Jim, you don't need to convince me about how expensive VW engine are, or how
 complicated is their design. I will NEVER buy a VW car in my life, i said
car. And of course, i will NEVER put a VW engine/conversion in my Van (yea
yea, i hear you purist VW fanatic :-) , i was just asking about how it look.
Last week i helped a friend, he had a 280k miles Honda Accord, we had to do
the head gasket, i'm not even shure i had to clean my hands after that easy
job. Now, that IS AN engine! 180psi on each cylinder after a head gasket
job, head NOT warped. This engine is probably good for anoter safe 100k
miles. And it's NOT a diesel, and it's economical!

Now, i have to work on another friend DIRTY TDI at 220k miles..... pffff.

About our (i should now say "your"...) beloved Wasser engine, yesterday i
had to do a water pump on a nice 85, i rarely do those with the engine still
in the engine bay... it took me a good 4.5 hours, yea, why? because every
darn bolt broke! i had to change most metal cooling line except one (wait,
my story is NOT finish), i also (of course) change the 2 small conector
hoses, left head and the joint between the 2 heads/metal coolant line... so
back to the one i did NOT change!!! that small elbow on the right head! this
morning when i came to the shop, my floor was full of coolant, about 4
gallons on the floor! guess what broke /leak in the night, that elbow metal
tube, i had to play around that one to put the new small cooling
line/junction (see picture), of course, it was so thin (rusty) that i
probably scratch it with something and it broke.
http://www.benplace.com/85rouge/rouge112.jpg (on right)

So now, maybe some will understand my engine reseal/engine conversion page.
When you put your fingers in a wasser, be ready that everything can fall
appart. I just told that guy that he should sell his van or put a good 3K$
on it.

Ben

On Wed, 23 May 2007 01:24:30 -0400, Jim Akiba <syncrolist@BOSTIG.COM> wrote:

>You guys do like to buy low production expensive engines don't you... the
>2.0Ts are going for 4k+ engine only! You know my philosophy... Go cheap,
>rugged,  and plentiful, you'll never have to depend on a high mileage engine
>and if it ever needs spark plugs you can just buy another engine and throw
>the old one away for recycling still buttoned up. Simply installing is
>easier/faster/cheaper/more reliable than rebuilding unless you have time,
>space, tools, and experience. But if your engines cost $4.5k you're going to
>have to rebuild them at some point to make it worth the investment(unless
>you're loaded and don't actually drive/use it that much then it doesn't
>matter), and you better hope they have good timing belts that *don't* fail
>before they're supposed to. Lots of guys will come to this conclusion after
>they've bought two pricey engines in their van's lives. Then again this
>thread isn't about practicality.. so I nominate the 1.4 TSI as my
>ridiculo-swap, totally not worth it but would be cool to show off.
>
>Ben check out stephan's 1.8t conversion it's a beaut, I'd let Stephan, mike,
>and jeremiah touch my vanagon anytime :)  The last 1.8T swap I did was on a
>customer new beetle 4 months ago, it broke its timing belt and self
>destructed(I googled lot's of premature 1.8t timing belts while checking for
>tsbs/recalls, surprise VW says no issue.. just like their "silent recall"
>98-99 passat oil lines sans heat shielding that coke up and kill the turbos
>that they don't acknowledge, done those too). The dealer wanted $3500 to
>replace the head(they would have left the love taps from the valves
>hammering themselves into the pistons) I put in a salvage 1.8T with new
>timing set for $4300... and I'll never ever do it again.. still wasn't worth
>it for me, the engine cost $3200 with 90k, but at least I have some cool "S"
>shaped valves as souvenirs. With fresh belting and heat shielding though, I
>like the 1.8t.. very well selected turbo... it didn't need 20 valves, has
>that bizarre single front timing cog and rear timing chain setup to be
>different, but what the hey it's a true VAG motor. The panzer III of the
>conversion world if you will.
>
>Jim Akiba
>