J.A. McEachern Wrote:

 >I have a friend who has a motor on order from VW.  They said >that not were
 currently available in the country; VW factory >rebuild would be coming in
 from Canada.  Any thooughts?

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 I think this has been the case for a while now, and not just for wasserboxers.

 I picked up a flyer from the parts desk at Boardwalk VW in Redwood City, CA
 in the late '80s that described the VW engine rebuilding facility in Canada
 and showed several photographs a large open building with machining equip-
 ment sprinkled liberally around it. The article implied that all VWofA
 rebuilts <bugs, buses, rabbits, dashers, etc.> would be coming from there
 instead of Germany. The article's tone was one of building confidence in 
 the Canadian engines - "the quality will be every bit as good as you have
 been accustomed to in the German factory rebuilds...." or something of that
 sort. 

 I wish I knew whether my previous engine, a VWofA unit installed by a dealer
 <while in possesion of the PO> was a German or a Canadian unit - It was
 an 1800 assembled on a 2 liter case <single oil relief instead of dual> it
 had a camshaft with the little rings on it which indicate the cam is for
 an automatic <mine is a manual> and the  engine was assembled with the
 wrong camshaft bearings <type I instead of type IV> which eventually caused
 it's demise <chunks of bearing material appearing in the oil strainer
 accompanied by low oil pressure>. In that engine's behalf, I should also
 mention that it did last over 100Kmiles.

 Anyway, the fact that the engine has to come from Canada is likely to be 
 the norm and not an indication to speculate that there is another reason to 
 panic about wasserboxer reliability. It's just those pesky leaks.....

 Dave