Christopher Bridge writes:
> 
> Someone noted that all (most) VW's which are for sale have recently rebuilt 
> engines in them.  I have been pondering this over the last few weeks.
> A few thoughts:
> 1. the most obvious: They aren't all rebuilt.
> 2. They may be rebuilt, but very few parts replaced.
> 3. maybe rebuilt means the engine has had a valve job recently.

My guess:

  4. They have been rebuilt at some point in their lives.

I'm sure that's true of most air-cooled VW's.  I've seen people advertise
their engines rebuilt, and when I ask how recently, they say, "oh, about
60,000 miles ago" or similar.

> Seriously, how would you tell if the engine had been rebuilt?  If it was 
> very clean, I might believe them, but in the space of two days, I cleaned my 
> engine till you could eat off it.  So who knows.  When I was shopping for my 
> current bus, I found a bus with a "freshly rebuilt engine" in it, the owner 
> told me that it had less than 10k on it. I told him that it was a bald-faced 
> lie, and left.  That engine was absolutly filthy, and hardly looked or 
> sounded rebuilt.

Sounds like it *was* a bald-faced lie.  I usually use the cleanliness to
judge if the engine is rebuilt.  It is easy to clean an engine, true, but
I think rebuilts are cleaned SO WELL that you can tell the difference
between that and someone who gave their engine the once-over with a can
of GUNK.  On an air-cooled VW, I would look for oil leaks.  None would
be a strong reason to believe someone if they say their engine is rebuilt.
Reciepts help too.

-David

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David Schwarze                     '73 VW Safare Custom Camper  (Da Boat)
SAIC Comsystems, San Diego Calif.  '73 Capri GT 2800            (Da Beast)
e-mail:  schwarze@nosc.mil         '87 Mustang Lx 5.0           (Da Sleeper)
http://papaya.nosc.mil/~schwarze   '93 Weber WG-50              (Da Piano)
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