Re: Help!

[skerocdriver@juno.com (SHAWN C MEZE)]

On Fri, 19 Sep 1997 11:49:10 -0600 (MDT) Night Shadow
<soltwede@ucsub.Colorado.EDU> writes:
>
>Well guys, I am seriously bumming, I drove my car for 1 week (after
>spending months on it) and I spun a rod bearing.  My local shop refuses
to
>fix it, saying that it will do the same thing......they want to put in a
>new engine...which I in no way have money for.......

Damn sorry to hear this Eric.
I understand this shop also built your motor, right??? How long ago did
they build it? I sorta suspect they are responsible for it if its within
the usual 12 month or whatever milage warranty they put on most rebuild
jobs or repair jobs. If That's the case where they wont honor their work
then id highly think about not ever using them again. Even with the
halfassed rebuild job I did on my 1.7L years ago I still got 26K out of
it and over 24 months before the bearing on it spun!


>Shawn, what did you do when you spun your bearing? 


I laid out 4 bills (That's $400 US for those of you that are money slang
challenged.) and put in my JH 1.8L 8V motor. 


>Did you just replace the bearing?


My motor froze solid. (its under my bench in the garage.) The bearing had
spun and chewed the crap out of the crankshaft. Not really repairable in
my case. 
If your crankshaft is not damaged, you can install a new bearing and it
will work fine for awhile. You really need to measure the size of the
crankshaft all around to see if its out of round. Its just a matter of
installing the right size bearing so it wont do it again. More than
likely, it will spin another bearing again but the big question is when. 

Check around a few shops and see if anybody has a used engine for sale.
When I first got my Scirocco I needed a short block. (the key on the
crank had eaten a chunk out of the crankshaft) Really I needed a
crankshaft but all the junkyards wanted $75 and up for one. To me at the
time it seemed kinda high so I passed. Then one day I found in the paper
a 1.7L long block for sale for $50. Hell, no problem. I went and looked
at it and the guy said it ran but ran bad. I took it home, stripped it
down and it had cracked a valve. The short block was fine except for that
all of the water jackets were blocked with rust and crap. I spent alot of
time on he motor getting it all cleaned up, reringed the cylinders, honed
the cylinders ect. I ended up taking the head to a garage that let me use
their equipment and to a quick valve job myself. The only bad thing I did
was that I did not replaced the bearings, which ended up biting me in the
end. So you see, things will work out for you if you will just be
patient. Im sure somebody there has a motor waiting for you. Its just a
matter of finding it. Get the word out that your looking for one.  


>Eric
>(Damned to the Honda(fitting, eh?) Moped.......my life is REALLY 
>shitty right now....)


Been there, done that, sorry to say. 


              Shawn Meze
86' Jetta GLi           82' Scirocco GTi
The Fastest, Quickest, Cleanest and
best looking Scirocco in all of San Diego!
http://www2.netcom.com/~trnsfrma/vws.html
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