Just a heads up -- aircooled.net has been closed for a couple of years (and is not coming back), but the site has remained active until a few days ago when it went "404".
What this means is that all of the tech articles, cam information, etc. is gone as well.
There is a thread about this over on TheSamba, where John said it was unauthorized use (sale and distribution) of the content that made him mad enough to take the site down. There was no problem with archiving or saving the content for private reference -- just for commercial uses.
There is still a way to get the content: The Wayback Machine. Tech guys understand how this works, but somehow this site looks into the past and can retrieve content that's been taken down. Here is a link to some of the most useful aircooled.net information through that site:
- General Tech Article Index
- Carbs 101
- Carbs 102 (Jetting)
- Camshaft Information (1.1 stock and 1.25 "hot street" cams)
- Camshaft Information (1.1 "race and off road" cams)
- Camshaft Information (1.4 and 1.5 ratio rocker cams)
This information is not perfect, or even especially current -- but it is solid and worth consideration. It's certainly as good or better than the useless (and out of print) Tomlinson manuals were for Dellorto and Weber. As the ACVW world shrinks (and it is shrinking rapidly and right in front of us), there are less and less suppliers and less and less guys who know what they're doing.
This is why guys like Pat Downs are like gold -- Pat has done more to advance the hobby than anybody I can think of over the 25 years I've been involved in this hobby and he's still going. He's near 60 and won't be around forever. None of us realize what we've got 'til it's gone -- don't take guys like Pat (or builders like Carey and Greg) for granted. I thought Intermeccanica would be around forever until one day it wasn't.
We're at a point where we're down to EMPI, CBP, and AA for 99% of the things we need. Gene Berg Enterprises will be the next one gone -- frankly I'm stunned they're still open. CSP in Europe is making nice (albeit expensive) stuff, and there are boutique places making "this 'n that" (Thorsten Pieper tool steel lifters, Nowack cams, AirKewld beams and brakes, various Ron Lummus parts, etc.), but it's shrinking.
Steve Long died and so did his camshafts. Jose is trying to retire and DPR will be closed soon. Rimco owns FAT Performance, Jack Sachette sold to EMPI. Bugpack is long gone, with 10% of its catalog still sold by EMPI. Even finding a VW specific machine shop is like looking for a needle in a haystack. The days of sending a $500 new mag case to Rimco for $250 worth of nice machine work are long gone.
I guess my point is that we're all going to need to get more "techy" if you want to keep your pride-n'-joy running. Saving some of this information for reference later is not a bad way to start.
