Date: Tue, 7 Nov 95 11:41:27 PST
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Dave Kautz <dkautz@hpsidms1.sid.hp.com>
Subject: Re: visit to GEX
Many thanks to David Schwarze for reporting on his trip to GEX. His
observations are troubling, to say the least.
I took a tour of AVP in Sacramento, CA last spring when I went up there
to pick up my rebuilt long block. A friend of mine who used to work as
an auto mechanic <he's a pilot for United now, go figure...> went with
me as my "technical expert"
I didn't make much of a report to the list on this since it was the only
rebuilding shop I had ever seen and I didn't feel knowledgable on the
subject, but it may be more appropriate now in the context of David's
observations of GEX.
AVP is run by a husband & wife team, Leonard and Erin. They have several
employees, at least one of whom has a german accent. Leonard is a "factory
trained" VW mechanic and worked at a dealer during the '60s. I have to admit
our first impression of the business was a little sceptical, the front of
the operation is a two bay service garage, with an office and parts counter
attached. THEN, we were taken back into the shops. The service portion,
is just the end of the building, the rebuilding operation is much larger.
The shops are clean and well lit. The workbenches where Leonard was
showing us how the cylinder heads are re-done have rolls of paper mounted
underneath which are fed up to the worksurface. Before placing a cylinder
head on the work bench, a clean piece of paper was pulled out. The
welding area was very interesting. In addition to a very substantial
TIG welder, there was also an oven. Leonard <who does the welding himself>
claims that the parts must be preheated before welding for good results.
A system of high temperature "crayons" <for lack of a better word> is
used to determine the temperature of the part. Different colors melt
at different specific temperatures. The oven is also used to pre-heat
the heads to operating temperature before the valve seats are installed.
The most impressive welding is what is done on the wasserboxer heads!
I couldn't believe how corroded these heads were on the surface where they
contact the rubber gasket. They grind out all the corrosion and then build
the head back up with welding rod. The head is subsequently re-machined
flat and looks like new. They also grind out, weld and reshape an area
near the spark plugs which he says in prone to cracking. After seeing
the wasserboxer repairs, the welding on the air-cooled head looked "small
time". The take out the valve seats, grind out the cracks, weld it all up
and then re-machine. I only saw a few completed heads, but on those there
was no visible evidence in the combustion chambers that welding had been
done. The surfaces were very uniform.
The valve seats come from a domestic manufacturer. Leonard claims that he
and Mark Stephens get their seats from the same outfit, but that they are
not the same parts. The intake seat is made from hardened chrome-moly steel
and the exhaust seat is made from hardened tool steel. The Stephens parts
have an extra radius on the combustion side where he peens the head over.
Leonard doesn't think this is a good idea since it reduces the area on
the seat subject to the shrink fit.
The machining done on the heads <valve seat pockets, etc,> is done in
fixtures attached to Bridgport milling machines, of which there are
several. I was hoping to see a huge press used to drive the valve seats
in, but this was not the case. They use a substantial fixture to support
the head <it's HOT, remember>, the seat is placed on the end of a mandrel
and the mandrel is beaten with a large hammer. After the seats are installed,
the head goes back in the oven and is cooled gradually back to room
temperature. Valve guides are silicon bronze and the valves are TRW. That
didn't mean much to me, but my friend asked several questions about what
brand of parts were used in various applications.
There were other machining stations, the function of which I didn't under-
stand as well. Align-boring is done with a long cyindrical device that
appear to pilot off the case being machined. Flywheels are re-faced. AVP
does not re-grind the camshafts or lifters in house. Apparently, the
equipment to do this correctly is quite expensive.
Dirty core parts are hot-tanked and bead blasted in a far corner of the
shop. The assembly area, with the aforementioned paper covered workbenches
is a seperate room. There is a clear intention in the shop layout to
seperate dirty processes from clean.
Also impressive, but less important was the collection of core parts. I've
never seen so many cylinder heads in one place. Huge bins of wasserboxer
heads, huge bins of type IV heads, all seperated by type and part number.
<Did you know there are several versions of the wasserboxer head?>.
They have another warehouse which we didn't see where they store engine
cases, crankshafts, flywheels, etc.. I asked about the supply of cores.
Good used type I cases and 215 mm flywheels for 74-75 buses are the
scarce items. Leonard was more interested in the flywheel I brought with
my old engine <a 215> than any other part.
The engine testing equipment was interesting. They have device they
built themselves on to which the engine is installed and then rotated
by a large electric motor. This allows them to bring up the oil pressure
gently, without running the engine under it's own power. They use this
same device for the compression check. It wasn't clear to me whether this
machine was only used for air-cooled engines or whether they also
checked water-cooleds on it too <AVP rebuilds both gas and diesel rabbit/
golf engines too>. In the room with the milling machines they have the
engine dynamometer, we didn't get to see it operate though.
On the more subjective side, I was impressed by both Leonard and Erin's
character. They struck me as honest people who take pride in what they
do. They spoke enthusiasticly and supportively of their employees, I
think they understand the value of good people in providing a good
product. And they can't be all bad since they drive a Vanagon, right?
On the objective side, the engine I bought from them in May has about
4000 miles on it now. I have performed the maintenance per the
warranty agreement which included oil changes, valve adjustment and
ignition timing checks at 300 and 1000 miles. AVP installs a little
"heat button" on the engine case which, if you melt it, voids your
warranty. Mine is still intact, despite having driven up the mountain
to Wailaki from Shelter Cove in August carrying the 5 Kautzes, Zoe
the dog AND Bradley AND Swiss Al <Hubbard>! The engine is running
strong, quiet, valve clearances holding steady and it is leaking oil
only from the pivot of the el cheapo Brazilian fuel pump that I put on.
During the install of the motor. I found that my clutch wouldn't fit
the flywheel. My rebuilt had come with a 210mm flywheel, although we
had discussed this both on the phone and again when I turned in the core.
AVP sent me the correct one, it arrived the next day, asking only that I
return the wrong one freight collect. They included a new lockring for the
bolts which I would have otherwise overlooked. I'm convinced now that it
was a genuine mistake since when I removed the offending flywheel I saw
that it had been mis-marked as a 215 on the back side.
All in all I'm a happy customer for now. We'll just have to wait and
see how long this engine lasts.
Dave