How to Hot Rod Air-Cooled VW Motors, Is Bill Fisher's book the only one? Options

[Charles Deutsch]

I am exploring the idea of building my own big displacement Type IV motor but there doesn't seem to be any books available on this subject. I have Bill Fisher's book, "How to Hot Rod Volkswagen Engines", but it is pretty poor, IMO. Anyone know of any other books on this subject?

[Air_Cooled_Nut]

What I would like to do would be to buy all of the parts for a well thought out 2270 cc motor for about $3200 (the price of a GEX turn-key motor) and just save the labor by assembling the motor myself. $6000 is too rich for my blood.

DO NOT buy from GEX!!!!! I cannot stress this enough!!! Their engines are a crap shoot at best. Poor quality, wrong parts used, used parts labeled as new, out-of-spec tolerances, etc. I currently have a good friend's VW Fastback sitting in my side yard because his 'stock rebuild' GEX engine (less than 5,000 miles on it) has a #3/#4 head heat problem that is throwing his valve gapping waaaay out of spec every time the engine gets to operating temp. Two cracks leading from the spark plug hole to the exhaust seat. Wrong washers used under the head stud nuts. Case savers backing out of the case. Possible valves stretching. Type I head instead of a Type III head (T3 heads have a boss for a temp sender for the fuel injection). We pulled the head in my driveway to see what was wrong and this is just on one side. Me and my girlfriend ended up driving him back home to Santa Rosa (we're both off work, wanted to see San Fran., so what the heck (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ) and when he moves up to Oregon he'll pick it up (if I let him...the pan is in BEAUTIFUL condition (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif) )

If anyone buys from GEX then I will personally stand in front of them, point my finger at them, and giggle while I tell you, "I told you so" while their engine sits useless in their engine bay. Yeah, they are real bastards -- good luck getting your money back from them. Nobody I know has succeeded because it's virtually impossible to prove them wrong.

I would trust a blind, one-armed chimpanzee to build me a motor over GEX.