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The time leading up to the holidays provided a chance to run my completed 2.0L 4-cyl engine. Originally, this engine came about as the future power plant for my 1971 4-cyl car which remains un-restored to date.

The engine had been sitting for a while and per advice of several of my 914 mentors it was time to fire it up. Total run time on this engine was under 15 minutes till this point.

We decided to take off the sheet metal and vent ducting to gain better access to plugs, valve covers and head studs. Our intent was to get the engine warm throughout and then perform a valve adjustment  as well as re-torque the heads. Wes of H&H who built the engine recommended these two actions at this point.

The engine came to life immediately; no hesitation. While it is a subject of some debate, I do like the exhaust note of the Bursch muffler on this 4-cyl quite a bit.

Besides checking the oil level before we ran the engine, we checked the oil pressure with a gauge to ensure that the high melling pump was operating as it should. Oil pressure was great, and underneath the valve covers there would be a fine film of oil over all the rocker arms and a small puddle by each tube after the run.

One thing we quickly noted was the alternator belt was wobbling quite a bit. After checking the fan in a lathe, it became apparant it was not perfectly circular which caused the wobble. With so much attention to counter-weight balancing the crankshaft with pushrods it made no sense to have this rotating mass out of balance. Rich dug deep in one of the caves and returned with an early fan which was very circular.

There are so many nice parts on this engine!

• 2.0L Type-4 based on GA case
• NEW dual 44 IDF Webers with steel cross bar linkage from CB Performance
• Intake manifold heads matched to ports of heads
• Highly modified heads with enlarged stainless steel valves (48×38 mm) with new hardened seats suited for unleaded gas, dual H/D valve spring set, bronze/silicon valve guides, flycut heads, un-shroud the intake valves.
• Raceware head stud kit
• Elephant feet valve adjusters
• 156 dual valve springs
• Chromoly 3/8″ pushrods
• Crane XR700 electronic ignition, Crane PS 20 coil

• Bosch 022 905 205 AA VA 1.8L distributor
• Melling high-volume oil pump
• Lightened flywheel (11 lbs)
• 2.0L core crank shaft, counterweighted and balanced, main and rod polishing
• Mahle EURO spec 2.0L piston/cylinder set, match weighted and balanced
• European Racing “H” (.488L/286D) cam shaft
• Modified oil breather box
• 8.5:1 compression ratio
• Stainless steel heat exchangers and refurbished heat system components
• Bursch tuned muffler

We added some 30 minutes of run time this Christmas – the engine is now back in the corner, waiting to be used at some point. It is such a nice engine and I can’t believe the amount of thoughts and work that has gone into it.

Thank you, Rich & Wes!