Soon after that April drive, the trouble began. The teener wouldn't develop any power at all, sounded like hell and was just generally unhappy. This was really frustrating for me as I had just gotten so many things straightened out and was looking forward to a summer of cruising. I was already collecting parts to go back to the AFC injection in place of the carbs. Another racer/mechanic friend of mine lent me a truck and trailer to take it out to his place in Montgomery County, MD, where he would check it out. He did, and diagnosed a wiped cam. Since then I've sold the old shortblock to a friend in Silver Spring who broke it down and found no such problem, so I'm wondering if it wasn't as I was told. I'm much wiser to 914 wiles now and may have found a bad fuel pump, dirty carbs, line blockage--something other than catastrophic engine failure. Oh well, live and learn. At that point I decided to drop out the 1.8L and swap in a 2.0L. I found a allegedly low-mileage '75 in Gaithersburg, MD, which I purchased for $600 and brought to the house where the teener was. Desperate times call for desperate measures (and borrowed 1987 Dodge Ram pickup trucks...I have bonded with that thing, pictured above, after repeatedly hauling the 914 and its assorted debris). It was the beginning of a long stay for Feurig.
A side note about all this--I met my girlfriend over a valve adjust in my apartment parking lot. I was adjusting, starting up, shutting down, setting timing in hopes of finding my lost power...generally making a racket. My soon-to-be toolwench was out gardening by her apartment across the street from mine and couldn't see the teener over the Buick next to me. Curiousity got the best of her and she came over to see what the intriguing noise was. There I was, smudged with grease, and she came around the corner--a vision in overalls and muddy gloves. "Hi," I said. "Oh my god...IT'S A 914!" she said. The car has a weird sort of presence for us, and we named him Feurig, German for "spunky," if I recall correctly. The rest is history...
