OK, I couldn't wait for this damn Wisconsin winter to quit. I took my new (to me) 73 2.0, for a ride yesterday. The temperature got up to 25 degrees and no snow, so I figured go for it. The roads are very rough and I couldn't get the heat controls figured out at first, but at least I got it out on the road. WOW, what a difference from my old tired out 1.7!
The car has the original FI. The problem I have is that the engine seems to idle too slowly when it is cold. I searched the archives and found that the AAR (I think that is what it is called), is supposed to kick up the idle when it is cold. The idle seems to stay right around 900 as seen on the dash tach. I thought that the engine was supposed to idle @ 1800 when cold. I saw that one way to test if the AAR is working is to remove the line from the air cleaner and check for a vacuum. If no vacuum, the AAR is stuck. When I checked it, it has a vacuum.
The engine never really had a chance to warm up very much. I took it out on the Interstate for about 10 miles, I got heat from the heater, but the temp guage never moved much above the lower peg. The biggest problem I had was that the engine doesn't like to run smoothly or powerfully, at the lower rpm's. It is really doggy and hesitates until it revs up above 2500 -3000, then it has all kinds of power. So, when driving, the car ran great as long as I was in a lower gear with the engine rpm's high. Once I shifted and the rpm's dropped, the engine would hesitate repeatedly, until it speeded up again. I was very recently tuned up so I am pretty confident that is not the problem. I really don't want to wait until it is 80 degrees before I get to run it.

Any help here? Please keep in mind that I am a newbie to these things. I don't know a lot about them, so don't get too techinical.

Thanks.

Warrenoliver

...my 914 ran rough after sitting for some time.

I played with the timing/dwell, replace all hoses, cleaned grounds....I was convinced it was the TPS, or a bad injector (or a hundred other things)...

Then I found the more I drove the car, the better the FI system treated me.

AAR should increase the idle to 1200-1500rpms when cold but the idle mix needs to be correct too.
If the car is doggy in the low rpms I would guess the advance plate is sticking when cold. There is a grease between themand the cold will solidify it and it won't move. So no advance till high rpms force it and it runs better.
Pull the dizzy and disassemble, clean and inspect everything and reinstall. 35yr old grease is like concrete.

Do you have a thermostat and flaps? Check to make sure those are working and adjusted so the engine heats up properly. In the cold if they aren't then it gonna take a long time to heat it up.

Squirt into the AAR valve some PB BLaster (not WD40) to lube it as it does rust up inside causing it to be stuck open or closed.

Thanks for the info.
I just got this car from California. It was in Cap'n Krusty's garage just before it got here. I hope he will chime in here and let me know if some of this has already been done/checked. He just tuned it prior to loading for shipment, so I hate to get in there and goof up something that he probably did the right way!

Warrenoliver