I did a rebuild using the Muir book on an Airboxer.  It was not a piece of
cake and I kept running into problems.  I would stop work until I had the
answer.  I had a workbench in my garage. I worked slowly. It worked fine
after I finished and I had a feeling of accomplishment.

I had the most difficult time getting the end play exactly correct without
the proper tool.  There is one more think I would do, if I went through it
again; I would have an engine stand.  The 2000 is a heavy engine for one guy
to wrestle and turn on the bench.

Bill
----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl F. Bloss" <bloss@ENTER.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, December 06, 1999 10:46 PM
Subject: Engine rebuilding resources

Well as I get deeper into this head gasket job, I'm hearing more voices
telling
me to go for the full rebuild.

Having never done more than change the oil on my cars up to about 3 years
ago,
I'm working my way up the DIY shade-tree mechanic ladder.  Thus I was hoping
to
just do the head gaskets and let that be the lesson from this engine.

But now that the engine is on the floor and I have time (it's a spare engine
and the gaskets in Bev's engine aren't leaking _that_ bad :-), I keep
hearing
it's just a bit more work and a few more $ to crack the case, do the
bearings,
probably rings, etc.  Ron at the Bus Depot even offered the loaner VW tool
kit
for wrist pins and he's "just around the corner" from me.

So where do I read up on rebuilds?  I have the Muir Idiot Guide, but skipped
the rebuild sections so far.  I hear about a Fisher book, I check on
Amazon.com
and found the Wilson and Grissom book about aircooled VW rebuilding.  Any
other
suggestions?

-Karl

Karl and Kristina Bloss, Trexlertown, PA
'87 Westfalia Weekender  "Beverley" - 190K miles
http://www.enter.net/~bloss/vw/
PA/NJ Vanagon owner's mailing list:
http://www.enter.net/~bloss/vw/pavanagon/