I have taken many well used waterboxer motors apart and most of the ones that had amc heads on them had valves that have failed or showed noticeable wear. These weren't heads that I installed, these heads have been installed by various mechanics throughout the country. I haven't seen any similar pattern of valve destruction on stock vw heads. Theres a big difference between seeing a pattern develop in well used heads and not having any customer feedback on brand new heads installed. it seems that the damage can take 30 to 60,000 miles to occur. its been my experience that most owners don't drive their vans that much and vans change hands every few years on average. So, I think the pattern I've seen in well used heads is much more reliable information than customer feedback from newly installed heads. The first subaru conversion i did for someone now has about 65,000 miles on it. i hadn't seen the customer in 5 years. she came in and I asked if shes had any problems. she said the kennedy exhaust cracked after 2 years but didnt contact me about it because it had been so long she figured it wasn't under warranty anymore. Theres lots of reasons customers don't give feedback. they move, the van gets sold, too much time has passed, etc, etc. theres a lot of variables. whats concrete is the damage i've seen to the valves only on amc heads. |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.