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Finally got the heads off my engine last night. The heater boxes on the left side were about twice as heavy as those on the right due to the oil that had been sprayed all over them & subsequent picking up of layers of dirt. The valves looked fine on 3&4, so I don't think that caused my compression problem. I think there was a serious leak between the heads & cyls though because there was caked oil & dirt on what is the outside of the combustion chamber, past the "seal" between the cyls & head. The cylinders are very rusted and caked with dirt so that there must have been virtually no air passing through there as well. Inside the head exchangers on 3&4 was chunks of charcoal. On the other side inside the HE was some kind of funny type of acorn or nut that I've found throughout the car. I imagine the charcoal on 3&4 was once similar acorns. The tops of the inside of the cylinders were scored from the top to about 2cm down. I don't know if this is normal. The cylinders were otherwise smooth to the touch inside. Oddly enough, the heads would probably be in good shape if they were cleaned up. No visual cracks, valves look like they're seating OK. Given all that (probable cooling issues, rusted cylinders, dirt everywhere), and knowing this engine most likely already has 100,000 miles on it, should I abandon my previous idea of just replacing the heads and instead do a full rebuild as long as I have the engine out anyway? Otherwise, I have new cyls, pistons & heads and would just redo the top end... My thought was since I really don't have the space (or trust myself enough yet) to do a bottom-end rebuild that I'd have the local VW shop build me a stock smallblock and I'd do the rest? Anyone used Volkstech in Burlington NJ? They have quoted me $400 for a rebuild assuming usable case & crank... Any opinions on any of this would be most helpful. Aaron ===== -------------------------------------------- 1971 FI AT Squareback http://www.tiserves.com/VW/ vw_variant71@yahoo.com -------------------------------------------- __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org