I've mostly been driving my new VW golf TDI but whenever I drive my
164 it makes me happy in a way that a shiny new car that gets 45mpg,
is quiet at 85mph and such just can't. But, for a *long* time I've
been fighting with my 164 over a couple of small problems.

It wants to ping at moderate to high loads and in hot weather. This
isn't such a big deal but it's always bugged me. Also, it always seems
to be a tad lean, at least judging from the spark plugs. It would also
buck at low speed cruising in 2nd gear. I always attributed this to
the slightly mismatched piston return springs. When I got correct for
this year and carburetor springs, the car ran much worse (super lean)
and I noticed that the springs in the carbs were much longer and
stiffer than the "blue" zenith stromberg springs it is suppose to have.

I was at a grocery store recently and I noticed that the dimensions
of a spiral notebook's spring were about the same as those of the
springs in my car already. On a whim, I bought two of them and tore
out the paper and put the springs into my carbs. They're matched and
a tad stiffer than the springs in the carbs already.

After topping the carbs off with zenith stromberg damper fluid I took
the car out for a spin -- it ran slightly better and after backing the
timing off a tad it didn't ping anymore (it's about 95 degrees or hotter
so this is good weather for testing for pinging and there's a steep hill
right next to where I live so all the better).

A quick check of the plugs indicated that it isn't running as lean
any longer either. The motor itself is a B30A with an unknown compression
ratio B30F head (FI ports blocked off).

And for the record, I was never able to get the car to run half as
well with SU HF6 carbs.

Ironiclly, I may be selling blue just to free up the space for my
new station wagon...
chris