Date:         Fri, 17 Jan 2003 02:11:18 EST
Reply-To:     Secor8@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Eli Secor <Secor8@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Replaced Rings blowing oil
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

OK, this is my first posting and I'm afraid it's a deuzy! (sp?)

I recently replaced the heads on our (newly acquired) '85GL and ended up
having to pull sleeve #1 and #4 with the heads as no amount of coaxing or
tapping would seperate them.   In the process I broke the top ring on #1 and
ended up replacing it along with the oil wiper.  I have everything back
together and all works well (no coolant problems) except that I've gone
through about a quart of oil in the last 300 miles.   I tested compression
and found the following:  #1 - 100psi, #2 - 157psi, #3 - 127psi, #4 - 162psi.
 #1 was noticeably oily on the tip, leading me to believe that my oil loss is
through that cylinder (there are no leaks as far as I can tell, and the damp
exhaust at startup seems to have little oil fleks in it).  A local shop told
me that the new rings on #1 might never seat, and that I should pull the
pistons & sleeve to replace all the rings, check the tolerances, and to have
it honed and seated.

My questions are:
1.  Does this sound like good advice?
2.  Where can I find the circlip, piston pin, and crankshaft arm positioning
tools?  The local dealer won't even touch my car, let alone stock tools for
it.   I suspect I can get a stock circlip tool and improvise the crankshaft
arm tool, but is there a home remedy for the piston pin tool?
3.  I believe I have to pull piston/sleeve #2 to get to #1 - does it make
sense to pull the whole thing apart, replace all the rings, and have a
machine shop seat them all?
4.  Source for reasonably priced head gaskets (only)?   Last time I bought a
complete gasket set for about $150.

Any advice would be very much appreciated!
Eli & Amy - VW Newbies