AVP in Sacramento, CA rebuilds heads to eliminate the seat-
dropping problem. Vanagon air cooled heads are about $180, and
waterboxer heads are about $220. Their webpage with details and
prices is at http://www.sacbiz.com/avp/

I have toured their shop and am impressed that they know what
they're doing and do a good job for a great price. I saw how
they grind out corrosion damage on wasserboxer heads, then
weld and machine them back to spec.

I bought a 2.0L aircooled long block from them, and it's been
great. Only problem was a moderate oil leak from a bad weld over
an oil galley plug, but AVP paid me labor time to fix it under
warranty, and there's been no problem since.

Nick
Mendocino, California
'82 Westy, '88 &'89 Jettas

On Mon, 3 Aug 1998, Gary Shea <shea@GTSDESIGN.COM> wrote:

>On Mon, 3 Aug 1998, Curtis Gatlin wrote:
>> Which should I buy?  Should I buy new German heads or rebuilt after market?
>> Who sells new german heads for under $400 bucks a pop.
>>
>> Curtis

>What kind of engine do you have?  If an air-cooled, then
in my opinion you should buy rebuilt heads that have had the
valve-seat dropping problem eliminated, meaning Mark Stephens
in California.  I dunno if anyone else does that.  I sent
my heads to Mark Stephens... it cost a small fortune (maybe
$450 total for both heads?) but I don't worry about dropping
a valve seat at some random juncture.

>If it's a waterboxer, then I'm clueless.

 >       Gary