Volks,

        I need to find some 060 cylinder base shims for my 1700 ('72 Westy)
T4 engine.  The VW dealer says he stocks nothing for aircooleds, the VW
parts places in Dallas look at me funny and tell me they have called all the
catalog parts suppliers.  Is there a difference between T1 shims and T4
shims?  I guess so.  Anyway, the inner diameter for mine is 100mm.  I
haven't called any of the sources in the magazines yet.  Anyone with
experience finding these?  The PO had had the engine built for him by a
local mechanic and there was no head gasket (.035) and only a .010 base
shim.  After CC'ing the heads and running the math, I discovered this engine
was trying to run  >9.1:1 compression ratio!  Trying to follow Bob Hoover's
advice, it will take a .060 base shim and the 035 copper head gasket to
bring it down under 7.5:1.  
        Collective wisdom: where do I find 060 T4 1700 shims???

Thanks in advance.

Chris Vaughn
'72 Westy