The heads off the left side, the pistons are clean, walls in good shape,  head still looks good after a closer look
cant feel even the slightest slack in either of these piston arms
can see inside the case and there isnt any scoring or marks of any kind on the cam that I can see

I didnt take a good look at the whole rocker arm valve assembly.

Even though it has hydro lifters, could something on that end have started tapping into a knock?

Its not nearly a clunking noise i was hearing

I dont know anything about the history of this except it was recently rebuilt by a mechanic.
It was easy to take apart at least so far...

________________________________
From: Richard Jones <jones@colorado.edu>
To: beer_eighty@YAHOO.COM
Cc: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
Sent: Monday, June 1, 2009 6:54:13 PM
Subject: re: '82-2.0 teardown. help me find the knocking please

> A ticking progressed to a knocking my final trip of last summer.sounds like front end of the left side case.

I have an '81 air-cooled, non-California.  It ran too
hot around Bishop and Lone Pine one September and started
knocking.  I drove it home to Boulder.  Teardown
revealed the noise was piston slap.  The cylinders were
all scuffed up.

Cause:  poor sealing of the engine tin to the body, so
heat was coming up to mix with the cooling air, which
then didn't.

Good luck!

Richard