AVP in Sacramento, CA rebuilds heads to eliminate the seat- dropping problem. Vanagon air cooled heads are about $180, and waterboxer heads are about $220. Their webpage with details and prices is at http://www.sacbiz.com/avp/

I have toured their shop and am impressed that they know what they're doing and do a good job for a great price. I saw how they grind out corrosion damage on wasserboxer heads, then weld and machine them back to spec.

I bought a 2.0L aircooled long block from them, and it's been great. Only problem was a moderate oil leak from a bad weld over an oil galley plug, but AVP paid me labor time to fix it under warranty, and there's been no problem since.

Nick Mendocino, California '82 Westy, '88 &'89 Jettas

On Mon, 3 Aug 1998, Gary Shea <shea@GTSDESIGN.COM> wrote:

>On Mon, 3 Aug 1998, Curtis Gatlin wrote: >> Which should I buy? Should I buy new German heads or rebuilt after market? >> Who sells new german heads for under $400 bucks a pop. >> >> Curtis

>What kind of engine do you have? If an air-cooled, then in my opinion you should buy rebuilt heads that have had the valve-seat dropping problem eliminated, meaning Mark Stephens in California. I dunno if anyone else does that. I sent my heads to Mark Stephens... it cost a small fortune (maybe $450 total for both heads?) but I don't worry about dropping a valve seat at some random juncture.

>If it's a waterboxer, then I'm clueless.

> Gary