I have a 1.6L NA diesel engine that I bought from a local salvage yard. The
engine had a known history (I know the last owner well), so I figured I'd go
for it.

After pulling the head, I notice a lot of grit and dust in the cylinders.
The valves aren't exactly clean either. It looks like maybe some oxidation
occured? I could be wrong about that.

My thought was to pull the pistons and have "the glaze broken" in each
cylinder to restore the cross-hatch pattern of a clean bore.  I'm reading an
engine builder book. They recommend to have any ridges reamed out before
removing the pistons so you dont damage them. Is this necessary or is there
a "work around"? I'm not even sure that the ridges are that bad at all on
this engine. I must theroughly clean the block assembly and I'll know
better.

Must I remove the crank shaft to do all this safely? I'm afraid to disturb
the main bearings. If I were to remove the crank shaft, would it need to be
machined before mating it with new bearing surfaces? Or maybe the main
bearing could be reused? It seems sometimes it's smart to simply reuse parts
if it would require a great deal of additional work to make every mesh well
mechanically.

I read about the cam bearings as well.  They mention that cam bearing must
be very precisely machined. When I read this, it makes me think I should
either have the head professionally rebuilt or just leave it alone after a
therough cleaning.

I am thinking it might be helpful if I could provide various photos that
might help visualize this project.

The book I am reading is more geared to large V-6/V-8 engines, so I'm not
exactly sure how applicable everything I'm reading might be.

Thanks,

Bradley Flubacher
State College, PA
'82 VW diesel westy
'84 GL wasserboxer