Q – I have a fuel-injected 1974 Porsche 914 which I have owned for about 15 years. It has not been driven for the last 5 or 6 years. When I stopped driving it, it ran OK but blew a lot of black smoke and didn’t have a lot of power. I wonder what you recommend to get it out, make it reliable, and enjoy it this summer. –Pete
A – Getting a forty year old car that has been stored for years to fire up and perform reliably can be challenging, especially when it is a fuel injected air-cooled classic like your 914. Let’s start by getting the relic running. You might be thinking, why not put a fresh battery in it, fire it up and hit the road? Well for one thing, the oil may have turned to Jell-O by now and in the time since you parked it there is a good chance that moisture (even just from humidity) has crept into one or two of the cylinders. The fuel has likely turned into varnish and the rubber fuel lines which run back and forth from the tank to the engine may have the structural integrity of Gummi Worms. So hold on and think this through. If you don’t have a fire extinguisher, now is time to get one. If you plan to do it yourself, here’s the drill.
Get a flash light, not a lighter, and remove the gas cap. Peer down into the fuel tank and see if there is any liquid left in it and note what color it is. If you are in luck, the tank will be empty and clean. If not, the fuel will be brown like dark beer and you will need to drain the tank. Once the tank is empty, try bending some of the fuel hoses. If bending a hose 90 degrees causes it to break, you will need to replace the fuel hoses. F.Y.I.: There are two types of metric hose, smooth-textured or braided, that are suitable for fuel injection systems. Standard U.S. fuel hose will not do. If you have to, it is fairly easy to remove the tank and replace the hoses. My general rule of thumb is that 20 year-old rubber should not be relied upon.
Now would be a good time to check for rust in the tank, too! Rust is a killer, and any metal surface can rust just from exposure to the moisture in normal air, over twenty years’ time. If you’re taking the tank out anyway, you should at least consider sending the tank out to have it acid-boiled and coated. This process is not usually very expensive, and can save you a lot of time, money, and cursing trying to get the injectors cleaned out every few weeks when they clog up with fine metal particles. Fuel filters, fuel distributors…all can be filled with lacquer or rust, but the tank is the usual source of the rust that will tend to fill the system.
Before you even turn the key to crank the engine, drain the oil, remove the oil strainer, replace the oil filter, clean and reinstall the strainer and add three quarts of cheap oil. Why cheap oil? Because you won’t be leaving the oil in for long so why waste money on the good stuff? Once you do get it running, I would add motor flush to the cheap oil, follow the directions, and then do another oil change provided the motor passes the next test.
Next pull the spark plugs and look around inside the shrouds with a strong flashlight and a dental mirror. You might just find a mouse house. How do I know there is a mouse house? Clairvoyant, I guess, but take a look and be ready to find one. Even if there is one in there, it should not stop you from trying to get it running again. You can always clean it out later, and you will eventually need to because it can cause overheating by blocking air circulation around the cooling fins of the cylinders and the oil cooler! Before you try to start the engine, you need to get some oil circulating through the engine bearings and coating the walls of the cylinders. Add about two tablespoons of oil to each spark plug hole to prepare for cranking the engine over. You can use an oil can, turkey baster or small funnel and a section of hose. This will lubricate the rings, and help clean any light corrosion off of the walls of the cylinders. This is crucial to achieving good compression, not to mention avoiding expensive damage by abrasion!
Next, find the fuel pump relay and pull it out so no power goes to the pump. Then you want to prevent a spark as you crank it. Disconnect the points wire from the ignition coil. This is the wire from the distributor to the coil, usually green if the points were made by Bosch. Then connect the battery positive cable first, then the negative cable. Now try cranking the engine over. It should crank a bit slowly at first, due to friction, and begin to turn over faster and faster as the oil lubricates the rings and bearings. As you are cranking it over, note the oil pressure warning light. It should go out after 10 to 30 seconds of cranking which means that you have oil flowing again and you can stop cranking. You can then plug the points wire back in since it is time for spark testing.
This can shock you! If you have a pacemaker, let someone else perform this test. Unplug the coil wire from the distributor cap. With an insulated holding device, hold the wire terminal close to a ground, roughly 1/8 inch away, and have your assistant crank the engine. If you see a bright blue spark, you are almost there! It you don’t, open the book and start checking the basics. But, hope springs eternal, we will assume you have spark. Plug the wire back into the distributor cap. Now you can reinstall the plugs and try to fire it up.
If you have fuel hoses that look like they might hold, and you have good fuel in the tank, you can now put the fuel pump relay back in. Give the key a twist, it may take a few seconds of cranking to prime the fuel injection loop but if you are lucky, it might fire up. Make sure that you have the garage door open and alert your better half since it is going to smoke…a lot due to that oil you squirted into the cylinders. After a few minutes of running, it should smoke less and run better.
The next system to tackle is the brakes. If it runs, it better be able to stop. I’ll be going into further detail in a follow-up article, but you definitely need to be sure the system is in some sort of working order before you plan on driving the car any significant distance. Some of the things which you should expect to do now or in the near future would include new rubber components for the brake system such as hoses, caliper seals, master cylinder (my namesake!), and feed hoses from the brake reservoir to the master cylinder. The same rules that apply to 20 year-old fuel hoses also apply to brake hoses. There is a good chance that most are original, and therefore may be older than your children!
Before test driving the car you need to evaluate the brakes. How does the pedal feel? Is it hard, soft, or can you push it all the way to the floor? When you release the brake pedal, does it return normally? Cars that sit around tend to get stiff in places you might not notice immediately, such as the pedal cluster bushings, shafts, and springs. Jack the car up and have your assistant push on the brakes as you rotate the wheels. Naturally, the wheels should stop but just as important is their ability to release when you stop pressing the pedal. If the wheels won’t turn after you release the pedal, only a short trip around the block will be possible, if that! Often cars that are pulled out of storage will have a remarkably solid brake pedal due to sticking brakes. One hard stop from 60 mph will cause them to get harder and harder but barely stop the car. For that reason, you shouldn’t make your first test drive a fast one…neighborhood cruising is a good way to evaluate such things, and safer than a highway shake-down to start with.
So for this installment, if your luck holds, you will have the car running again and after a “pre-flight” check list, you may be ready for a trip around the block. Next time, we will talk about tires, bearings, steering and suspension. MC