Date:         Fri, 23 Jun 1995 17:06:28 -0400
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         SStueber@aol.com
Subject:      Should I get a valve job?

I hate to be a pest, but I got no response on my valve job  question
yesterday(unusual for this group) except two nice people who explained the
spelling of "compleat" to me.  I'm re-sending the message in case not
everyone received it for some reason.


Here's the deal.  I have a '63 kombi that I'm restoring.  I know very little
about it's history since I bought it from a junkyard where little was known
about its history.  All they could tell me was that the engine was blown and
that's what landed it there.  Upon tearing apart the engine, I discovered
that it had been rebuilt very recently and had very few miles on it.  I know
this because the cylinders showed no wear and the cam also showed no wear.
 They looked brand new!  The deal is whoever rebuilt it obviously was a
compleat idiot and didn't have the book for compleat(any idea why muir
spelled it this way?) idiots.  They had put two of the connecting rods on
upside down!  It must've gotten hotter than hell in no time and the bearing
on one of those rods cooked and would barely move on the crankshaft.  I have
all the parts now to rebuild it.  the only thing left to consider is should I
do a valve job or not.  Since it was recently rebuilt, my inclination is to
clean the heads up and bolt them back on assuming that they were probably
done at the same time as the engine rebuild(only hopefully by a more
competent individual than the one who did the rest of the engine).  On the
other hand I'd rather be safe than sorry, too.  It's another $140 to have
them rebuilt, and I'd rather not spend it if there's no need.  What do you
think?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sean Stueber
'63 kombi
'73 westy