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I've posted this on the FI as well:

I have been struggling with the '76 914 from hell for a while now. After rebuilding the engine and going over everything many times to get rid of a horrible miss above 2800 rpm,I finally changed out the ECU (which all my info says "rarely if ever" goes bad,so just re-check everything else again before even daring to think about touching that box!). Today I pulled a used 1.8cc 914 unit I had on the shelf and plugged it in and It roared to life (of course). But how concerned should I be about using the correct ECU for the 2.0 setup?
The number for the original non-working 2.0 box is 0 280 000 052
The number for the 1.8 box that works is 0 280 000 037
Thanks, David G.
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The replacement one is NOT a 1.8 ECU, for which you should be thankful. The 1.8 has L-jet EFI, not D-jet. I am told that swapping around D-jet and L-jet components can lead to "letting the magic smoke out" of some of the expensive parts...

The ECU you swapped in is the 73-only 1.7/2.0 ECU. It would need several 73 parts to work "right", but it should at least work on a 76 2.0. It would be best to get a 75-76 2.0 ECU.

Sounds like you have found your problem, though. Just goes to show you, "rarely go bad" is not the same as "never go bad".

--DD

Thanks DD!
I had this box labeled wrong, so I got lucky finding a 2.0 version. After all I've done with this car, i would have to say I earned a lucky break!
Thanks again, David G.

you should be also using the 037 MPS with that ECU to set the mix right.

It is also 100% possible that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the ECU you took out.
D-jet connectors are notoriously known to cause connectivity issues. Its very common that just unplugging and plugging the connector causes a radical change in cinnectivity and resistance.

Considering the fact that you may have some items in your system now (because of year) that should be ill matched to teh ECU and MPS you have,,,,and yet it runs. I would check the entire harness, ground system and all connectors. Ray