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Date:         Wed, 13 Oct 2004 15:48:17 -0700
Reply-To:     jeff@VANAGONPARTS.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeff at Vanagonparts <jeff@VANAGONPARTS.COM>
Subject:      Re: Good Price on 1.9l  heads? - Not just AMC...
In-Reply-To:  <031b01c4b081$46c06460$0a0ba8c0@RON>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Actually, the "majority" of WBX'er cylinder heads sold in the USA are AMC. Over the last year or so, I've sold several sets of German built Kolbenschmidt cylinder heads.

Cheers,

Jeff www.vanagonparts.com

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf Of The Bus Depot Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2004 10:31 AM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Re: Good Price on 1.9l heads?

> who's got the Good Price on a set of heads?

You have your choice of new or rebuilt.

If you buy new heads, beware. While all of the new heads come from AMC Spain (even the ones sold at the VW dealer), they are not all the same. There have been numerous reports of valve stem problems with some of the new AMC heads sold by U.S suppliers other than myself. The problem is that AMC's U.S. importer (who supplies all of the U.S. auto parts distributors) does not actually buy the fully assembled head from AMC, only the bare head. Then they assemble it themselves, using parts obtained from other sources. Apparantly, some of the valve stems they buy are not properly hardened, and tend to mushroom over time. AVP, who supplies my rebuilt engines and heads, has told me that they have to disassemble every new AMC head they buy and replace the valve stems before installing it. Some are better than others, and they're not willing to chance it.

My AMC 2.1L heads do NOT have these valve stems because I do NOT get them from AMC's U.S. importer. Mine are fully assembled in Europe by AMC themselves. What's more, I can offer a better price by bypassing the U.S. distributor - $379 each: <http://busdepot.com/details.jsp?partnumber=025101065C>

As for 1.9L heads, I cannot get them directly from AMC, but you can use 2.1L heads on your 1.9L engine. There is only a very small difference in the size of the combustion chamber; otherwise they're identical. A perfectionist might argue against mixing one 1.9L and one 2.1L head on the same engine, but many people do it. AVP tells me that many, many cores that they get back have one of each, and clearly ran 100,000 miles or more that way without any problems.

A cost-saving alternative is to buy rebuilt heads. We offer good quality AVP rebuilts that use all European made internals, for just $219 (plus a $50 core deposit). These are built to order so they may not ship immediately. Link: <http://busdepot.com/details.jsp?partnumber=025101065CX>

- Ron Salmon The Bus Depot, Inc. www.busdepot.com (215) 234-VWVW

_____________________________________________ Toll-Free for Orders by PART # : 1-866-BUS-DEPOT


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