Hi, I'm a gambler, and so far I've been either lucky or a good judge of used engines. I would pull the heads on the engine you have and see what their condition is. Matter of fact, I would only pull the leaky head. If the first head is pitted, plan on replacing both. If not, just replace the gasket on the one side. I did this on an engine a few years back, and the other never did leak. I finally pulled the whole engine and replaced it with one from a wrecking yard. That was after about 30K miles. Before going for a rebuilt, I'd check out the used engine market. Someone listed two 2.1L just this week. he was looking for bids on them. May still be available. Anyway, like I said, I'm a gambler on these things, and so far I've put over 250K miles on $1800 dollars of used engines. YMMV Karl Wolz ----- Original Message ----- From: t obrien <calwestfalia@NETSCAPE.NET> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> Sent: Friday, November 05, 1999 5:45 PM Subject: New 84 Waterbox...
Well, I bought Cory's 84 (or 83 1/2) Waterboxer... It has a blown head gasket. It has also been sitting for a year. So a couple of questions... 1.) Do I pull the thing apart and see how bad it is? Should I do just new heads? 2.) Perhaps I should invest in a long block ($1800) from Boston Engine? These guys seem to have a good reputation. 3.)Is there a West Coast rebuilder with the same reputation that you know of? Save on shipping charges. I priced a VW rebuild from the dealer ($2900 plus a grand core charge). Not worth it in my mind. It takes them at least a month to get it. 4.) for this kind of money, is it worth considering the Kennedy Subaru retrofit? Has anyone done one? Should I be looking into one of the Jappanese used motor import houses (like the one in Almeda, CA)? It's Friday (I hope). Be patient with all my questions. BTW- The van looks great. Just need to get it running. tim ____________________________________________________________________ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape WebMail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com. |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.