A leaky rear main seal or a leaky flywheel seal can kill your clutch on
a manual tranny. I know. I just had to replace mine with only 18 moths
since brand new.

John Rodgers
88 Gl Driver

Ed DeBolt wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> I purchased an avp engine 2.1 wbx last december.... I have been thru the
> exact same thing you have described....
>
> the bottom line is that avp installs a cheap flywheel seal. there are 2
> seals with the same vw parts number. one of the seals is much beefier and
> does not leak. I did a bunch of research on this and found a shop in nevada
> that installs a lot of avp motors. the first thing they do is replace this
> seal. the stupid thing is that the better seal only costs a few dollars
> more.
>
> My leak was not that bad however. it would drip a little and slime the
> bottom of the motor. A couple of things I noticed.
>
> if I overfill the motor with oil then it tends to leak. In the process I
> learned that the wbx motor becomes less efficient when fully filled with
> oil. its best to have the oil level halfway between the high on low marks on
> the dipstick
>
> The other thing is that over time the leak has decreased and now is leaking
> so little I am not going to do anything about it. I now have 7K miles on
> mine and even run synthetic 15/50 oil. I was concerned about using synthetic
> after the break in period. I thought its slippery nature would increase the
> leakage. fortunately that's not the case.
>
> I had been giving some thought to changing trannys since mine has 175K on
> it. so anyway I decided to wait and see if the seal seated better and lo and
> behold it did. I still have a slight slight leak now. It will accumulate a
> slight amount on the bottom of the motor but never drips onto the ground...
>
> I have heard that a leaking seal can be as bad as to fling oil up onto the
> rear window.....
>
> avp made the same claim to me that the flywheel was not prepped correctly
> etc....excuses excuses.
>
> I like my engine now that it is broken in. early on the power was not so
> great. btw the best valve adjustment seems to be 1 3/4 turns. another thing
> I am not so impressed with is that my valve adjustment screws were reground.
> I found that to be very unprofessional. I replaced the screws but I wonder
> where else they have cut corners.
>
> good job finding that open snorkel valve. I too had this done by a vw shop
> in tucson az and it probably contributed to wearing out my old engine. my
> motor would run hotter and tucson shop said it was because of the coolant
> mix blah blah. I should have taken it somewhere else to get another opinion
>
> feel free to email me if you have other questions
>
> ed
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Krogh <VW85Westy@AOL.COM>
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Date: Wednesday, June 20, 2001 9:10 AM
> Subject: New Engine Oil Leak
>
> >Hey List,
> >  Please cc any response to Kroghphoto@aol.com, as I don't get to this
> email address too often.
> >
> >  I have replaced Zippy's old engine (at 190,000) with a new AVP rebuild.
> I
> >  had the 2.1 crank installed, and I have to say I like the power increase.
> >  It's not a Ferrarri, just a slightly faster Vanagon.
> >
> >  I have a problem, however, and I seem to be in the middle here.  I
> noticed
> > an oil leak from the area between the tranny and the engine at less than
> 300
> >  miles.  The shop that did the work said that it was a leaky front engine
> >  seal, certainly caused by defective parts or work by AVP.  AVP says that
> it
> >  is most likely from poor flywheel installation.
> >
> >  The shop charged me $95 for the flywheel, and I thought they said
> something
> >  about having gotten a deal on it somewhere.  After the leak, they told me
> >  more specifically that it had come from a VW reman that was ordered for a
> >  customer, and that the flywheel was removed when he switched from Manual
> to
> >  Auto trans.
> >
> >  AVP will only honor warrantee if the seal is not scored or "burned
> looking"
> >  as this would indicate improper flywheel installation. Additionally, they
> >  said that they will pay for 3.5 hours labor for the work, and my garage
> said
> >  that is a 5 hour job.  AVP will only pay $40 an hour (which I knew when I
> >  bought the engine).  So that's $140 on a $280 repair.
> >
> >
> >  The installer is a shop in Maryland that does a *lot* of Vanagon work.
> >  Judging by the parking lot that may be half their business.  They seemed
> to
> >  know all the little quirkiness of a Vanagon, and said that they had done
> >  hundreds of engine replacements.
> >
> >  They did a pretty nice job overall, although slow.  I put no pressure on
> > them to do it quickly, just friendly weekly calls on the status.  There
> were
> > two
> >  problems with the installation besides the leak.
> >
> >  The first was that the motor quit within the first 12 miles of driving.
> > They said that turned out to be a loose wire on some FI control that was
> > flooding
> >  it out.  The odometer indicated that they had test driven it for about 36
> >  miles.  Fixed for free.
> >
> >  The second is a temperture fluctuation that was greater than my old
> engine.
> >  Idling quickly raises the temperture until the fan clicks on, whereupon
> it
> >  stabilises at slightly warm.  At 1000 miles I asked that to bleed the
> > system, which they said they did.  Within a few miles the heat problem
> > returned.
> >  Upon inspection, I saw a missing hose clamp on the hose from the
> expansion
> >  tank to the fill tank.  Also, the bleeder valve in the engine compartment
> > was left open.  This made me nervous about rushed/shoddy work.
> >
> >  Questions:
> >  1.  Any insight on what is most likely to have caused the seal to fail?
> >
> >  2.  Does the "book" indicate that dropping the tranny and replacing the
> seal
> >  is only a 3.5 hour job? AVP stated at time of purchase that the
> > reimbursement was based on a published time schedule for repairs.
> >
> >  3.  Should I try to be there when they do the work to check out what
> caused
> >  it (they have said that I can wait)
> >
> >  4.  Does temperture fluctuation indicate air in the cooling system?
> Should I
> >  insist on a full Bently-style bleed?
> >
> >  Thanks for all your help.
> >  Peter & Zippy (now Zippier!)
> >
>
> NetZero Platinum
> No Banner Ads and Unlimited Access
> Sign Up Today - Only $9.95 per month!
> http://www.netzero.net