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Hello all! For about a year now I've been trying to determine the cause of my hard-running (read: no go) situation in my '73 Fastback project (you could see a picture of it at vwtype3.org, but Greg M. must not like me or must be very busy as he hasn't posted either of the two pics I've sent over the past 2 years)...this is the car I bought for $300 about 2 years ago and have been restoring to be my daily driver...up until 2 months ago everything but the engine was in great shape. I then dropped the engine, cleaned and inspected it, but couldn't find an obvious cause to the problem. After repainting engine tin, removing a mouse home from the top of cylinders 3 & 4, etc.etc.etc. I found a VW repair shop near my place in VA that acceped the challenge. Well, I picked up the car, running great, from the place yesterday. The problems were as follows: - the air intake shroud, the one with the timing sticker on it, is incorrect for '73 and must have come from an earlier car. I was setting the time to this sticker. The shop checked the serial number of the ignition computer and the distributor, and determined that the timing is different. - my points were a little crusty, so they replaced those. - two of my spark plug wires had high resistances, so they replaced those. - the fuel pressure was a low, so given that I'm running a header they increased the pressure to just a bit above the stock setting. - the cold start valve was leaking (my plugs were carbon-fouled), so they disabled that system - several of the valves were tight, several were loose, so they adjusted the valves - checked my compression (130psi in all cylinders when cold) The car still surges a tiny bit when idling...the guy said he could make it run like it was off the showroom floor with new injectors and a new pressure sensor, but that it runs well enough now that the expenditure isn't necessary. Anyway, I typically like to do my own work (I did everything else to this car - replaced the front beam, replaced all fenders, restored the engine, reupolstered the seats, prepped the car for painting, etc.), but I was at wits end with this problem. Anyway, getting this car on the road was a long ordeal...but several members of this list helped along the way (i.e. Jim A. and many others). Just wanted to say THANKS for all the advice! I'm now happy I kept the Fuel Injection! I'll let everyone know how many MPG I'm getting when I finish with this tank-full. Thanks again, -Doug 73 Fastback ------------------------------------------------------------------- List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list or mailto:help@vwtype3.org