I just put a 1970 1800E on the road two weeks ago. I replaced the cracked exhaust manifold. The engine was missing( or bucking) frequently under 3000 rpm and occassional backfire at high rpm when gas was let off. Replaced manifold with used one off parts car. I sand blasted it and painted it with 1200 degree black paint which turned an ashen gray when I started it up and it all burned off.

Because the cracked manifold and backfiring suggested a lean mixture I replaced all fuel injector seals and torqued the manifold nuts to about 20 ft lbs. with the new manifold gasket. The car runs much better once warmed up.(It still stalls twice when started cold. But no high RPM back fire and much smoother under 3000 rpm. Occassional slight hesitation as I depress gas pedal probably due to wear on throttle switch which I cleaned.

After driving home from work tonight I popped teh hood and the exhaust manifold near the head pipe was glowing a brick red color. It looked like a cast iron wood stove on a cold winter's night. The oil temp wire behind the head pipe was melted when I got the car. I splice in new wire and its melted again. Is this normal for a 20E? I hear they run a little on the lean side. I have owned numeous 122s, a P 1800 with SUs, a 140 with Strombergs, a FI 240 and 2 740 Turbo Wagons. Not even the hot running Turbo cars have turned the manifold this red. Is there a way to enrich the fuel mixture or is it automatically regulated by the Bosch computer? I think I recall IPD selling modified computors with a dashboard knob to enrich the mixture. Are these still available?

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Craig Robinson
Monson, MA