Date:         Tue, 16 May 1995 00:05:46 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Dennis Gentry <dennis@cpac.washington.edu>
Subject:      Re: Garage near Palo Alto:  in RWC, Fred's vs. the BUGgie Works

In December 93, Fred's garage in Redwood City installed a
rebuilt engine in my friend's 80 Westfalia for about $2,300.
(Even though I told him we'd have much more fun rebuilding it
together! :) In September 94, I bought the Westy from him, but
didn't drive it much.  Finally, a month or so ago, its abnormal
lack of pep (which had been present since I bought it) started
to annoy me so I did a tuneup which resulted in little
improvement.  Next I checked the compression.  Zero on number
one, ugh.  I checked with Fred's and they wouldn't do any kind
of warranty or cut-rate work on it, even though the engine had
15K miles, tops, and had only been driven for 8 months.  I also
know and explained to them that the oil had been changed
regularly and the former owner knows how to sensibly drive an
air-cooled VW (i.e., shift correctly).

I took it to the BUGgie Works, a small shop just a block north
of Fred's, where Paul (the proprietor, as far as I can tell)
pulled the motor and found the problem--a sucked valve seat
(which, incidentally, one could easily find with the motor
installed just by laying a straightedge along the valve
stems--the valve with the sucked seat will be sticking out
significantly, like maybe a 1/2 to 1cm.  We should have thought
of that when we got the zero compression on that cylinder,
although it wouldn't have saved any time or money, just a little
early uncertainty).

Paul says that rebuilt (as opposed to new) heads are prone to
this problem since new valve seats get welded in at rebuild
time.  We installed a couple of new heads and it's happily
running great, but I'm not too pleased with the quality of the
engine, or response I got from Fred's when it crapped out.  I
would definitely recommend the BUGgie Works over Fred's, even
though the BUGgie works is a smaller shop.

Dennis
P.S.  Advice from the gurus please: Would you have installed two
new heads like I just did, or would you have stuck with the
not-yet-failed rebuilt head that was on there, with a new one to
replace the sucked-seat head?  Two brand new heads were pretty
steep, but I figured it'd save me an engine R&R some time soon
if Fred's used the same place to rebuild both heads.  I did the
clutch while we had it apart, too.  Did I go overboard?