My first Westy, a '76 with a highly bastardized 1.8 that had a single Weber carb, was a GEX rebuild. If the PO was correct, it had 75K on it when I bought it. On it's first oil change by me, chunks of what looked like crumpled aluminum foil came out in the oil! I thought for sure it's days were numbered. But, I figured what the hell, I'm gonna drive it til it blows-6K later it was still going strong! Then I sold it to a guy who drove it 75 miles a day to work and back for a year, then he sold it. That engine never did quit-as far as I know anyway, I lost track of it after that. It would have been rebuilt sometime around 1996-1997. I've heard at one time GEX did do decent work-a long,long time ago.   Jeff