(10/19/2002) - New Parts and Reassembly!  I decided to go with some scat lube-a-lobe lifters this time around.  I also had them sent to SLR cams to be reground, polished, and parkerized just for good measure.  While I was ordering parts I also got a HUGE oil cooler and fan to keep my oil temps lower when its HOT out.

Here are what the Scat lube-a-lobes look like after they have been give the treatment by SLR (the shiny stuff is metal shavings - I hadn't cleaned them off before I took the pic; oops).

As you can see, the lifters have a SMALL hole right in the center - this helps lube the spot between the cam and lifters (normally this is only splash oiled).  At first I was skeptical that these holes might lower my oil pressure a little - but they DIDN'T.

Here is the new 96 plate mesa cooler - its 11"X11" its going to be a tight fit up above the transmission!

Here's the 12" (1400CFM) fan that will assist the cooler.

Since the fan is 12" in diameter and the cooler is only 11"X11", I had to make a shroud out of aluminum sheet so that the fan would pull the air through the cooler and not around the edges.  You can see the fan thermostat in the upper left corner - this turns the fan on/off at certain temperatures.

As I said earlier - its a TIGHT FIT!!  I ended up having to use the dremel to clearance some of the fan so that the clutch cable wouldn't interfere (the cooler hangs down low because it has 3/4" rubber shock mounts on it).  This project is DEFINITELY something you want to do with the engine OUT of the car!

I'm also using an oil thermostat - I don't want to OVERcool my oil, so this opens up at a certain temp (180F I believe) to let hot oil flow through the cooler.  It also stays partially open ALL the time so you don't drop oil pressure when it does open up.  It doesn't have any mounting tabs, so I bent a piece of rod stock into a u-bolt and threaded the ends, then wrapped it in some fuel hose:

Fits real nice around the thermostat!

To keep the thermostat from rubbing where I will mount it to the car I just used a small piece of inner-tube over it.

Here's the thermostat installed.  If I had to do it again, I would have flipped the u-bolt and made a bracket so that I didn't have to fish the washers and nuts up in that tight space the u-bolt goes through.  There is one line that needs to be repositioned (too close to the drive axle!), but other than that the system works great!)

I ran out of time to hook up the fan, but its so cool out right now that I wont need it for a while anyway; I'll get to it later.  

As of 10/24/02 the engine has an additional 400 miles on it and the valves seem to be settling in this time around...  After my 225 mile trip, most of the valves were around .006-.008" (I had adjusted them to .006"), ONE is a little loose (.012") but I am confident it will settle very soon.  It is SOOOO nice to be able to drive the bug again.