Back to the morass. Just spoke with the boys in the bug shop and it turns
out that my engine is a factory (dealer) rebuild, which is good for me in
that the internal components are in good shape. Don't know how I missed the
sticker. It's not an old rebuild judging by bearing wear, colour and
condition of pistons and con rods. He figgers maybe 50,000 kilometres at
most. But the downside is that when they line-bored the case they didn't do
it right and left too much clearance for a few bearings which is why the
thrust bearing can move in its seat and is now worn. This is a dealer
rebuild and they still didn't do it right. I can see an average Joe-Shmo
shop not knowing how to do a proper VW rebuild, but you would think VW
would. What is really scary is that as time passes, there will be fewer and
fewer shops that will know how to do this stuff properly. Maybe that�s not
such a bad thing as these engines are so archaic and out-dated, but for all
their shortcomings no one can deny they have character.