Being that it looks like I will end up pulling my motor for the repair of an oil leak I am thinking it might be a good time to go ahead and do a rebuild. My question is: Is there a good resource that will list all of the commonly replaced parts required to do it correctly and references to a good machine shop who can do the heads and do whatever might be necessary on the cases, crank and or cam?

No 1 ...Get Jake Raby's video.

No. 2 Decide what you want to change if anything...

There are a lot of opinions on this board [and others] about the best parts to use. I have come the conclusion that you should use as many of the original [or oem]parts as possible less the cam and lifters. Apparently even the pistons are no longer made in Germany but if you can preserve your original cylinders Jake can supply you with a good rebuild including pistons. I would advise doing this and regret I didn't. I am taking a chance with afternarket pistons and cylinders. I am getting a new cam , cam sprocket and Type 1 oil pump from Jake.

Have the heads rebuilt. You have some good machine shops in CA..the group can help locate one. Have tha case checked for alighnment, the rods rebuilt and the crank checked before you order any bearings so you will know what size you will require.

You will need an engine gasket set and take a look at your clutch, TO bearing and pressure plate for wear. Pelican is a good source for these. Consider a re bush of your shifter assemply all the way back to the tranny. Replace all of your FI fuel lines as a matter of course and this is also a good time to check all of the injectors and have them cleaned and balanced.

Check the thru bolts and studs but the originals on mine are good so I am keepiing them. Just be sure to clean all of the threads before assembly . Jake covers all of the details in the video.



Hope this helps

Another good source of info is Tom Wilson's "How to Rebuild Your Volkswagen Air-Cooled Engine". He even addresses 914s specifically!

There's one very confusing bit in his book, though. It's about timing the cam gear to the crank gear--the same paragraph talks about both Type I and Type IV, which use rather different procedures. Apart from that, he has a lot of very good info about what "needs" to be replaced and how everything gets done. Even the machining!

Rimco http://www.rimcovw.com does good work. Headflow Masters (used to be http://www.audiracvw.com or http://www.audiracvws.com but now those don't come up for me) has also been recommended by Jake in the past. He uses someone else now, and recommends them.

--DD