Help with non-firing cylinder problem

[usd jd01]

I need some help with my '70 914. To start, the car has been carbureted with a 2.6L 4-cylinder engine with hydraulic values. (The motor was built more than 10 years ago, with 0 miles on it until I put about 6,000 on it in the last year and a half.)

The #1 cylinder is not firing (if I remove the distributor wire for the #1 cylinder from the distributor cap there is spark, but NO change in engine performance.) The spark plug is brand new.

When I removed the air filters from the carbs, there is gas being injected into the barrels. But, the barrel for the #1 cylinder shoots a gas/oxygen mixture back up (like a directed mist); and that same barrel makes a "gasping" sound, and there are small backfires that occur.

Are my values not opening and closing at the correct times? Or is there something else going on?
Any help with this problem is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Ty Carss
San Diego, CA

[John Rogers]

I'd recommend pulling the valve cover and checking valve action. Sounds like the valves are not opening correctly or maybe not closing all the way which can ahppen if one of the hydraulic lifters has failed.