200K is an awful lotta miles on a pancake watercooled engine essentially
factory designed/modified from an air cooled design pushing the weight of a
Vanagon (more with a Wesfalia version).  You have close to a record in
mileage for one of these engines.

The previous owner of my 84 Westy 1.9 was only able to get 87K before
throwing a rod through the case (3" diameter hole) and detonating the piston
into hundreds of pieces and breaking the camshaft into 3 pieces amongst
other internal damage.  This is the condition my Westy was in when I bought
her in 1996.

Now that I have maybe put the fear o' God into you......I thinks it's time
for a rebuild, why chance it, especially if caught in the middle of nowhere
;-)

Or as Mr. Eastwood said "Are you feeling lucky"?.....

--
Jim Thompson
84 Westfalia 2.1 "Ole Putt"
73 K Ghia Coupe "Denise"
72 411 Station Wagon "Pug"
oldvolkshome@gmail.com
http://www.oldvolkshome.com
**********************************

On 9/10/06, levi hawkins <b1levi@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Couple days ago in Idaho, while climbing a particularly steep country road
> in 2nd gear, experienced what I will assume to be rod-knock (never heard it
> before), like someone with a small hammer suddenly on the engine about 2-3
> times per second.
> Shut down and had lunch, and finished that last 50 feet without incident.
> Hasn't happened since, but I'm wondering if I have been delivered an omen.
> Original 1.9 with about 200,000 on it....