loss of power uphill

shorty10 · 01-20-2004, 05:08 PM

hey guys i have a 73 1.7 914 with 110,000 miles on it the engine was rebuilt at 106,000 miles the cars power is great and when im going 65 or 70 on a straight road its good (in 5th gear) and when i start going up a hill it will start to slow down if not stay the constant speed even with the peddel all the way down but since it has 85 88 hp (cant remember) its problably normal

elwood-914 · 01-20-2004, 05:30 PM

Hi Shorty,

I live up in the foothills and it pulls just fine. Are you RPM's going down also or is it racing (clutch slip?) Stock FI?

shorty10 · 01-20-2004, 07:51 PM

well if my speed is going down then i guess my rpm would do the same . its still stock FI and i really dont think the clutch is slipping

Scrappy · 01-20-2004, 08:07 PM

It would be nice if your had a temp guage (no matter how inaccurate they may be) in the car. Pulling a hill will heat the engine up real good and you will experience a loss of power when it gets on the roasty side. Generally, it will come back after the engine cools.

I haven't seen a stock 14 yet that is a real "barnstormer" when it comes to pulling hills in 5th.

mikey · 01-21-2004, 09:58 AM

Drop it down into 4th!

M. Hendrix · 01-21-2004, 04:54 PM

If you aren't on level ground, don't be in 5th, at least under 90 mph, lvl ground, 75.

M

shorty10 · 01-21-2004, 05:09 PM

went to fourth helped a little but didnt go any faster

maybe my next car should be a 911 68' forest green black leather mmmmm

thanks to all

philinjax · 01-21-2004, 05:18 PM

Maybe your distributor centrifigal advance is sticking. Do you get any ignition pinging?

Phil

Bob Bischoff · 01-21-2004, 05:32 PM

This will cure that problem.

M. Hendrix · 01-21-2004, 07:21 PM

There was a 427 BB 914 that worked fine for hill climbing.

M

M. Hendrix · 01-21-2004, 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by shorty10
went to fourth helped a little but didnt go any faster

maybe my next car should be a 911 68' forest green black leather mmmmm

thanks to all

So, what's the tach read when you get to the hill, and where was it when you felt the need to downshift?

M

shorty10 · 01-21-2004, 08:11 PM

on level ground 60 in 4th 4,100 rpm hit 5th at 4,600 going up hill got to 70 mph in 5th at 4,000 rpm and the tach just went down as soon at i was going uphill sure i can down shif into 4th and the tach rpm will be around or over 5,000 (not good for the car) and so it seems that when im driving on a long hilly stretch the car speeds up going downhill and really slows down going up hill damn feels like i'm driving a beat up 68 bug ill drive it again soon and get an actual rpm reading the above was a good guess pretty sure its right though

norustscott · norustscott's Garage

... but you gain all the power back when you go down the hill.

shorty10 · 01-22-2004, 09:41 AM

lol

M. Hendrix · 01-22-2004, 03:22 PM

I think you should not have up shifted.

5000 is fine for your car, not for an hour up a hill, but 4500 is beautiful.

M

SGB · SGB's Garage

I agree with Miles. A stock configuration is mighty durable. I rev to 52 or 5300 for brief blasts. The motor sounds beter than it ever has at low RPMs running at those revolutions. Mine sounds like a Cessna. Aren't the valves supposed to "float" at higher RPM? How high? My car is sluggish under 3000 RPM, but spins up faster as revs climb. I know it's touched 5400 during spirited shiftting. I really think I could run at 4500 for long periods. When I lived in Germany, people always reved their cars as high as they could get 'em to on the autobahn. I had a 4 speed BMW that I ran really high revs on without issue. When I drove the Army Vanagon to Stuttgart for meetings, I kept the pedel on the floor. That was just he way it worked, y'know...