I live in asheville north carolina and own a 1973 914 1.7L. I have had the worst problems and cant seem to get it running right. When I first bought the car the man said he had the engine rebuilt and I realized he knew nothing about the 914 and he never got it running correctly again after the rebuild. So I have it now and I'm still having problems, First off it kept getting gas in the oil, after much tests i figured out it was the pressure sensorand replaced it. Now I am still having problems. Here it is, It doesn't idle to well but pretty god most times, and when you try and give it hard gas it misses a little at first but not bad till you get to about 3000rpm and then it seems it has no power just the sound of the engine and takes a long time to start speeding up in the higher rpm range, through out the rpm range it kinda spits and sputters the higher you go the worse it gets ,but around 2500 to 4000 its the worst. It has a petronix ingitor on it instead of points, I've tried switching back and forth from points to the ignitor and back, to no avail ,I did a valve adjustment checked it twice and check fuel pressure and compression all great! changed plugs, wires ,rotor, cap. Put on all new vacuum lines ( no leaks) , pressure sensor (mps) and head temp sensor!

Do you have any other suggestions, ideas or anything?

Thanks , Andrew Konopka

Check my other thread too!

I was exactly where you are when I first bought mine....Its D-Jet I assume yes?

Some things to think about:

- What is the fuel pressure

- What color are the plugs

- Do you have a sense of what the mixture is like right now: Running rich, lean?

1. Kinda sounds like it possibly could be a throttle position sensor. Check this by turning the ignition on without starting the car, hitting the throttle and listening for your injectors clicking. This will be a pretty obvious 'yes or no' because the injectors are surprisingly loud. I would just check this first because it's quick and easy, but I really think that it's a timing issue.

2. This is purely a hunch, but given that the guy didn't know anything about 914s.... I would check the valves again, but this time make sure they're timed correctly with the crank AND the distributor. Again, just a gut feeling, but it sounds possible that something is out of time internally within the engine.

It just sounds like you have the three elements needed for combustion(air, fuel, and spark) but you don't have that last, very important element needed to make an engine run well: timing. It sounds like something is WAY out of time... like the engine is actually fighting itself. Does it vibrate like hell? If so, I'd suspect a cam. Seen it before with a Lycoming IO-540 who's cam was 55 degrees out of time. Scary shit. If it doesn't vibrate, I'd say distributor.... Maybe this is way out there, because it's late and I'm really tired. But it's worth looking into. Hope that helps.
Mark D.

I thinks she running rich, Black plugs and tail pipe also fuel pressure is set at 30 psi

I'll check the valve even though I re did them, how can I tell there line up with the crank also the injectors click there 20 times

The vibration it does vibrate a bit but seems normal I' ve had a 914 before like a year ago but got hit, go it running and it seems about the same , but how can i tell

Did you address the timing? Start from scratch and verify it is correct - distributor, crank, and valves? still running rich, check the FI system components.

Check all your D-Jet components to ensure compatibility. Over the years owner's swap components for different systems thinking they are the same since the "look" the same. Check all the part numbers and go here Brad Anders D-Jet Site to make sure you have the right stuff for your engine.

Since it never ran right after the rebuild according to the PO I would get real methodical and make sure everything is right externally. After that you will know it is inside the motor.

Let us know what you find out about the timing and components

Jim

Sorry, I was REALLY tired last night and my post didn't make a whole lot of sense. It really sounds like a timing issue to me, so go back and make sure everything is hooked up correctly in the ignition system and that the plug wires are on the right terminals (seen it before). Once that's verified, the first thing I would do is check the timing. Get an advance timing light and find out exactly where it's running.
To ensure that the valves are roughly timed with the crank, rotate it to top dead center on cylinder 1 according to the timing mark on the fan. Then ensure that both valves on #1 are fully closed. You can also look at the distributor rotor to see if it's roughly rotated to fire cylinder 1. Then I would just go backwards a quarter turn of the distributor to cylinder 2, do the same checks, and repeat for the other two.
I kinda doubt it's a cam thinking about it now, but like I say, I was tired last night. I would also clean your plugs, put them back in and see if they blacken up again (if you haven't already done so). It could be from an old issue that has been resolved. Black plugs could also be caused by unburned fuel from late ignition, so you may be fighting more than one problem here.
I agree with Roadster Fan that you should go all the way back and start from scratch. The first thing I always try to recommend is make damn sure everything is hooked up correctly. Hope that made more sense.
Mark D.

Yeah, you kinda got to start from ground zero, learn the FI system and hopefully it doesn't take too long to find the issue.

Mine was a combination of some vacuum leaks, gummed up FI components, off timing, and then its was running way too lean. Once I learned how everything worked and read about a million posts in the archives it came together. Fuel mixture gives a lot of clues.

Hey dudes I wanna thanks you alot this problems been haunting me for a few months now, but I haven't had alot of time to address it! Did find out yesterday my tps only making 18 clicks instead of 20, its now brand new and I'm going to reset it today, maybe. I starting it all out one thing at a time! Thanks, Andrew
I'm sure I'll figure it out sometime!

Could the running rich be caused by the CHT sensor? Disconnect it's wire and measure resistance to engine case. Should be 3500 ohms for cold engine.

Brad Anders site says 2900 ohms at room temp 61 degrees, 200 ohms at 210 degrees. One thing at a time and you will get it, keep it up!

Jim