New Engine Builder, who would you use? Options

[RFoulds]

Who is out there that can reliably build and warranty a completely new 2270?

Preferable near me in SoCal..

[Van914]

Jake,
Thanks for sharing your knowledge on our engines.
Wishing you continued success

we build many 914 engines here but only stock fuel injected versions
jake does a good job on the high performance ones

One of his more recent FB posts Jake was stepping away from custom type IV engine direct orders and just build what he wants and then will release them through LN Eng. to handle the distribution, paperwork and customer contact when and if they become available.


"No more direct human interaction for me. I am moving to my final engine, one displacement, one stage, and one proven result. All will be the same, and I’ll build one when I want to. No more orders, no more timelines. No more budgets. No more opinions, comments or telephones and messages. No more groups, forums, or bullshit!"
"I sold the T4 Store to LN Engineering in 2012. They will now sell my engines, in the very limited quantities that they will be built."

This is true. I tagged the line for aircooled engines last September. I am now completing the final “built to order” T4 engine this month. After it I have one more 993 engine to build, which is my 4.1L spec, making 440HP. Plans are in place to build my favorite combinations and have them be sold without wait lists, and without prior commitments through LN Engineering as a retail sale. LN will provide all after sales support, and will handle all of the admin. They took overe the Type 4 Store a decade ago, and that worked out extremely well.
As the engines are built, I will take hundreds of photos of the core engine, all machining, head prep, flow bench work and shoot multiple videos of the process as well. I will do a ton of work during assembly so I don’t have to fool around with direct user interface afterward. My full instructions for supporting components, service intervals, first start preparation, and etc will accompany every engine. There’s no reason for anyone to talk to me with this level of information, and detail put into the build.

Do not expect to see any engines offered until mid- 2023. I’m tasking a lot of time off after the transition is completed. I’ll build 1-2 engines per month between T4s and aircooled 911, mixed with my R- Series engines for the 996/997/991 platforms.

After all these years I realized that I never started this business to be a business person. I started this business to build engines my way, and answer to no one. The past two years have really soured my outlook on exchanges with humans, and I realized that the chef never meets those who devour what he creates. People don’t think any less of that chef if they don’t get to meet or talk to him, right????

I will be able to focus on development and building more than ever after the phone lines, and email addresses are forwarded to LN. I belong in the shop, not on the phone, or answering questions in emails. We have a trained staff to do that, and its time that I do whatever the hell I want to do.
I wanted to just flat out retire, but too many people still depend on me to offer them employment, and they’ve been here for over 2 decades. I had to do this to retain my sanity. Purchasers have become damn near impossible to please, and these purchases are emotionally driven to the point that waiting for over a year for an engine tears people apart. Now if you can hit the “buy button” fast enough you can have my engine in a week, for the first time ever. I won’t allow pre- sales, or lists because I don’t want a clock or a calendar to impact my life any longer. We have not been late with an engine since covid began, and that has taken extreme focus and effort.
I was determined to finish all work on time, and my final built to order engine will be done 1 month early. Find that anywhere else today.

Realistically building to order today is a disaster, because you never know what part you promise to use, that you can’t get. Building the engines I want, and selling them once completed means that this element of variability is removed completely.

No engine of mine will be given to LN to sell until it is 100% completed, dyno tested, and crated for shipment. I don’t even want to know thew purchaser’s name. I’ll slap a label on it, and fire it away. My General Manager, Jud will be going to work at LN at the end of the year, and he will handle these sales, and support… That way he knows all the purchasers over the last decade personally, and can support what we’ve built without me.

I just want to be left alone.

You guys will see new stuff rolling out soon… It will be good, and you’ll like it. You may not see my name mentioned, but you’ll know that I was the guy that developed it.
Here’s a sample.. The first plug from our new molds for a complete set of carbon fiber 914/4 engine tin.. No more fighting with rotted tin that is bent and twisted. A true bolt on set. Its not being done in CF for looks, but more so the tin can be shaped exactly like the factory tin. I plan to do them in clear resin, kevlar, virgin CF and plain old black.

[thomasotten]

A few years ago, a friend of mine who is an old timer VW type 4 builder took on a 914 engine to build for someone. A few weeks into it, I get a call from the car owner wanting me to finish his motor. I said, so what happened? "He (my builder friend) told me to come pick up my sh*t" (meaning the car and a disassembled engine) and get it out of here". "He said you might be able to help me". Not liking the idea of building an engine I did not disassemble, I was more than a little hesitant. I did a little investigation, called my friend, and found out more details of why this deal went bad. "Non stop calls, texts and emails". The builder was bombarded with questions, and things the Millennial type of guy read on the forums, and "hey can we do this?", and it just led this old timer over the wall. At the time, I thought, man this was not cool. You are leaving this 914er with a basket full up parts and it is very likely to leave one more 914 perpetually in the non operational camp. I offered to step in, but I don't think the guy liked my fee, which was padded a bit because, as I said, I hate building what someone took apart - you always will be missing something. So that's how it ended for me. It's now been several years, but that episode stuck with me. Having done more work on other people's cars over the years, I can empathize more (although I still think it was a bad thing to do). But there is something to be said about boundaries. We now live in this age where, just because people can easily contact you with text messages, etc, they don't shy at all away from doing so. And if you don't respond immediately it's like you get another damn text. I'm still an email kind of guy. Because it give the recipients a chance to think before responding. For every thought, you get a text, where email could at least consolidate items. Email can be abused too, of course, but it seems to me that the era of constant communication has a lot to do with the behavior of entitlement, of lack of consideration for the other person. Someone said something about about listening just enough to respond. Yeah, I think that's part of it too.

