wanna head job

[fahrvergnugen at cox.net (David Utley)]

Foxx (in a box) wrote:
>   so i have a couple studs broken off in the head of the '85. i lack 
> the necessary tools (and mostly patience) to remove them myself. i was 
> considering taking it to a machine shop to have it done. then i 
> thought about porting and polishing and have a few questions. your 
> input is appreciated. thanx.
>
> 1) are all p&p created equal?
Absolutely not.  A couple of weeks I sent my head and intake Mani. off 
to Fumio Fukaya, many folks consider him the grand-master for VWs among 
other brands, I would not consider sending my head to anyone else.  To 
give you an idea, he used to work for EMPI, and came up with many 
revolutionary designs that put them on the map.  For those that don't 
know (or perhaps care) about air-cooled cars, TT used him before when 
they actually did head work.  BTW, he is cheaper than TT ever was (no 
middle man of course).  Do a search on Vortex to learn more about him if 
you are interested...  When I get the head back, I will try to post pics 
and let you see what he did.
>
> 2) will the valves be adjusted properly or is that something i'll have 
> to do myself?
Hydraulic or mechanical?  I assume mechanical.  They should do that, you 
could do it yourself, but not without a bunch of shims to insert and try 
via trial and error.
>
> 3) is there a price that i should be looking at?
>
F.F. is going to be less than 700.00 all tolled.  Street port and 
polish, tanking, install new guides, deck the head, and something else I 
can't recall.
> 4) the p.o. stripped a spark plug hole and slipped an insert in. it 
> keeps the spark plug about 1/2" higher than the others. can this be 
> fixed?
>
Yes, they can weld it and retap it.  You should do it for this reason 
alone IMO...
> 5) am i missing anything else?
>
Only Fumios' phone number, which I don't have in front of me.  That too 
can be had on Vortex...

G/L,
  David