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Date:         Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:40:28 -0800
Reply-To:     Jeff Schwaia <vw.doka@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeff Schwaia <vw.doka@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      The Interesting Things We Find
In-Reply-To:  <1326844611.92696.YahooMailClassic@web110411.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

So... I bought an '85 Wolfy Weekender a couple of months ago for a winter project. Kind of doing a mechanical resto and putting in a 1.6TD and 5 speed. Van had been sitting for about 5 years (and looked it), but is fairly clean and rust free. PO told me his uncle was going to fix the engine (5 years ago) but never completed the job.

Fast forward to last weekend... I pulled the dirty engine out and set it aside. It's a 2.1 that he did a horrible job of trying to make fit in the '85. Aside from the dizzy and wiring, he had all the 2.1 parts still on the engine that he tried to mate up to the 1.9 chassis. Hoses were going to the wrong places, the O2 sensor was plugged into the A/C compressor wire, etc., etc. Pretty ugly. Good thing he never got it to run! None of that really mattered though, since it was all coming out for the conversion.

Here's the funny bit... I started to pull the bits off the 2.1 longblock to see what kind of condition it was in. After I pulled the intake manifold, I noticed that the intake ports were perfectly clean. Hmmmm.... next I pulled the exhaust and found the exhaust ports to be pristine as well. Rebuilt heads?

Water pump looked crusty, bad still had the faded "tested" sticker on the front. Removed the WP and guess what, perfectly clean inside the case too. Still not convinced, I removed the crank pulley, flywheel and their seals. Yep... perfectly clean behind both seals and it was obvious the main bearings and seals were brand new.

Looks like I have a brand new, 5 year old, rebuilt longblock. After cleaning off the dirt and rat turds from the top of the case, I'm pretty sure it's an AVP rebuild due to the color of gray they use. Makes sense, since AVP is just up the road from Sac.

Since it's been sitting so long, I'll probably take off the heads and replace the seals, etc.

Still... pretty nice surprise.

Good example of a DPO.

Cheers,

Jeff


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