By the end of July, 2007 I had accumulated the majority of the heavy pieces I needed to build a motor. Most of the other pieces will either get swaped over from the 1.7 or purchased new. You might think I had already decided on how to proceed with the build, but I really had'nt...

1) I could get a 2056 kit from Jake Raby for $3,735. http://www.aircooledtechnology.com/store/home.php?cat=308
Even with the kit I needed the carbs, distributor and case I acquired. I could sell what remained here on 914world and probably come out okay. Jake's kit is a good deal for those confident enough to assemble it. You get a proven product, and lots of new parts. I just hate working on cars. I love driving them, but my experience with working on them is that even if they were broken they ended up working better before I worked on them than after. The thought of cc'ing heads or setting deck height just makes me sweat. So on to plan "B."

2) McMark offers a turn key $5,000 Raby designed motor.
http://www.914club.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=42456
Mark is a good guy. I saw one of the engines he was building when I bought my 914, and the workmanship looked to be first rate. Almost all of the parts I had acquired so far would be needed for the build, and Mark could install the finished engine as well. At this point, however, I was not sure I wanted to go with Raby design. I had $500 invested in a pair of very clean 2.0 liter rebuilt heads, and those heads had (oh my god!) sodium filled valves in them. Did I really want to spend more money to switch them over to stainless steel? I read HPBooks "How to Rebuild Your Voldswagen Air-Cooled Engine" by Tom Wilson. He recomended hydralic lifters for Type 4 engines (and sodium filled valves as well). It got me thinking. Hydralic lifters are stable to around 6,000 RPM, what's not to like?

3) The third alternative was to hire the work out to various machine shops, mechanics, engine builders, etc. and hope for the best. There is more risk in this alternative, because if you order the wrong combination of parts and the thing blows up on you, you have no one but yourself to blame. The upside is that you get to research and investigate how to build the best engine for YOUR application and only you are responsible for the result, even if you didn't bolt it together.