I have read on a number of forums about engine reconditioners, so heres my two penneth and experience with a well known company,for legal reasons I am not able to name this company.
To be fair to them I bought my engine over three years ago,but have not had either the time or the money to do anything about it until recently, so it is well out of warranty, if indeed there was any !
I did email them about this issue and received a fair but hostile response claiming that my wording was poor and my comments litigious, I can't see how this could be as I merely told them the facts.
From the outset this engine had given nothing but problems, bad vibration, poor running and so on, with less than 20 miles it developed an oil leak, they were informed of this on a number of occasions before finally sending a spring loaded pushrod tube, the leak turned out to be a poor casting in the cylinder head, again they were informed about this and sent an email with photos, I received no response from them, eventually I gave up as I had ran out of time and was due overseas.
On my return some many months later, I gave up on this engine as it is/was just NOT trustworthy, It was removed and another engine put in.
Earlier this year having had time to build my workshop and get things rolling I decided to strip the lump,
Its hard to know where to start as there were so many things wrong with this engine its hard to believe it ever ran at all, the casings were cleaned badly and given a quick blow over with some paint, the oil gallery plugs had NOT been removed, on removal a heavy deposit of black sludge was taken out, this did NOT happen whilst I used this engine, as it only covered just under 1K so its not possible for this to happen, the sludge was always there, and they had failed to clean and inspect the cases properly, the bearing surfaces are very badly pitted, so I would have not used them anyway ! the oil valves were scored and stuck as they had used second hand ones.The crankshaft was totally out of balance and the flywheel miles out, the rod weights were all over the place, VW recommends rods to be within 5 grams of each other.. not so on this lump way off, how the hell they expected an engine to run with such problems. On this engine they had fitted new cylinder heads, but the valves and rest of the gear was not,seems to me you don't get very much for your money other than a handful of cheap bits and a load of scrap thrown together.
So heres a breakdown of what I got for over 1K,
Badly cleaned crankcases, with pitting on the bearing surfaces, a second hand crankshaft ( out of balance ) but reground, refaced flywheel, also well out of balance.
New 1641 barrels and pistons ( the cheap type )
Second hand rods #1 642 grms #2 607 grms #3 609 grms #4 631 grms
New big end bearings std
New main bearings +.50
New oil pump ( non german part )
New gaskets and oil seals
New cylinder heads,( cores only )
New pushrod tubes,
Secondhand pushrods.
New camshaft bearings,
Secondhand cam, and followers.
Secondhand distributor drive shaft.
New chinese copy 009 distributor.
Again to be fair to this particular company, or indeed any other VW engine remanufacture/reconditioner they have to make money, and so, as many reusable parts that are within tolerance will be used. if you want a good engine spend the extra cash needed to buy and engine with ALL NEW parts, or build it yourself.
In short this engine was NOT fit for the purpose for which it was sold to me, this is NOT have a go at the company time, its a warning about what to watch for when purchasing a remanufactured/ reconditioned unit.
To be fair to them I bought my engine over three years ago,but have not had either the time or the money to do anything about it until recently, so it is well out of warranty, if indeed there was any !
I did email them about this issue and received a fair but hostile response claiming that my wording was poor and my comments litigious, I can't see how this could be as I merely told them the facts.
From the outset this engine had given nothing but problems, bad vibration, poor running and so on, with less than 20 miles it developed an oil leak, they were informed of this on a number of occasions before finally sending a spring loaded pushrod tube, the leak turned out to be a poor casting in the cylinder head, again they were informed about this and sent an email with photos, I received no response from them, eventually I gave up as I had ran out of time and was due overseas.
On my return some many months later, I gave up on this engine as it is/was just NOT trustworthy, It was removed and another engine put in.
Earlier this year having had time to build my workshop and get things rolling I decided to strip the lump,
Its hard to know where to start as there were so many things wrong with this engine its hard to believe it ever ran at all, the casings were cleaned badly and given a quick blow over with some paint, the oil gallery plugs had NOT been removed, on removal a heavy deposit of black sludge was taken out, this did NOT happen whilst I used this engine, as it only covered just under 1K so its not possible for this to happen, the sludge was always there, and they had failed to clean and inspect the cases properly, the bearing surfaces are very badly pitted, so I would have not used them anyway ! the oil valves were scored and stuck as they had used second hand ones.The crankshaft was totally out of balance and the flywheel miles out, the rod weights were all over the place, VW recommends rods to be within 5 grams of each other.. not so on this lump way off, how the hell they expected an engine to run with such problems. On this engine they had fitted new cylinder heads, but the valves and rest of the gear was not,seems to me you don't get very much for your money other than a handful of cheap bits and a load of scrap thrown together.
So heres a breakdown of what I got for over 1K,
Badly cleaned crankcases, with pitting on the bearing surfaces, a second hand crankshaft ( out of balance ) but reground, refaced flywheel, also well out of balance.
New 1641 barrels and pistons ( the cheap type )
Second hand rods #1 642 grms #2 607 grms #3 609 grms #4 631 grms
New big end bearings std
New main bearings +.50
New oil pump ( non german part )
New gaskets and oil seals
New cylinder heads,( cores only )
New pushrod tubes,
Secondhand pushrods.
New camshaft bearings,
Secondhand cam, and followers.
Secondhand distributor drive shaft.
New chinese copy 009 distributor.
Again to be fair to this particular company, or indeed any other VW engine remanufacture/reconditioner they have to make money, and so, as many reusable parts that are within tolerance will be used. if you want a good engine spend the extra cash needed to buy and engine with ALL NEW parts, or build it yourself.
In short this engine was NOT fit for the purpose for which it was sold to me, this is NOT have a go at the company time, its a warning about what to watch for when purchasing a remanufactured/ reconditioned unit.
