looks like you got some bump with your dump

Put some die-electric grease on the semaphore plungers and let them sit overnight. They started working feebly then got better as time went by.

Good news Bill on the phores..

that is a sexy ride indeed!

Agreed!

The engine is having a weird vacuum leak issue, looks like the left 48 IDF has a bad base gasket. I hope that's all it is. I can't get it to idle down after it's well warmed up. Spray some carb cleaner on the carb base and the idle drops. All the nuts are tight too.
Adjusted the valves and found that the rocker arms aren't shimmed correctly either.

ahhh the joys of working out the kinks in a new ride

You ain't lyin'!!!! With my back problems it's a PITA getting under a car now. I managed to reserve
some time on a car lift Saturday and will get the shims squared away.
It's noisy enough with solid mounts, and then all the racket those loose rockers makes it sound like I'm
shaking a coffee can full of nuts & bolts-lol.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention, the engine was built by Brothers Machine shop outta Cali? NOT Chico...

Brothers VW Machine has done a few cases for me, awesome work. Not sure how they are on complete motors though.

I heard they were going through tough times though.

Their work on t4 heads is

Try flat-sanding the top of the manifold where the carb bolts up, you'd be surprised at how non-flat even new parts can be. The quality of VW parts keeps getting lowere and lower...