No need to respond to this posting. I posted it a few weeks ago, but am
doing so again with a proper title so as to create a nice archive about my
diesel rebuild travails...

I just picked up a 1982 diesel, two tone brown and tan with a sunroof.
All original and nary a spot of rust. Best of all, it was nearly free (had
to trade a 1500-watt camping generator for it). It had been sitting for five
years. The PO claimed that the engine was "bad." I towed it home, put in a
battery from my other car, and it fired on the first crank. But it emitted a
fearsome skreeching sound at about the frequency of the engine RPM. The oil
light didn't go out. The engine died, and is very reluctant to start, though
it does catch. I'm sure I ruined it by not pressuring up the oil system.
Dumb me.

My VW diesel buddy thinks I should take off the oil pan and/or the head
to diagnose the damage. I think I can just take off the oil pan and look
at the bearings and the cylinder walls from below. I'm no proctologist,
but I think I should be able to see enough to make a judgement. I have two
questions:
1) Is the oil pan removal sufficient?
2) In case the damage is terminal and I can find a 1.6d block at a
junkyard for CHEAP, anyone in the Bay Area know where to rent a hoist or
better yet care to spend a saturday giving me pointers and watching me
swear? I am on the ultra-low student budget and am financing this venture
by selling off "assets" (mopeds and other foolish toys).

Daniel Snow
PhD Student
University of California at Berkeley

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