Tracking the 914 - Need some street love too..., Turning this into a regular thing... Options

[infraredcalvin]

1st track day in the bag with the new 914, no decent pics yet (there was a photog in attendants, but haven’t seen his pics yet). Car rand great and although running with much newer machinery she was holding her own once her driver brushed off the cobwebs... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

Since this was essentially her first shakedown I found a number of little things I need to address, one in particular I’m questioning:

After a few laps I noticed - mainly on a flat sweeper turn, when entering hard on brakes and trailing off while turning in I’d get a soft groan from my outside wheel (drivers in this case). I’m thinking wheel bearing? I’ve never had one go bad on the front spindle before, so I’ve never heard or felt the slight vibration before. Never really occurred on any other turns.... thoughts?

[infraredcalvin]

Gotta pin down front of hood. PO put spacers at the rear of hood, prob to let all this air out from the nose...sheesh it’s like a parachute! I now know why the factory has 4 pins on the nose (mine only has 2 just behind the light buckets).

[stownsen914]

Gotta pin down front of hood. PO put spacers at the rear of hood, prob to let all this air out from the nose...sheesh it’s like a parachute!

Wow. You may want to consider looking into different methods of exhausting air from the front trunk area. It's tempting to use the rear of the front trunk, but it's not ideal as it's a high pressure area (being immediately in front of the windshield). In fact, air may be flowing IN there instead of out. This might explain the hood popping up like in the pic - the air is working overtime to get out.

[stownsen914]

On the engine tune, AFRs around 10 is way rich. For sure you need to go leaner. Idle jets barely matter on track, drop the mains another couple sizes and see where that gets you.

Someone mentioned air correctors. You don't mention what size those are, but they're important too. Air correctors affect top end more than mid range. If the rich running starts like 5000 RPM and up, consider swapping air correctors (keeping in mind that the effect is opposite that of the other jets, so go larger to go leaner). If you're rich throughout the RPM range, stick to adjusting the main jets first.

Missing that much hp makes me wonder if something is fundamentally wrong. Timing is a good place to look. Make sure total advance is in the range you want, like low 30s for single plug or mid/upper 20s for twin plug. Or a major restriction on intake or exhaust. I assume you have the usual PMO style carb filters? On the exhaust, it would have to be a cork to kill 50 hp though. What do you have?