Check on the engine case right under the generator stand. If it is blank, you may have an after market engine case.

Ok time for a possibly stupid question... I have been cleaning and scrubbing on this case. I have rags in the distributer, oil fill, and intake holes. Nothing in the oil cooler holes though.. I assume they are safe to blow out with compressed air. Correct? I don't need my mistake trashing this lovely GEX motor

Just in case you got a significant amount of water down the oil cooler passages, I would drain the oil (assuming it's not already drained) and put in fresh oil, then change it in a hundred miles or so.

Well still slowly working away at the motor. Made some headway on getting the shroud to fit. Biggest problems was it hitting the case in the middle, in both the front and rear. Then once it got that ground down and fitting it was hitting where the doghouse adapter comes out the shroud. Also figured out I have the wrong oil cooler seals and I am gonna need an insert for a nut to go into the case behind the oil cooler as once all the tin is on, there will be no way to get a wrench back there. I'm really thinking I should have done a bit more research before I decided to tackle this but its been fun.

More research!?!? That's like reading directions and shit.

Big thanks to Dylan for swinging by Saturday early and giving me a hand
About noon or so

About 6pm

About 9pm

Most of my time Saturday was spent putting the rear suspension back together and cleaning up the underside. Its still not pretty, but it looks better
All thats left to do is redo a bit of the wiring, clean and mount the coil, and double check some little things and it should be good to go. And that, if all goes as planned will be buttoned up this evening.
And then I need to have a garage sale and get rid of half the crap in there so I have some room to work

Drove it around the block last night. Started right up on the first try, however, now it is back to doing the whole slow crank/won't start thing again. And the starter makes a grinding noise now. Thinking maybe I got some dirt in the bushing maybe and thats what I'm hearing. Transaxle to body ground is good and clean so I don't think its a ground problem. Guess I'll pull it out tonight and see what I can figure out.

Check to see if your battery is charging. You might have a shitty power cable to the battery too...

I need to make a "starter booster kit" like berg sells for $30. I know I can make the exact same thing for $5-6.

Go on ebay .. The same guy that makes then for Suziki samis does it for VW ...