hitbyastick

Allright again with the 914 stuff. After numerous changes in parts I still have no solved my problem. Timing is set, Fuel pressure is set, MSD box works fine, petronix works fine, changed wiring harness, changed vacuum lines, changed injector seals, cleaned injectors/throttle body, new injection boots, condensor, fuel filter, air filter, relay board resoldered. sparl plugs, wires, cap, rotor.

The car seems to have no power, although under hard acceleration it does rather well. It won't hold a speed. It start bogging when I try to, unless the rpm is way up. It still does it, but not very noticable. Off the line if I hold the throttle at 2K rpm and let the clutch out slowly, it'll almost stall due to lack of power.

Right now I'm off to partsheaven to get temp sensor II, thermotime switch and such just so I can pretend everything in the ignition/injection system has been changed or serviced.

Anybody want to give me some pointers? This is my daily driver and I need it to be in tip top shape. The warmer the car gets the worse these problems get. It also will not idle when it's hot. It climbs to 1200rpm and then idles down to almost stalling and then comes back up. Then all of a sudden it will idle fine for a little while and then start to mess up again.

I also measured the resitances on the Manifold Pressure Sensor and the TPS, as well as the injectors and they are all normal, according to the article in the rennlist tech area.

Olav A.

Sounds like your not using all you cylinders.

skl

From some of my exploring over at 914club.com there is a fellow I believe named Brad Anders (or something like that) who is a real wiz with fuel injection. You may try over there. I finally gave up on EFI and put on Webers, but did have the engine apart so I could change the cam to make it run better with carbs. It also looks so much cleaner with carbs- there is a BIG debate about carbs vs EFI. If the injection works ok it's great, but 30+ year old connections aren't always the best are they?

hitbyastick

Olav,
I pulled off the injector wires individually and there is a significant difference. It does run on all 4, but not very well apparently.

Also, I noticed if I crank the fuel pressure way above normal, (that is ~30 psi) the car runs better.

skl

30psi is NORMAL for the 914's EFI- that's why they were such a fire hazard if a line came lose. One did come lose on mine when it was sitting in Porsche Park at Elkhart Lake back in the early 70's. I tried to start it and it wouldn't start and smelled like a gas station. Popped the engine lid and it was spraying gas all over!! Thank God no one was smoking nearby. Right after I bought a fire extinguisher and ALWAYS carry one in every car.

hitbyastick

If I take the hose that goes from the throttle body to the distributor vacuum advance, and leave it connected to the vac. pod, and then suck on it (maybe I should let my girlfriend do that), should there be a resistance? It's just like sucking air or something like that. No resistance at all, and it doesn't build up one bit.
Also, at TDC for cylinder one, the mark on the distributor housing doesn't line up with the rotor. In fact, the rotor is already past this mark. Therefor I believe my timing is totally out of whack.

Thanks for the info guys. I'll get this sucker going!

hitbyastick

I think I figured it out. No vac advance, even when hooked to a vac pump. Also the wire that goes from the plate to the stationary base of the distributor is not attached. And to top it all off the internals of the distributor are cutting in the casing, and there's a distinve groove. Awesome.

I'll pick one up from parts heaven and see if it's in better shape. This better fix it!

davidc

Did you fix the distributor/vacuum problem?

hitbyastick

Yes I just got that done. One small problem remains. When I set the fuel pressure to it's normal setting the car doesn't idle very well still and has no driving power. When I turn up the fuel pressure, everything is better. Do you think one or more injectors are very clogged?

cobalt

Did you check the injector contacts in the distributor? I had problems with mine having a carbon build up and after cleaning them the car ran much better.

hitbyastick

The injection trigger points are new.

I turned up the fuel pressure, for ****s and giggles so to speak, and then I got in the car to drive it. As soon as I get on the throttle and let the clutch out it starts bogging and dying. If I manage to keep it running and drive it in gear, it sounds like it's running on two cylinders and will not accelerate.

cobalt

Have you checked your rocker arms? Does the car sputter and backfire? A friend of mine had something like this and we changed everything. Could not get it to work. So we had a spare 2.0L engine we had rebuilt and decided to swap it out.

When we took the old engine apart we had noticed that a single exhaust rocker arm was sticking in a slightly open position. Apparently the oil had burned on the rocker arm shaft and caused the arm to stick open.

A real long shot but you may try poping the valve covers and checking the valve adjustment. But before adjusting each valve back out the valve adjusting screw all the way and see if the rocker arm moves freely. You may have a stuck exhaust valve or something.

Just a thought, good luck.

hitbyastick

I changed my fuel filter again today and there was this NASTY rust stuff dissolved in gasoline. Stained my hands and the ground and it's sticky like glue. It's strangs because I just changed the fuel filter a few weeks ago, when the car was still running nomally.
The change of filter didn't do anything. What did I damage? Valve sticking due to gluey liquids being injected? Fuel injector stuck (I just cleaned them, and when I rev it up high the car runs fairly smooth and such)? Anything else?
I haven't popped the valve covers yet. I just got notice that I'm not allowed to work on my car in the parking lot anymore (bastards).

Ron_H

I just wandered in here, and what do I know....but it sounds to me like you have some false air entering the induction system somewhere. Well, I'll go back under my rock and hide again.

cobalt

No place to work makes it very difficult.

If you are getting that much crud in your fuel that may be your problem. Sounds like you may need to flush the tank. When I restored mine I found so much rust and crap in the tank. I had to remove the tank and cleaned it out several times and the crud just kept on coming out. You may have clogged your injectors in the process. have you checked to see how they are working. Do they atomize the fuel or does it just pee out in a stream? Or is adequate fuel even flowing. This may be why when you crank up the pressure it appears to be working better. Forcing fuel through the clogged injectors and too much fuel through the ones that are OK.

Being that your car was running not to long ago I would discount my earlier thread and save that as a last resort. It sounds like fuel delivery problem or as Ron_H said false air entering the induction. One other possibility is the brain but they rarely fail unless moisture gets into the electronics.

In any case if you need I have gas tanks and good brains available. I would be happy to send you a 2.0L brain if it comes down to that just to see if it makes a difference.

I would start with a drain and full cleaning of the tank. You will probably need to bench test the injectors. Goop coming out of the fuel filter cannot be a good thing. BTW be careful.

It has been a while but I will look through the workshop manuals and see if I can find some of the info regarding testing and cleaning etc. If I can I will make copies and can send them to you. It may help or not but never hurts to have the info.

Fuel injection issues can be a real PITA. I spent a year diagnosing a problem on an SC. I found a half dozen vacuum leaks and still no improvement. In the end it ended up being the brand new MSDS ignition I had installed was defective and didn't die until about 500 miles of usage. I discounted it as being a problem because it was new. So much time wasted.