Lifter fund- Over budget!, Help a serious cause! Options

[Jake Raby]

Okay guys....
Before we can go to another level with the lifter/cam testing its gonna take some contributions from some generous enthusiasts. We don't need any big contributions at all, even if I could get a dollar from everyone that we know needs these lifters from various forums that I visit it would probably be enough to finish up the testing and get the developments made. I know thousands of people are building or will be building these engines and they would all benefit from this testing and development. The one thing about the VW ? Porsche world that I have always been impressed with is our brotherhood and ability to help each other whether thats on the side of the road , despite the severity. Consider this as helping your brother off the side of the road before his engine dies!

I have spent 12,000 bucks of my own money (not including what the since July trying to get these issues resolved and thus far have seen some very odd trends as well as some barriers that we just can't get past without even more money needing to be spent on parts.

I originally thought that I would never be working on this for this long! We figured that no more than 3 months would be needed or no more than about 4-5 thousand bucks would be needed to get a solid answer.

We have even more tests planned and there is light at the end of the tunnel and finally we started seeing some positive results.

I never thought this would take this long or be this expensive. I don't have an unlimited budget and the cam/lifter manufacturers won't send us any more freebies (never got many in the first place).

I hate to give up at this point and I really refuse to, but its just hurting the wallet badly and taking away from other developments so much that I can't go further.

My goal is to create a cam and lifter arrangement that can be installed in any engine with the same integrity that was previously available with the Old Johnson lifters. In those days we could bolt any engine together with any spring tension, not even break the cam and lifters in any special way and get a guaranteed 100K+ miles from it. Even though we have worked through to the point where serious failures are not happening right away, we still are seeing too much wear and every time an engine is fired up the first time its like Russian Roulette!

Off the shelf, Web Cam and their lifters are still the best bet. Not perfect at this point but the best available.

I am not going to be happy until we get this resolved. Any help you can give us would be appreciated by the entire Type IV industry.

Our paypal address is info@massivetype4.com

(thats the corrected one I edited the addy)

I'll keep giving my time, but just can't keep spending money on cams and lifters.

[Jake Raby]

This isn't a solicitation!

It was actually an idea given to me buy a customer that added extra money on his invoice just to help fund the lifter research- Thats what gave me the idea. In the past I have had guys randomly send me money to buy dyno fuel for cooling system testing...

As for selling lifters beforehand:

Thats bad Karma. I only sell something once its all proven! What happens if I can't get the lifter issue worked out??? A few guys may be out a few bucks but atleast I don't have to caugh up thousands of bucks for a product I can't deliver.

Many times when a company does something like that they end up rushing through things half assed to get the orders filled...

There is nothing worse than a part or engine that is pre-paid...... As soon as its paid for guys lose their patience and thats no fun when everything HAS to be time consuming to do it right with these engines.

This way its simple.. If you want to help, help... If not don't worry about it.

I just got through swapping lifters in the cam spintron and if I was charging someone for this they would be broke!

To tell the truth- If it wasn't for ceramic lifters I would be totally out of business since there is nothing out there right now that will live as long as I advertise my engines to last except a ceramic.....

And to think that we are really the only engine shop that is even using them....... I have heard of shops losing 50 engines in one year! Hell in 2004 we only built 36 engines!
Lotta guys taking big risks everyday and don't even know it when they buy some mass produced engine from someone that don't give a damn..