On Aug 6, 9:26*pm, Jerry Wass wrote:

At the risk of repeating myself-.....

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Dear Jerry,

Good. KEEP repeating yourself. The internet is not static, the
audience changes from minute to minute.

The message for VW engines is fairly simple but it NEEDS to be
repeated. Guys who already have the information may complain but the
guys who don't won't.

When you're talking about VW engines you're really talking about their
heads. Everything else is fairly sturdy; the kind of stuff that
breaks LAST. But it's the valves that break first. If you're flying
behind a VW you quickly learn what's sturdy and what's not. The
heads... the exhaust valves... are the weak link, be it Volkswagen or
Pratt-Whitney.

A VW engine attached to a fuselage with a couple of wings-worth of
lift and some scooter wheels on the bottom will allow you to get in
those ten hours a month that makes the difference between a pilot and
someone who drives an airplane. Doesn't matter if the thing is a
Teenie Two or a VP1, it's still a flying machine, more than able to
keep your skills well honed.

A leak-down test will tell you WHEN. Having built your own engine
tells you HOW. Pull the heads, toss the exhaust valves, re-lap the
intakes, button it back up, you're looking at a couple of evenings
work. Leak-down not only tells you when, it allows you to SCHEDULE
the when.

Better still, buy yourself a pair of NEW heads and machine them so
they are IDENTICAL to the set that's flying the bird now. When the
leak-down test tells you when, all you gotta do is pull the old heads,
replace them with the new heads, and keep on flying. You've got at
least five or six months in which to tear down the old heads and
return them to service.

-R.S.Hoover