[bkrantz]

That reminds me of a sign that I used to see in many shops. It went something like:

Shop Rates
$50 per hour
$70 per hour if you watch
$100 per hour if you help


Now we can add
$150 per hour if you text

[DaveB]

... Our man Jeff here does nothing larger than 2100

@dr914 George - Just curious, do you think there a market for performance builds on the T4 engines? Or are there just too few of us air cooled folks to support this added power.

DaveB

[Sea Rooster]

Any of you familiar with Brothers in Ontario, California? I've heard good things about their work.

www.brothersvwmachineshop.com

[914werke]

... Our man Jeff here does nothing larger than 2100

@dr914 George - Just curious, do you think there a market for performance builds on the T4 engines? Or are there just too few of us air cooled folks to support this added power. DaveB

Not to reply for George but IMO too many variables. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)
Some years ago Jake & McMark (remember him) teamed up to offer a cookie cutter engine service ($5K engine) with some tailored & uprated components.
Was moderately successful but I do recall there were supposedly as many positive as negative experiences mostly due to buyers desires, expectations & abilities.

[mepstein]

... Our man Jeff here does nothing larger than 2100

@dr914 George - Just curious, do you think there a market for performance builds on the T4 engines? Or are there just too few of us air cooled folks to support this added power. DaveB

Not to reply for George but IMO too many variables. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)
Some years ago Jake & McMark (remember him) teamed up to offer a cookie cutter engine service ($5K engine) with some tailored & uprated components.
Was moderately successful but I do recall there were supposedly as many positive as negative experiences mostly due to buyers desires, expectations & abilities.

Too few people wanting the product and too little profit for the time and effort involved.

[Superhawk996]

Too many people that think it's simple to hot rod motors.

The miracles of modern engines have a whole lot of people thinking that it's normal to crank out 400 HP and that it's magically going to happen for a 50 year old, air cooled, T4 motor!

And then they expect a warranty when the builder has no control over what sort of (IMG:style_emoticons/default/bootyshake.gif) clown will be over revving the motor on the 1st drive with it and then turn around and want the damage covered on "warranty".

Just stop and think for a moment, how many people you know or indirectly know that have bought something at a store, used it for their purpose, and then turned around and returned it to the store for a refund even though the product worked fine? They just expected the store to suck up that loss. Immoral.

Now imagine same type of customer wants you to rebuild an engine and warranty it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Any wonder T4 builders are hard to come by?

[930cabman]

Being in small business for many years and having dealt with many idiots, I can say with confidence: "not every customer is a good customer"

Most recently when I interview a potential customer and if I am unable to gather a sense of rapport, I simply inform them we are too busy, or the work is out of our scope.

I have fired many customers and have not looked back for a second. There is a satisfaction in receiving a sincere "thank you" from a satisfied customer

There are many takers out there looking for the best of the best for the least of the least, I let them go elsewhere

[Jake Raby]

As far as demand goes, there's plenty for what I offer. 25 years ago I would have jumped at most every job that comes my way today. Back then what I wanted is what I have today. Now that I have it, I want what I had 20 years ago.. That was a simpler life without the hassles of retaining what I have built... Life was both better, and easier when I was working hard to build the business. Retention is much harder, more stressful, and risky than climbing the ladder. I used to hate working in a cold converted barn in the mountains of N Georgia in the winter time, but today I miss that simplicity and have returned to it in many ways. I'm not quite back to the days of working in that barn with a dirt floor, but I miss the wood heater.

Covid changed everything for everyone. It made us stupid, and it reduced our patience. Couple the with just a small dose of "cancel culture" and entitlement and welcome to 2022.

Today I just do what I want to do for the people that I think will really appreciate it, and not be a pain in the ass. Engines get more time put into them than ever before, but I still don't keep track of the hours of life that go into creating them. Doing this work is all passion.

I could spend less time building a 440HP Porsche M9X engine for a 997.1 and make twice the money, but I tend to leave those up to my employees while I play with 50+ year old engines that make 4X the factory power.

Not everyone is a jerk, but you have to go into each potential project with the reality that the buyer could be the one who ruins the last 30 years of your life. All it takes is one. Just one.

[mate914]

Who is out there that can reliably build and warranty a completely new 2270?

Preferable near me in SoCal..

Seems your question made the engine builders have to justify them selves.
No, I don't know any rebuilder in SoCal.
If I asked some questions to a engine rebuilder and they got pissy, I say run!
Both owners and engine rebuilders can be jerks. It's not a one way street.
Good luck with your engine "RFoulds".

Matt (IMG:style_emoticons/default/flag.gif)

[dcheek]

After reading this I hope my original engine lasts forever!

Dave