Date:         Mon, 12 Oct 1998 19:42:33 -0500
Reply-To:     Joshua Van Tol <jjvantol@USWEST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joshua Van Tol <jjvantol@USWEST.NET>
Subject:      Re: Fast German Auto rebuilds and core charges?
Comments: To: John Anderson <janderson@IOLINC.NET>, Vanagon@VANAGON.COM
In-Reply-To:  <008a01bdf4cb$80f7bde0$828166ce@default>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

At 10:59 PM -0500 10/10/98, John Anderson wrote:
>I'm just going to note.  Stephens will give it to you hard on the core
>charges as well, with the prices FGA lists perhaps even considering the core
>charge they aren't so bad.  And I've found Stephens and AVP "quality" to be
>somewhere between questionable and laughable.  AVP is quite liberal and will
>give you your core money for near anything, which makes you wonder about
>their parts, made me wonder why a seat collapsed from day 1 and lasted about
>5000 miles on a 2000cc rebuild.  Stephens screws you for the core and
>delivers ill machined or incompletely machined junk (waterboxer head
>experience.)  So all things considered, somebody should try these guys out
>and give a definative answer.  The air cooled charges aren't so bad after
>all, wasserboxers are a bit hefty.  Some may say I've been unlucky with
>vendors, I say I've just been a bit more descriminating than the average 16
>year old kid.  We've heard about the core policy from FGA but no real pans
>on quality I recall in the last 4-5 years so who knows?

I second you on the pan of Stephens. I too have had a bad wbx head
experience. Two rebuilt 1.9 l heads. One had a crack near one of the studs
(not discovered until after it was installed) and both had weld material
that needed to be filed back from the stud holes.

The first replacement for the leaky head had cracks between the valve seats
that had been peened. BAD BAD! I insisted on a different head. MSHP
insisted they'd never peen cracks, but the cracks were ok. Bull. I might
reuse a head with cracks between the valve seats (Bently says it's ok) in a
pinch, but I'd never accept a "rebuilt" head with cracks. The third head is
ok, but they've decided (wrong headedly) to apply a graphite coating,
which, if I'm not mistaken, will actually increase corrosion, not decrease
it as they claim. Anyway, I'll never buy from them again. Besides that,
they still owe me money...

Joshua Van Tol -- jjvantol@lear.csp.ee.memphis.edu