I'm not sure he needed a new engine in the first place. Why was it done?
The compression readings he posted in Aug 2002 seemed to be what
prompted the whole engine saga. Given how far and how often Larry ended
up limping around the country on crippled rebuilt motors it certainly
seems possible to me that he might  have been better off sticking with
the original until it died, assuming it even did. If he was willing to
limp the high dollar motors around so often, why not just limp the
original until it died?

There were other breakdowns that occurred all too soon after he had
replaced parts. Wheel bearings come to mind. Why did he get all new
ones? Then a couple thousand  miles later he has a failure. Was there
even a failure to start with or was the full replacement another
preemptive effort gone bad?

Over many years on this and other VW van lists there have been stories
from people who spent great sums on their Vanagon getting ready for a
big trip. The Caravana trip list comes to mind. These folks were going
to the tip of South America and back in a group of VW vans. Some members
replaced a lot of expensive things before the trip and still had those
same things break down early on. Perhaps there is something to be
learned from this.

The syrup was good, Ben, thanks!

Mark

Benny boy wrote:

>"""As for Larry, he made what seems like a classic mistake to me. Some
>people figure that you can preemptively replace enough stuff as an
>insurance policy to ensure  a more trouble free trip. Time and again
>this has proven to be a waste of time and money. Fix what is truly
>broken and save the rest of the money until you really need to spend it."""
>
>I don't agree Mark... when you leave for a 1 to 2 years trip, you do as much
>as you can so you won't loose to much time in the shop.... that is 60k miles
>trip! not your everyday weekend trip.
>
>He did one thing wrong, and he knows about it! Wrong choice of engine....but
>look now, he as an broken AVP after 9k miles...
>
>Life IS A risk!
>
>Cheers, Ben
>
>
>