Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:21:02 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: How to do a head reseal on a diesel vanagon?
In-Reply-To: <dad0e8a40709171609lc52834ve7d68d4b46e6a643@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Hi.
A 1.9NA would be the most gain for the price, and 'almost' isn't an engine
conversion- very minor issues, big gain for the cost and not much
difficulty.
If this van has the stock 82 diesel 4 speed trans, the DZ - Need to change
that too, if it's to be very good.
'maybe' 300K miles in a Diesel Rabbit, yes maybe, in a diesel vanagon - 'not
usually' is putting it kindly.
He/she could be the nicest most considerate person in the world, and really
takes very, very good care of their vans and cars. Why would I be having
the impression that this person sort of 'leans on the rest of the world'
about them getting 300K out of a 1.6 diesel engine in a vanagon ??? Just
don't you get caught between someone's unrealistic expectations for their
van, and what is reasonable to expect.
It's sounding to me like the van's owner is 'pushing' on you to produce a
result ( that the van's engine is half way through it's expected 300K mile
life ) that is basically an unreasonable expectation.
Which is why I suggest, if this engine is going to stay in there and
hopefully be made to run in a viable way - One, you just sell the job of
pulling the head for inspection and evaluation.
And then two, if you do do a head gasket, make it hyper clear that you
responsibility is in doing the work only, and not how long it lasts or how
perfectly it works after this job.
I keep sensing the owner is pushing on you for an unreasonable-to-expect
result. I can just SMELL it ....I can smell if from here. I've been down
this road WAY too many times.
Remember, their expectations are not your concern or problem. You just deal
with FACTS. The facts are it's a 160K miles delectate engine pushing a too
big van body.
Oh ! PARTICULARILY when the customer is doing the diagnosing !!! You can get
in MAJOR TROUBLE that way !! What I would tell them is .....one, you can
hire me to remove the head and we'll see what we see. That 'should' go down
cleanly.
And this....this part is VERY IMPORTANT - IF THEY WANT YOU TO DO A head
gasket job when the 'Real Repair' is another and better engine. You tell
them....fine, I'll put a head gasket on it for you, and I'll do careful
work. But that is all I can be responsible for. I don't care what it does,
or however briefly it lasts or whatever....if you are doing the diagnosing,
and want to hire me to do a certain job, fine, but I am only responsible for
doing my work correctly and NOT for the results.
I don't think this is a 'real case' where this would apply - but
people do hire me as a consultant, like to sell the job properly for you,
and teach you how to do that at the same time...but I don't think this is a
real case where we'd be doing that anyway. But it is a service I provide.
I could go on and on about stories with , sorry
.......assholes.......in California.........that will push and push on a
hard working honest car technician, and jam him / her in a corner, and then
go ballistic when things don't work out.
I don't know why you are getting involved here - if it's to get the money,
fine. Or the experience, that could be useful, but my hunch is someone wants
you to make a silk purse out of a cow's ear, and you just happen to be
'their friend' that sort of knows about cars and engines.
I'd bail, unless the dollars look good, and the expectations are
well understood. And I would tell them about 10 times, if it fires up and
runs, and the cooling system is all working, and you drive it 10 feet,
you're part of the responsibly is then over, Period. I would so LOVE to
sell this job properly for you, or to see YOU sell this job properly. I
think you should lean way from doing it, if a diesel vanagon head job isn't
something you can basically do blindfolded already, especially. It's a high
risk job I think, or I suspect.
I literally am short a few hundred thousand dollars for letting
people jam me into a corner on their worn out cars with their cheap ways. A
'normal person' might just say - "OK, I got 160K out of that little sucker,
let's put in a 1.9."
And............... THEIR PROBPEM problem with their van is not
YOUR PROBLEM in any way ! Don't do it unless it REALLY works for YOU.
Btw, it cost me many hundreds of thousands of dollars to learn this.
I calculated that in 13 years ( just one small phase of my career in car
repair ) in California, doing foreign car and vanagon repair, that I sold
car repair jobs roughly 7 or 8,000 separate times. . Took me a long time to
learn how to do that right - now they always go down cleanly, or it doesn't
get to happen.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Florian Speier
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 4:10 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: How to do a head reseal on a diesel vanagon?
Yes you are quite right about the risks involved, I have to talk to the
owner about that. He would probably perfer me to do a turbodiesel swap but i
dont really have the time for it.
However, he thinks that a diesel vanagon engine goes 300k miles, so he sees
it as a half of lifetime repair..... thats of course not a good starting
point.
Can anyone however advise me what is the eassiest and cheapest diesel engine
swap for this thing? a 1.9n/a? Maybe I have to give him options.
thanks
flo
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