I want to second the AVP opinion. I rarely post here anymore but
couldnt resist trying to save someone from an AVP nightmare. I bought
a syncro with a fresh AVP (less than 11k miles on it, verified by the
receipt) . The engine was gutless and sounded aweful. Found out it had
low compression. Had to have it rebuilt by Northwest Connecting Rod
here in Seattle. It was past the warranty (installed over 12 months
previous but it had less than 12k miles,) so after a few phone calls
with AVP and warnings about "maybe it was overheated" (it wasn't) I
gave up.

As for the "factory" rebuilds (look for a yellow sticker on the
drivers side head) they were built under contract with Cummins in
Canada by VW of N.America, and yes, the rumors of mismatched parts etc
are true according to Jerry at Northwest. I have however experienced
many of them that ran quite fine.

-s
ps I'm hoping that Gowesty's rebuild program is successful, and can
prove long term reliability can be had with upgraded power in the 2.1
ltr

On 7/25/05, Donald Baxter <onanov@gmail.com> wrote:
> I got my 1.9L through VW, remanufactured in Canada--this was back in
> '96 i guess.  No regrets.  I ordered it through Jim Ellis VW in
> Chamblee GA and had my own, trusted, independent mechanic do the
> installation.  That was at 141,000 miles and it's still going strong
> at 218,000 miles now.
> 
> db
> 
> On 7/23/05, Robert Cardo <rrecardo@webtv.net> wrote:
> > AVP Junk.
> > 
> > Your best bet for the bucks is a genuine VW reman engine.
> > 
> 
> 
> -- 
> ---------------------------------------------
> Donald Baxter
> 316 Ridgeview Avenue
> University Heights, Iowa 52246
> www.onanov.com
>