I've had my cam on order since Nov. It should have been shipped within 2 weeks. Still waiting
I ordered the heads a little later should have been here around Christmas...Still waiting
I decided to go with the Alum clutch was told it would ship last Monday. Just got off the phone and was told it will ship today. Still waiting.

I left the cylinders with the machinist (to be shortened) before Christmas. He isn't returning phone calls..Still waiting.

Just a quick rant. I feel better now.....no not really. The AX season is coming up quickly and I want this engine together

It would seem to me that barring a few major exceptions, the people that support our hobby as their day job are a fairly lackadaisical. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it can become quite irksome at times. The only way to guarantee that your stuff gets done in a timely manor is to do it your self or, when that is not a viable option, a cash incentive usually does wonders.

I agree with Dan, waiting and passed deadlines come with the territory as there are always things that come up whether it be a more urgent project for a high profile client or creative hours because something else more interesting or lucrative has come up for a week or two.

VW engines just don't get the respect they used to.

As a former shop owner I know where you guys are coming from and agree with you 100%. As an owner you have to deal with a lot of unknown quantities, parts on back order, sub-contractors just to name a few. I always tried to keep the customer advised of any unseen delays. I felt the shop's reputation was the most valuable advertisement I could get. The bottom line for me was the bottom line. You don't get paid til the job is done.
Ken...

Nice thing is you found somone to buy your shop who maintains your legacy of service to his customers. That's why I'm a repeat customer. Being a busy guy I lke being able to drop car off and have my projects managed by some one who gets things accomplished as committed.

I don't underestimate value a good shop brings me. Knowledge and vendor choice from well run shop have saved me weeks that I will gladly write a check.

But having said that I d love to have time to build my own motor like Bill.

Not really. The guy doing the cam and heads charged my credit card immediately.

On the positive side, it's given me time to make a deep sump dish and extension for the oil pump. I've had time to do some suspension mods for Mike and have started working on headlight covers for Grant. Now it's time to do some more work on throttle linkage.

Thanks for letting me rant.

AND.... let me say, Bill has done a fantastic job with my mods (all went in smoother than OEM parts). Let me not forget to mention that the work was done EXACTLY when he said it would.

Thanks, Bill.

PS.... I know what it's like to wait (did you see my movie? that was filmed because I had nothing else to do but wait....)

These are all VW/Porsche people. The guy doing the heads/cam is the same guy I bought the pistons/cylinders and rods from. He is a VW type 1 and T4 guy. The machinist owns his own 914 with a 2.5L 4. He's the guy that does Greg's machine work for the buggy.

It took half a year to get my heads done. I need to get some stuff done for this season and I hope it gets done on time. If I ran my company like some of these shops and would be unemployed.

I have always had good luck with head work done in a reasonable time etc from FAT Performance in Orange, CA. My order for head repair (weld cracks, new valves, guides, springs, and valve job), new crank, cam, etc was done in two weeks. The only holdup was the 3 week wait for J&E pistons.

John

Yes FAT has good turnaround times in my experience. They built two engines for my 914 and both were 3 weeks to build including head work (crack repair, P&P, new seats, guides, double valve springs etc.) I really enjoyed the second motor that they built for me, 2056cc with all the goodies and a really healthy cam.

Albert,

I'll have an house machinist soon (same guy who developed our Nissan Grand-Am engines) I have begged him to look over our T4 stuff. He does head work fast..



B

90% of the vendors take all their vacations between Nov. and Dec. I managed to get about HALF of what I needed to get done in the month of Dec. Most of these vendors are one man shows or maybe a couple of people at most.

I know I get overwhelmed..


B

RIMCO gets my machine work done pretty quickly. Bill who are you waiting on?

My clutch just arrived, minutes ago!! Now I can see about getting things balanced. On another note, I went by to see my machinist and found that he has been out of town on a family emergency. OK, I can live with that. happens, stuff out of his control. At least with the clutch here, I can get something done.

