Should carbs be a show-stopper for my 914 search?, How bad are they really? Options

[BigDBass]

In my apparently endless search for the right 914, I've come upon decent candidates which I then discover have been carburated. I've basically treated that as "nothing to see here, move along", but.... what if one finds what is otherwise almost the ideal match in condition, price, color, original parts, location, except for lacking stock fuel injection?

References usually say just that it's an expensive proposition to convert back to if you manage to acquire the necessary parts. How difficult and expensive is this? What all is involved?

[lapuwali]

QUOTE (SGB @ Mar 23 2006, 02:58 PM)

QUOTE (lapuwali @ Mar 23 2006, 05:32 PM) (1) You have to completely disassemble the engine to change the cam, and few people do so because of the expense involved (2) A carb swap on an otherwise stock engine shows a lack of patience or sense (3) Count on doing things like replacing all of the suspension bushings, all of the wheel bearings, rebuilding brake calipers, etc.  These are all things that are commonly ignored by people on the minimum maintainance schedule. 1) true 2) a carb swap on a properly prepared engine shows just the opposite. 3) This is prolly true for any car. I've got carbs with the right linkage, cam, manifolds, headers and exhaust. It is rock solid dependable, economical, and powerful too.

Agreed, and I left unspoken that carbs (plural) on a non-stock engine simply show the guy preferred carbs. No problem with that.

On the "prolly true of any car", I say, "not necessarily". My '71 came to me with a crappy single progressive Weber, which ran like crap. However, the wheel bearings, suspension bushings, tie-rods, etc. had all been replaced recently. The PPO (the guy I bought it from had only had it for 18 months before a 912 caught his eye), had gone through the car and done quite a few things "correctly". Even though it was a '71, it had a later passenger seat that had adjustable seat rails nicely welded in, and a later backpad to match. It had been repainted with a middling paintjob. Basically, the PPO had treated the car well. The only thing the PO did was to remove the perfectly working D-Jet because he thought the wiring harness "seemed brittle", and stuck on that crappy Weber.

The car was fortunate I got the car away from this guy, before he did any more damage.