Tom Stone wrote:

>  I did
> a compression test and got 120, 135, 90, 145.  I hooked up the leak down
> tester and got low leakage readings (10-15%) in all but #3.  It was 40%.

Tom, with those indications I would bite the bullet and go in for the repair. You
will have nothing but grief in the future if you don't do a valve job and re-ring
#3, or better , install new piston, rings and matching cylinder.. It's number
three cylinder that generally fails on all these flat 4 VW engines. It just seems
to run hotter than all the rest and gives up the ghost sooner than the rest. My
2.1L in my 88 GL was doing the white puff of smoke thing and I ignored it. Then
quite suddenly it decided it simply was not going to co-operate anymore. Burned a
hole in the piston, scored the cylinder wall, and left me stranded on a Saturday
night on I-40 about 15 miles west of the town of Clinton, Oklahoma.

It might as well have been the end of the earth......well,  was the end of the
earth. Took me a week to exticate myself and the van from there and get to
somewhere where I could get it repaired. Required a complete engine change, and
that was not going to happen in Clinton, OK.

Point is, bite the bullet, fix it ... what ever it costs ....or it will leave you
or your loved ones stranded in the most inopportune location.

Luck,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver