I had a diesel Westy for several years. Had no problems with the
engine.
Sounds like this prior owner had a crappy job done on the alleged
rebuild; or maybe no rebuild at all is more likely the truth. The
timing for the blow up is quite suspect to me. I would like for a
professional mechanic familiar with VW diesels to examine
everything. I think we will discover the PO knew of a major problem
that made itself known to him, and intentionally dumped it on your
buddy. Fraud. Plus it put your buddy in danger. But,
let's wait and see what the real evidence turns out to be before I jump
to a conclusion.
Experienced diesel vets on this list can and will probably accurately
deduce the problem. I could a hundred guesses, but I lack the
technical mechanical knowledge. I just know from experience that
the diesel engine is a good engine in terms of reliability, provided it
is maintained even halfway decently. If maintained to
"Deutsche Methode" (Hallo, Herr Doktor Tim) then it should last
longer than you want it too!
HK
Dieselizing in various auto's, ridin' quiet in a 91 Westy,
maintaining the heck of each
At 08:44 PM 12/15/99 -0800, easoars wrote:
A shipmate of min=
e
just purchased a country home I think thats the name of the conversion.
He picked it up in Lake tohoe and started to drive down home to Southern
Cal. About 200 miles into the trip the engine locked up. He had it towed
to a garage and the mechenaic said that always happens to the diesel
engine vanagons and offered to take it off his hands for $200.00. My
buddy called me up and was at the point to do this but I convinced him
that he would lose all the money he put into buying it. After 250 dollars
of renting a trailer and truck from u haul he brought it home. The
vanagon overall is staight with minor dents hiding underneath the bra and
no rust. He is thinking about taking the diesel out of his rabbit that is
running find but has about 150 thousand miles on it. I told him before
taking the engine out of the rabbit inspect the vanagons engine to see
what the problem is. Is this something that happens quite often
w/diesels. By the way the owner supposely replaced the head and renewed
the oil. He confirmed that the oil was clean and the filter was new. Is
there anyone out there that can help him locate a good bargain on an
engine and get him back on track. He was determined to get a Westy after
he saw the one I just finished putting together.
Andy
82 Westy