Thanks, David ,

Upon taking off the cyl. head of my Jetta Diesel I found that it was out of
flatness by 0,009".  Sent it to Boiston Engine Bob and got it back in
perfect condition. It was totally done, clean, looked as new one. I dealt
with Bob with great pleasure thereafter many times, talked to him at great
lengths on VW shows. As a manufacturing engineer I have quite a bit up my
sleeves with 40 years of experience in super-precision machining. Bob did
recieve many distorted diesel heads and I recommended to him to utilise
lapping process. Using this process I was able to achieve flatness on 18"
long pieces within a half of a light wave length. With a surface medium gray
color on aluminum. I could adjust surface's roughness to my desire. Lapping
machines aren't expensive.
I am not aware if Bob ever implemented my suggestion, but I once lapped the
head of my 1992 Jetta on a lapping machine with 24" rings.
I let the head go for 2.5 hours with a medium size slurry and it came out
far flatter then it would come out from manufacturer. The last 15 minutes
rough slurry was introduced for the surface to be rough and bite into the
gasket.
Bob was a man I considered a real professional and as such he will remain in
my memory.

Ark

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Beierl" <dbeierl@attglobal.net>
To: "Arkady Mirvis" <arkadymirvis@GMAIL.COM>
Cc: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 5:13 PM
Subject: Re: Boston engine web site

> At 03:27 AM 5/11/2010, Arkady Mirvis wrote:
>>I personally knew Bob. What happen to him, when he died?   Ark
>
> Hi Ark,
>
> He had cancer.  There are a few pictures of the memorial caravan and a
> million pictures of the funeral service here:
> http://picasaweb.google.com/dbeierl/BobDonalds?authkey=Gv1sRgCIbVwMWMhePAXQ&feat=directlink
>
> Yours,
> David