914 engine troubles

[MARCANNEKE]

Hi there,

My 914 2.0L engine and gearbox are giving me sleepless nights.
One day, the engine wouldn't start at all. Starter crancks, but nobody home.
After doing a complete engine rebuild except for the heads, same results.
After more then a year i took it to a specialised shop, where they found the cause of the problem: the wire connecting the tacho to the coil that had a shortcircuit. once removed, the engine started, but now smoke from much to rich mixture is nearly killing the people inside the shop. changed the ignition to electronic, replaced the plugs and installed a new fuel pressure regulator, but same result.
Anyone for a solution or hint on this topic? the shop considered, giving that the bill already exceeds 1200$, and more hours to go without a garanty that the problem would be solved, to go for a switch to dual webers. In that scenario they are sure that the CO will be acceptable and no more EFI.
Is this a good idae? anyone with experience in this matter?
Furthermore a trange thing happened to the gearbox. at one time it fell to the floor from a low altitude. Visualy there seemed no damage to it, but now I have 5 gears reverse and one gear forward!
Any ideas why this happened and how should I fix it?

My 914 is now more then 2 Years immobilised by its problems, so I would be most gratefull if someone could help me.


Thanks in advance for Your reply's,

Marc
Zele
Belgium

[Cairo94507]

Hi Marc - I would suggest you post over on 914World.com regarding your car and issues. That site is very active and you will get answers. Cheers, Michael

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Switching to carbs is generally viewed as a backwards step. But there are people who really very much prefer them. My personal opinion is that those people just don't want to understand D-Jetronic EFI and want to deal with a system they are more comfortable with.

Switching to carbs will give similar power, more noise (which makes some people think there's more power), worse emissions, worse fuel economy, and very often fuel odors in and around the car. There are also many ways to change over, and they tend to have different issues.

I would suggest you find a shop that knows this type of EFI and has sources for parts and information. I don't know of any offhand in Belgium, but Arno Weinands in the Netherlands seems to have a reasonable handle on 914s.

As for the transmission, someone replaced yours with a 911 transmission. Either that, or a 914 transmission was built with the ring and pinion in the 911 location, rather than with the ring gear on the other side as it is in a 914. Just dropping the transmission won't move the ring gear like that, no matter what height.

--DD

[930cabman]

Originally Posted by Dave at Pelican Parts

Switching to carbs is generally viewed as a backwards step. But there are people who really very much prefer them. My personal opinion is that those people just don't want to understand D-Jetronic EFI and want to deal with a system they are more comfortable with.

Switching to carbs will give similar power, more noise (which makes some people think there's more power), worse emissions, worse fuel economy, and very often fuel odors in and around the car. There are also many ways to change over, and they tend to have different issues.

I would suggest you find a shop that knows this type of EFI and has sources for parts and information. I don't know of any offhand in Belgium, but Arno Weinands in the Netherlands seems to have a reasonable handle on 914s.

As for the transmission, someone replaced yours with a 911 transmission. Either that, or a 914 transmission was built with the ring and pinion in the 911 location, rather than with the ring gear on the other side as it is in a 914. Just dropping the transmission won't move the ring gear like that, no matter what height.

--DD

I have switched to Webers on several Porsche models and Alfa models, never looked back. When new the Bosch FI was unbeatable for a stock machine. After 50+ years not so much