performance engine parts vendors, noob strikes again. Options

[slackin' at work]

Im fairly well versed in the type1 world but am finding it much harder to find type4 vendors for performance parts.

Yes, I know about jake but his prices are silly.

anywhere else I can browse an online performance catalog?

[Cap'n Krusty]

OK. The wholesale vendors with which I deal, and most of the other well known retail vendors, can no longer get decent quality 90mm and 93mm piston/cylinder sets ....... They're gone. Jake has AA 93mm sets, I think, but I don't know how good they are. Other AA vendors don't answer my e-mails, so I can't tell you what they have. Main and rod bearings are gone, for the most part. Cam bearings are spotty. I've waited 3 months for a set of standard rod bearings for a 2 litre, and it took a month to find a first under set, along with std. and 1st under mains. I've taken apart 5 engines to get 2 good cases, ones that don't need align boring and that aren't spread in the center web or have a beat out thrust (again, bearings are in short supply). BTW, in all the time I've building 914s, I think I've seen ONE other case that couldn't be reused without an align bore. Most stock valves are NLA, except for 2 the litre engines. New rod nuts are occasionally in short supply, although they seem to appear just after you need 'em! MPSs are essentially NLA, as are throttle switches. Webers are real pricey, and Dellortos are NLA.

I took these 2 engines in without first checking parts availability, and they've been here way too long, and the prices have escalated immensely, what with needing cases and such. Looks like my 35 year run of building 914 motors is about to end.