What can I do with a 1.7 for more power?

[VIPRKLR]

My last post was not worded very well... I am about to buy a $500 914 and I am thinking of building up the 1.7 until I get all the info / parts to do my 3.0 swap. I did search on 1.7 but nothing really addressed the point of performance mods...

Is the 1.7 dependable? Build-able? TIA

[paulhagedorn]

You can basically do anything you want to a 1.7L motor...but it costs money. All of the cases are the same for the motors 1.7, 1.8, 2.0. You can swap the internals of any motor into any of the others, but then you have to watch out for the heads, etc.
The 1.8 motor is actually the weaker of the three types of engines. The most powerful motors are the '73 and '74 2.0 motors, excluding the six cylinder 2.0. If you want to get any more power out of these motors, you basically have to take them apart and first start at swapping the cam.
Just putting carbs on the engines doesn't do much...and can actually cause a drop in horsepower because the cam isn't set up to work with the carbs.
How much power do you want.
And as far as reliability, the engines are pretty solid until you start doing wild modifications. Hell, I had a 1.7 run for a year on 3 cylinders because i had a dropped valve seat. It made for an interesting camshaft when I finally took it apart.

Any more questions, and I am sure we can answer them, especially DD. If you want, you can go to www.all914.com and find more info about the cars as well as www.dgi.net/914

HTH,
Paul

[DDS]

Hopefully it is a '73 so you get the side-shifter and better window mechanism.

www.aircooledtechnology.com

That will get the though process flowing, and may surprise you! From my limited understanding of the discussion I've seen on this BBS, the 1.8 is at a better core motor than 1.7 because of the bigger valves and thicker cylinder walls (can be bored to 96mm more reliably) It was the later years' emissions gear that made the motor less powerful in stock form. If you have a 1.7 (therefore '73 op earlier) you are smog exempt even in Cal, no?
I've been told that with Cam, carbs and higher CR, an otherwise stock 1.7 will run with a stock 2.0 more or less.
There are many many discussion threads covering the degrees of tuning possible with the humble 914 block. Try searching on 'more power'...
Buy a wrecked 2.4 911, and start swapping and spending...


[This message has been edited by DDS (edited 04-28-2001).]

[DF]

Head work...Web cam....If you use carbs you have to have the carb cam or you will lose power. Don't expect quite 2.0 power but it should run fine. If it's a 73 leave the injection on unless it's all in bad shape. 96mm pistons are the way to go with 2.0oem cylinders matched to fit.