1974 914 1.8, the mystery of the EC-A and EC-B Options

[wonkipop]

i'll be dropping the information we have gathered over Dec 2021 in with a set of posts.

the material was prompted by mr b ( @JeffBowlsby ) who observed that for the 74 MY there was an EC-A and an EC-B engine. mr b's thought was that the EC-A was a 49 states car and and EC-B was a californian car for emissions.

mr b's view was rational and reasoned. 73 EA engines are 49 states. 73 EB engines are california. 75 engines are documented in factory literature as EC-a (49 states) and EC-b (california). the logic should follow?

BUT

as per the mystery of the 914, the truth about 74 1.8s turns out stranger than fiction (or common sense?).

the material is not necessary to running a 1.8 or having fun with a 14. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

its for historical purposes and as information to 74 1.8 owners to assist with restoration if they want it.

[Van B]

Well, it may be inductive reasoning, but given the stack of records I have, I doubt my copy is a replacement. In other words, I am confident that when the orig owner took delivery, this was the book.

As far as the other aspects you mentioned. I’ll probably live the rest of my life not knowing the answer lol!

[wonkipop]

Well, it may be inductive reasoning, but given the stack of records I have, I doubt my copy is a replacement. In other words, I am confident that when the orig owner took delivery, this was the book.

As far as the other aspects you mentioned. I’ll probably live the rest of my life not knowing the answer lol!

thats right @Van B .
it is inductive reasoning on my part based on what evidence we have.
thats all it is. its about as close as you can get based on what we popped up.

but......we did get the evidence - more than anyone has been able to collect before-hand.

at least we are no longer dealing with previous assertions and non factory diagrams that assert the engine bay can cars had the same plumbing as earlier model year and 74 cars with frunk cans. we know something happened and we know it was changed. and i pretty much pinpointed that production date when the frunk cans change to engine bay cans. i'm 99% on that one with the examples i found that got within 8 karmann numbers of each other. so that is very reasonably reliable info. and we know the emissions warranty changes from one edition to another over that same time period.
so none of the reasoning is out of whack.

your car is in the smudgy territory in between that lasts a month or two where it becomes an administrative act in the sales chain as to how the warranties are actually included with the car.

as to why its got an oct dated edition warranty with a post Nov 20 engine bay layout i can only guess at some explanations. i tend to think its explanation 1 which is its the warranty that came with the car and because we don't know how and when warranties were included, it is open to the possibility that an older warranty is included with a newer car. i include the other explanation because thats also true 50 years on.
we have people restoring cars and seeking documents missing from the car they have restored. thats why emissions warranties are for sale on ebay. we now know as a result of this research thats a fraught exercise for a 74 MY car, because there were at least three of these warranties throughout the model year and those three different warranties apply to different variations of the car. its all tricky stuff. but at minimum the conversation has now been moved past the blanket assertion that there was one way only that the hoses were hooked up and anything else is wrong. that notion can now be refuted.

it would have been nice to have someone volunteer a 75 emissions warranty.
its pretty clear from engine bay photos of original cars that the battery tray mount cans were hooked up in a way that matched the 74 engine bay cars as well.

i think the big area of interest is for owners of 74 2.0 L models.
i'm not sure its ever been raised before but it does look extremely likely to me there is one hook up for the earlier 74 2.0L with the frunk can and another for the later 74 2.0L with the engine bay can. thats a matter for those with an interest in restoring 74 2.0L and a bit of information they need to resolve.

if you were not a member of this website we probably wouldn't even know there was an Oct edition of that warranty! we probably still would all be going around in circles.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) at least we got to something that approaches logic and filled in the big gaps in explaining things.

in the end i am in the same position as you. i know the emissions warranty i have came with the car and i know the hoses in the layout they were in was also original. i've owned it since 89 and am the second owner. so its nice to finally know i was right about the car and those telling me the hoses were incorrectly plumbed were straight out wrong.
or suggestions that the emissions warranty was a misprint were a little off the mark.
its amazing after 50 years since the cars were made that this bit of detail seems to have slipped past people and been forgotten and lost.