Date:         Mon, 1 Jul 1996 19:26:11 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Dennis Gentry <dennis@cpac.washington.edu>
Subject:      Late Aircooled Engine Recommendations

As I recently mentioned, I need to replace the engine in my '80
Westy (due to towing-induced over-rev).  I am considering
several options:

1.  Buy a rebuilt engine from Mark Stephens High Performance.
They will guarantee no dropped valve seats, and I could be
ready-to-go in plenty of time for Inuvik.  I could also opt for
some of their higher performance options, which might help with
the slugly performance I've observed from this (and all
aircooled) vanagon(s).

2.  Rebuild it myself, possibly ordering heads from Mark
Stephens.  The plus here is that I will know that my engine is
correctly rebuilt.

3.  Have my VW factory heads with only 11,000 miles on them
rebuilt locally.

Is there another engine vendor I should consider?  So-Cal
Imports has a one year no mileage limit warrantee.  And GEX seems
to be pretty standard for the mechanics around here when they
want to buy a basic engine.

Is there a web page or a FAQ that describes engine
recommendations?  Do any of you want to convince me to rebuild
this thing myself?  :) I should have full-time to devote to
it--I'm on a 6 month vacation.  The only constraint is that I'd
like to leave for Inuvik by July 14th, or the 18th at the latest.

Last time I rebuilt an engine was in 1982 for my '72 bus.  That
engine is finally getting close to needing another rebuild, but
I sure got my mileage (130k+) out of it.  I would take it to
Inuvik, but it's not a Westy.

Thanks,
Dennis
P.S.  One other crazy idea that occurred to me was to buy a
rebuilt engine, then take it apart to make sure that the
rebuilder had done it right.  Maybe I'll leave that for some
consumer advocate...