I just picked up the crank/flywheel/ clutch/fan from being balanced. Looks like they had to remove a fair amount of material to get things balanced. Makes me a little nervous, these items shouldn't have been that far out. The receipt say: " 14.2 grams out" It looks to be mostly from the flywheel and clutch.

My machinist is back from his family emergency. Cylinders should be done soon.....LOL

I'd like to get the cam so I could do a quick assemble and check deck hts and degree in the cam at the samed time: Still Waiting.

The cranks are usually within spec. But once the flywheel and PP goes on it can get that far out.

thanks Blake, that's good to know.

I just got an email from the cam/head guy. The cam should ship today or tomorrow and the heads should ship in 2 weeks. It seems there is a problem with the cam gear and he's having to get another from a different supplier.

That sucks. But you should at least be ready by PCA AX season.

The cam finally showed up today!!! yes! Now I can put the case together and degree it in......if only I can get the cylinders back so I can locate TDC.. Machinist hasn't been answering/returning phone calls.... Well, at least I can put the case together and be ready to check the cam

The saga continues. Saw a buggy guy Sunday at the AX that recommended the machinist. He said the machinist has had company for the last week or so and should be back to work this week. I've been out of town and just got back yesterday. Started calling and still no response. I went by the shop today and my guy hasn't been around for weeks. The guy that owns the property says he will let me in to get my parts. Now the question is do I retrieve my parts and send them off to get machined and wait the 2 weeks for sure or take a chance that my local guy will show up and finish the work within the next 2 weeks. I'm getting pissed

Yeah, I think you're right. No I haven't paid for anything in advance. By taking my parts and sending them off, I'm pretty much giving up on having the car ready for the first LPR AX on Mar 7th. I hate to give up, but I also hate to rush putting an engine together. I'm still waiting for the heads too, no telling when they are going to show up. Seems like they were promised to be shipped by tomorrow, Friday!!

A little update:

I sent off the cylinders and gto them back in about 10 days!! Way better than my local guy ever did.

This time last week the head guy said they would ship on Monday (2/22). Today, after inquiring the status, I told they can ship next week if I will accept some porosity in the weld areas. I told him no, that I wanted it done right. That means I have no idea when they will be ready.

I also found this morning that my local machinist after decking the case twice never got it right!!!!! Now the case has to come apart and be re-machined again. This may then require new cylinders. Not sure. the more material they take off the higher my CR goes!

I'm so fuchin pissed right now I can't see straight.

Jane suggested that I get the old engine ready to go and run that and take my time with the new one. I've been looking forward to the new one, going back to the old one seems like a waste of time.

What did the machinist do wrong on the decking? If he machined too much off you can use thicker base gaskets to shim up the cylinders.
Ken...

Your reliable and trouble free back up car is still avialable.

While he does more /6 work than /4, I have always gotten both quality and timely machine work done by Ted Robinson at German Precision.

He didn't machine them square. A straight edge placed across the tops of the cylinders (or the case) rocks between .005 and .010". there's no way the heads would seal with that much out of flat.

I called Jay this afternoon and will take the case by tomorrow or Monday.

Thanks Grant. It's funny, the more I drive the Boxster the more I want the 2366 in the 914! It's fun having some power to play with.

I've got the case from Jay and so far things are looking pretty good.

The big news is that my heads may ship on Monday! I knew if I got the car together and back on the road with the 1911, parts would start to show up. I'm trying to control my excitement.

Decking cases requires a very well set-up mill, and a good machinist. I have one mill that is dedicated to decking cases and flycutting heads. I keep the quil trammeled to .00005"/4". I also dress my own carbide blanks in a fixture using a diamond grinding wheel. I have a heavy fixture that stays bolted to the mill table that allows me to torque the case halfs down. Techinique is critical as well if consistent heights are to be maintained.

You can't just slap a case on any old mill and expect it to come out right. It's a very unforgiving operation.

When I started, I told the machinist to just bore the case out to accept the larger cylinders and leave the deck alone. He just couldn't resist and did me a favor of decking while he was all set up.