So I bought my 914 2.0 this August locally, it had only covered 5,000 miles in about 7 years, but it seemed to be pretty well sorted. Like all carbed 914's though, it really only runs best when it's warmed up. Adding to this problem, I still have the straight weight SAE 40 oil in it the PO used. The basics:

Dual Dells, 050 dizzy, Excel Coil (was a Bosch Blue that wasn't Ohming right), new plugs, new wires, timing is pretty spot on.

Car ran pretty good, hesitated a lot first thing in the morning, but ran great when warm, ran great on the main jets. Very smooth around town, just a little hesitation at tip in of the throttle, a slight delay and then power would come on. Not much backfiring, even first thing in the morning, never any misses on the highway. Would start right up when it was warmed up.

After about 500 miles of living with a little hesitation at light throttle tip-in, some reading of dellorto tuning book, and the forums, I decided the hesitation was either: the 050 that a lot of people hate, or I was running a little lean. My oil temp gauge was pushing over into the "P" of "TEMP" after long highway drives in 90 degree weather, so I thought it may be lean.

I dialed in a 1/6th turn richer on the mixture screw, and went off for a drive. Immediately it was beter, almost zero hesitation at tip in, a lot easier and smoother to drive around town. I drive about 500 miles like this as the weather cools off. I notice a little more backfiring through the exhaust (which I kinda enjoy), and maybe a tiny bit through the carbs first thing in the morning. However, I also start to notice the occasional lean miss on the highway. Going along at steady throttle, I get a pop and clearly a misfire, and the car continues along. Also, at startup after sitting, occassionally I'd get bad bucking.

So I think I have a clogged idle jet as Dells are prone to get...but first I back off the mixture about a 1/12th turn. Surprisingly this still has good hesitation characterisitics, but SEEMS to mostly have fixed the 'clogged idle jets' symptoms of bucking and lean misses. So, my questions are:

1. Am I/was I fouling plugs by running too rich (I was running cooler too)?
2. Is the CB performance Jet doctor kit worth $30 (what the heck does it do, whats in it?)
3. Yes, I know I need a better ignition, and God forbid I don't have a Bosch coil. But $500 for the Mallory dizzy + coil + resistor is more than I want to drop right now.

I'm not convinced the problem has gone away, as the 'teener is parked for the winter right now with a crankcase full of oil syrup. So I'm just left to wonder about problems like this for the winter.

Appreciate the help,
Dave

They are cold blooded. Nothing you can do about that without some kind of choke or a hand throttle set up...

My Dells run great. A good resourse is Art Thrane in Salt Lake City. His website is ACE or AirCooled Engineering. He does mostly bug stuff but he is a friend of Jake Raby.
My opinion is that distributor has to go. Call Jake and get it all set up with the right advance for your car...

Dave,
I am running the CB jet doctor kit on my Dell 40's and it seems to have improved the performance. Although I also changed a couple of other things at the same time so I can't be positive. I am also running an 050 that has been curved for my car and I love it. I too didn't have the funds for the Mallory. Don't dump the 050, I think the important part is to get the 050 curved for our cars. When I did that it woke my engine up significantly! That's a good project to do during the winter. I also prefer to run points because I had too many problems with electronic ignition.

Steve,

What is included int he Jet Doc kit? Is it just a modified idle jet design?

Also, how did you recurve your 050? I know there are some variations among 050 curves out there, but did you rework the advance curve yourself?

Appreciate the input.