Hi Stewart,
I have never, ever, seen a waterboxer engine drop or suck a valve. Period.

The vales in them are really good ..and valve seats too. Not a weak area
at all.
Commonly I find 'light burnt' valves ....like rough on the sealing surfaces.
    I have seen maybe 'two ever' badly burnt exhaust valves, and maybe
not even that many.

I work on them full time of course, if that's not pretty clear.

Gotcha covered on rebuidable cores. Mostly in 1.9 cases, which can take
a 2.1 crank.
I have a few 2.1's ,and 'too many' 1.9 cores.

I always figured ( diesel vanagon people have considered this too ) ..
if you have to carry a SPARE ENGINE ....what's the point ! ?

Get something that burns more fuel, handles like a truck ...but the
engine won't ever wear out or fail...like a Dodge van say.
Otherwise ..
build and keep a decent engine in your van for trips.
the Actual out-of-pocket expense does not even have to be that much to
do your own rebuild.
Especially 'some here, some there' over time.

Scott
www.turbovans.com

On 9/9/2012 11:46 AM, Stuart MacMillan wrote:
> All aircooleds certainly did, but I don't recall seeing anything on this
> list while I've been checking it (off and on since 1997 or so).  Since I've
> got leaky valves, particularly the exhaust valves which were notorious for
> snapping off "BWBX" (before the water boxer).  Anyone remember the sodium
> filled exhaust valves in the 2.0 of the early '70s?
>
>
>
> After thoroughly analyzing and pricing conversions, (min $12,000 by the time
> you are done with all the worn out ancillary crap, including the
> transmission) I may be looking to either slap some heads on this one or look
> for a rebuildable core I can build over the winter.  I could also upgrade
> the other systems piece by piece over time.
>
>
>
> But, if this engine isn't a valve eater, (just a rod sucker, at least for
> the 2.1) then I may just drive it, but only within 200 miles!
>
>
>
> One thought is to just have a spare engine in the garage at all times and
> forget about the conversion, but I would like to take some extended trips
> someday and don't want to trailer an extra engine.
>
>
>
> Stuart
>
> '85 Westy
>