Back to the morass. Just spoke with the boys in the bug shop and it turns out that my engine is a factory (dealer) rebuild, which is good for me in that the internal components are in good shape. Don't know how I missed the sticker. It's not an old rebuild judging by bearing wear, colour and condition of pistons and con rods. He figgers maybe 50,000 kilometres at most. But the downside is that when they line-bored the case they didn't do it right and left too much clearance for a few bearings which is why the thrust bearing can move in its seat and is now worn. This is a dealer rebuild and they still didn't do it right. I can see an average Joe-Shmo shop not knowing how to do a proper VW rebuild, but you would think VW would. What is really scary is that as time passes, there will be fewer and fewer shops that will know how to do this stuff properly. Maybe thatıs not such a bad thing as these engines are so archaic and out-dated, but for all their shortcomings no one can deny they have character. |
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