I hope I'm not driving anyone crazy with all these posts... if
so, my apologies.  I figure if I'm trying to figure out this stuff
then lots of other folks must be too, so hopefully it'll benefit
them as well.

Called around to the "Automobile - Machine Shops" in the yellow 
pages today, and do I ever wish I'd done that up front rather than
taking a local shop's word on who to go to.  Most everyone I talked
to was decent and friendly and willing to explain things.  Yay!

I talked to two places here in SLC who do balancing.  They
wanted about $120-150 to dynamically balance the crank/flywheel/pulley
combo, even out the piston weights,
and even out the rod weight and center of gravity.

Volumetric stuff was also available for fairly cheap: to cc
the heads, about $20.  The guy I talked to the longest claimed
that differences in length of rods tended to be so small that
only one deck height needs to be measured, likewise that there
is insignificant difference between head chamber sizes, and that
compression ratios will be within a hundredth for all cylinders.
This is interesting enough that I'll certainly try to measure
all of them myself, using the Tom Wilson method -- feeler gauge
and socket extension bar across the cylinder top.  I think
that's something I can do _inside_, rather than out in the freezing
garage...

So actually the free horsepower seems not only cheap but fairly
available.  Looks like it'll cost about 20% of the basic rebuild
cost.

Cost so far, for a 1981 2.0L AFC Vanagon Westfalia:

345.70 cylinder set + gasket set + one lifter (Hoy Fox)
74.28 cam and lifters reconditioning (Weber Cams)
477.12 (338 basic head work, 124 crack repair (Mark Stephens)
204.14 crank regrinding, rod reconditioning, all bearings (Temple's, SLC)
25.00 install crank gear (grrr)
-------
1126.24 total, not counting tools, engine compartment gasket, etc.

Have a nice weekend!
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Gary Shea                                                shea@xmission.com
Salt Lake City, Utah                         http://www.xmission.com/~shea