VW 411 Rescue part 3: Can we save it? 

I hope so! I love my 411 so much and hope to see others return to the road. There are so few 411s around! Gosh, that brown is perfect, too. I have a soft spot for brown cars. I keep saying my next car's gonna be a brown Cayenne towpig for more projects, more racing and more fun. My 411 needed a floor repair, too, but otherwise it's solid! (Extra solid, given that there's a roll cage in it for 24 Hours of Lemons racing.) I admit mine has a 1.8L from a 914 in the back and we ditched the points distributor long ago, but it didn't have its original engine anyway and heck, I might as well go for that whopping 0.1 extra liter of displacement (among a few other lil' reliability upgrades Porsche made to the Type 4). I have a 944, too, coincidentally. Both great cars for vastly different reasons. The 411 is a whole chill vibe. The one Achilles' heel on my 411 is that dang central-mounted carb. It's fine. It works, sort of. I have a dumb progressive Holley 5200 that runs too rich and fuels unevenly no matter how much I tweak it. I've been told a dual-carb setup is the better way to go there, but YMMV and definitely let me know if you have a carb on there that works better than my dumb 5200. Even a carb rebuild couldn't help it. The engine is great-gosh, I love how modular the aircooleds are-and the vacuum system is easy enough to hunt down leaks on. It's the carb that's been 95% of my woes. I can't find jets for that carb small enough to swap to if I wanted to, say, go up in elevation. I'd love to convert it to fuel injection eventually, but eh, these motors are happy enough running rich not to kill the engine in the meantime. I just foul spark plugs a lot faster, that's all. Ha. Anyway, this is definitely worth saving and fixing up. I'm subscribed here to see how it goes, and see what all else you're doing to make it run! Knowing a lot of 914 people has been a huge help with the 411, not gonna lie, so hopefully you'll have an easier time given the other, other car in your garage. This DOES sound like the timing's off. I remember that uneven trying-to-start noise all too well. New rubbery bits help a ton, too-both vacuum lines and wires. Nothing's been too expensive as far as the drivetrain goes, and it's all worth it to have a rare car back on the road. The automatic isn't /that/ complicated-we're just big stupids and accidentally left some tape on when we put the engine swap in the first time. Ouch. I don't recommend gumming up the transmission with painter's tape! Good thing we had a spare on hand, I guess. Swapped the fluid, cleaned it up, and it's been running well ever since. It's shared with a few other more common VWs-IIRC, the Type 3 and Karmann-Ghia. Should be easier to source if you nuke it. Part of me wants a manual swap, but part of me is just like, chill, man. The whole car is chill. Oh, and the stock ground clearance is a trip! I took mine on the Gambler 500 out in Big Bend-I got it as a Lemons car anyway, so let's have some fun-and tackled a few 4x4 trails better than some of the 4x4s despite the front overhang. Good ol' Nasenbär-pick the right line and you're fine. You'll definitely want to keep some taller regular jackstands around if you need to do a quick fix sans the big floor jack, though. I love this car too, too much. It's pretty much awesome in every way. Mine's a stinky boi when it's running-and was a super smoky one until it ran well-so unless there's really, really good ventilation, I'd open that garage door just in case, too. Good luck!

I‘m amazed that you thought you could make money on this vehicle that you saved from the wrecker. It has to be a labour of love. If you had put in the hundreds of hours needed you could have put together a real showpiece.

We had an English car, where EVERYTHING was basically O.K., too - and THAT didn't like starting, either. When the MECHANICAL parts are functioning, I thing it could need a new COIL, which pumps the electric charge up, from merely being 12 volts, from the battery. Try replacing the coil. After so long, it could probably do with it anyway!

Unless you are planning on building a Jack Raby style Type 4 engine for the VW 411, I wouldn’t spend a dime on that car unless you plan on making it an outrageous sleeper.

Well worth saving! You have to get it running it’s the right thing to do. Bit like working through a letter box though! Keep at it