when it gets hot. I'm gonna get into that today. Also, one of the headlights seems to be trying to blind pilots; which it could. I've got H4 90/130s in it. I've gotta drill the rusted out adjustment screw and put a new one in to fix that. At least it idles without flooding out and dying now.
I couldn't have done it without the club of course. Very special thanks to SirAndy, Tobra, 194144jt, 914sixer, 914 1.8t, Rob Pattillo, BDstone, Hmeeder, azBill, RacerBVD, Joseph Mills, Cap'n Krusty, Echo canyons, adidas, Luke, McGen, Highways, Nycchef, string914, rezron, cloud buster, Helomech, SLITS, and of course, Bleyseng for all my parts chasing needs. Sorry, but I can't trace back enough to personally thank everyone for their technical advice and moral support, so thank's a ton to the club. And I know someone is going to say , so I'm going to work on that today among other things.
So I'm officially part of the 914club now. Thanks all for you welcoming spirit, and hopefully I'll be able to give back to the club in my own time.
Mark D.

OMG. I completely forgot to mention the biggest player of them all, even though he's sitting three feet from me right now. I totally wouldn't be able to do it without my Big Bro Allen. You rule brother!
Mark D.

HOOO-RAY!

Good job Mark, A 914 or even a running 914 isn't required to be in the club. Now jackstands on the other hand......

Great job at not giving up. Its all uphill from there. Good job.

Awesome job...sounds like you are really enjoying it! Glad to hear it!

Good job, sounds great!!

Well, after some tuning today we got it running well and took it out to the local canyon road. GOOD GOD!! Not much balls in a strait line, but the steering is super responsive and it'll pull mad Gs in the corners. It's also super easy to recover WHICH I KNOW because I got it bit shifty at one point which scared the crap out of my brother.
Speaking of 'shifty' though, my junkyard gearbox is not in the greatest shape. The 2-3 syncro is obviously bad, and my brother and I probably made it worse today. Up-shifting isn't too bad, but downshifting is a knightmare. The gears and forks seem to be in decent shape. Once in gear it is precise and solid, but getting it in is a bitch. So now I'm calling on Dr. Evil to give me some options.
I also lost fuel to two cylinders halfway home from the mountain road. We checked the injection points and they're good. I think it's probably in the loom from the points to the ECU.
All that being said, I know a lot more about where the car stands and where my money needs to go next. I also got to have some fun with it, which gives me the inspiration to keep pressing on. I now LOVE 914s!
I didn't get a chance to take pics today, but that's no big loss. She's nothin special on the outside, but she's got inner beauty. I'll give you a couple I took some months ago.
Mark D.

Before bath:

After bath