Big Sky Euro

Hi,
I've been a member of the Samba and other sites for years, and I just found this site, so I thought I'd introduce myself. I've owned 11 Bugs over the years, and about 12 years back, I got my first diesel rabbit as a winter beater. I'm originally from the Philly area, and when I moved to the Arlee area 5 years ago, I brought with me a perfectly restored 1964 Bug, which burned up on the I-90 to highway 93 offramp due to the one thing I didn't restore, and that was the fuel lines.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I have a "new" VW, and it's an '81 rabbit diesel, I just bought it over in Helena on Saturday, and it's going to be a project. Before my wife and I drove over there, the owner said it had a few dents, and it was burning a quart of oil every 75 to 100 miles. He was the original owner, and the only thing he ever did to the motor was put new rings in, and replace 4 of the valves @ 175,000 miles. It now has 309,000 miles, and his "few little dents" turned out to be that he apparently ran under the back bumper of a truck. The front end above the bumper is trashed. He has the condenser coils from a refrigerator cut out to make a grille, the front of the fenders and hood are crinkled, the radiator support is all out of whack, and the two fully exposed headlights point about 30 degrees to the right.

We bought it anyway, because the price was right, and even letting it sit for 2 days since then, it fires right up, smokes like a beast because of burning the oil, but it does fire right up. I am figuring on a complete rebuild of the motor, I mentioned to him that I was going to get it bored out, and he practically screamed at me that I should just put new rings in it, not go through the expense of new pistons and such. I also mentioned that I was just going to rebuild the head with new valves and lifters, and he said that was a ridiculous waste of money.

We bought this car as a daily driver, we're already looking for a parts car to pull the front clip off of, and right now, I have a 2002 Dodge Stratus with 132,000 miles on it, and my wife has a 2003 F-250 Powerstroke with 128,000 miles on it, (both bought new,) so we obviously put a few miles on our vehicles. We bought this car to save on fuel, and the only way to do that is to drive it every day, and not drive our gas guzzlers.

I personally feel that if he put new rings in it at 175k, and only made it to 300k, then if I repeat that, I might only make it to 375k. The old beater that I had on the east coast had 490,000 on it, and it had it's problems, but had never had an overhaul on the engine, so I think these engines should be good for more than 125k between rings, valves, or whatever, which makes me think a complete overhaul would be the answer right now. Any input on that?

Also, as far as the actual machining work, the place I found is S & S in Missoula, anyone have any experience with them? They told me $60 for the .020 bore, and said if I run into a problem with my own time, they'd be more than happy to assemble it for me. I plan on buying my own parts, and I do intend to do the assembly myself, but I also want it done quickly, and never know what my schedule will permit. Does anyone know a better local machine shop? And if I should run into trouble, anyone know anyone that does assembly cheap?

I'll probably be pulling the motor out of it in the next few days and stripping it down to take to a shop, and we're also probably driving over to Washington this weekend to pick up a parts car for the body parts, since we can't find any in Montana, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. If it works out with this one, we'll probably be getting another one right away, so that each of us can have our own little daily commuter. Our current fuel bill as of December, was $500/ month, so if we were both driving a rabbit diesel, I think we'd have a whole lot more money to play with each month.

Thanks in advance for any advice, and I'm sorry if I rambled on.
Tim

Welcome Tim!

Glad to hear that there are still people out there trying to keep these guy alive! I have two rabbits myself, and I love them. Missoula Auto Salvage used to be a treasure trove of rabbit parts, but since the price of steel has gone up, they have turned to crushing them, rather than part them out, and they are all gone. I have never dealt with S&S before, but I have dealt quite a bit with Advanced Engines in Helena. They have done everythig from a toyota 22R rebuild(wierd, I know) to a 500 Hp Mitsubishi 4G63 to a 900+ hp blown 468. They currently have one of my 16 valve blocks up there, and if I ever get any more money I can play with, they will be boring and assembling that short block for me. Thier number is 406-443-7467 and ask for Jim. One other perk is that Jim makes a trip to Missoula every week, so he can pick up and deliver!

As far as replacement parts go, you might try www.getcoolparts.com I have found most everything I have needed on there, and it is free shipping on orders over $50! Locally, give Rex at Mtn Imports a call and tell him that Aeron told you to call. He is my go-to guy for local VW parts. He knows it all, seriously.

Well, that is about all for now, again , welcome, and hopefully we will see that oil burner soon!

Good to have ya! Sounds like you have quite a project there. New rings is like putting a band-aid on a bullet wound. Why not start from scratch and have motor bored over? Sounds like the PO was no too nice to the little Rabbit . You'll have a reliable 'new' motor that you can get some great mileage out of. You really put some miles on your vehicles, so why not do it right? Good luck and keep us informed on the project!

Thanks Aeron,
I'll give the guy in Helena a call, see what he has to say, at this point, though, I'm hoping all I'll need as far as engine work is someone to machine the block, so I'll probably be better off locally with S & S. It's also nice to know that there is a place locally to get parts if necessary. I'm in IT, so I'm used to doing most of my shopping on the internet, but when Monday afternoon comes along and you find a need for a part that you need right away, nothing beats local.

As far as seeing that oilburner, I'm honestly hoping to have it out within the next 3 weeks, the sooner the better, but it's gonna be an ugly car for awhile...lol. If you see a beige 4 door in Missoula with red front fenders, hood, and doors, and a big ole dent in the left rear quarter, that's mine (provided I manage to get over to Washington to pick up the red donor car.)

Thank you also Mike, and I agree with everything you said, I just wanted a second opinion that I wasn't going overboard by doing a full rebuild instead of a patch. One nice thing, the injection pump is only 2 years old, so other than the block and head, I think that's the only other major expense, and hopefully I'll avoid that expense for awhile. I'm also planning on all new brake lines all the way around, and probably new rotors on the front, since the car also has brake problems. Naturally, I also will be putting a new clutch in it, since the motor will be out, and I think I used up what was left of the old clutch by driving it up on the car trailer to bring it home. Anyway, I'm all set to do the mechanical stuff, and the necessary front end work, but my biggest surprise is my wife, who absolutely HATES small cars (she swears she's trading in her Ford truck on a medium duty Freightliner to pull her horse trailer, because it's "bigger," has really taken a liking to this little thing. She never liked my 911, and she didn't like my '64 Bug, and when we first saw this car the night we went to pick it up, her quote was something like "I've heard of being hit by the ugly stick, but somebody beat the hell out of this thing with the ugly stick."

Anyway, now she's already talking that after I put the new front end parts on it, she wants to have the rest of the body work taken care of, and it will be "her" car (she's even decided it will be painted bright yellow.) I don't know if she's deciding that it's cute, or if it has something to do with her filling her tank Monday morning and the bill being $125. Either way, I don't care. She says this one is hers in the summer, but she wants my Stratus in the winter, but I think that will quickly change also. (She drives a diesel truck, and she's worried about a diesel car starting in the winter????)

One last question, the car I'm looking at getting as a body donor has a fresh gas engine in it, and a 5 speed trans. Would I benefit from putting the 5 speed in the diesel, or would it even bolt up to the diesel? Is it something worth considering, or should I just sell the motor and trans as a unit and be done with it?

Thanks again, and I'm rambling again,
Tim

Welcome and looking forward to hearing/seeing more about this project.

Welcome to the site