I have noticed that I hear something that sounds like faint valve clatter
coming from the engine of my '85 GL.  This happened once before and
disappeared, now it's back.  I hear the noise while accelerating and
cruising but NOT at idle.  I figured if I had a stuck valve, that's when I'd
here it--no valve noise on starting up (like in my '85 Jetta and '92 Passat).

The engine uses no appreciable amount of oil between 5,000 mile changes of
synthetic.  No coolant leaks since replacing the crossover near the plastic
tank.  Heat's working very well since gerry rigging a new connection to the
front valve with the cable.

I have no idea what the compression is--I don't want to know!

Any ideas from the wasserboxer experts of the list?

By the way, I "taught" one of the secretaries at work (recently divorced)
how to change the oil in her '84 BMW 733ia.  Is it my imagination or has BMW
overly engineered everything so that amateurs are baffled with an oil
change?  We got through it, but I have never had to remove three bolts, a
cover plate and a hose just to drain oil.  I did sort of like the
arrangement with the oil filter, the cannister doesn't get replaced, just
the filter element.  Less junk for the landfill, anyway.  Brenda is now
certain that she doesn't want to do this herself.

Donald Baxter