PackRat

Jeff;
How many miles were on the engine?
How much for new rings and pistons?
How much for a low mileage 1.8 l. engine from the wreckers?
Where abouts are you located?
So many questions! Keep up the good reports and pictures, we're all watching for updates. You're sure right about the car payment thing, I figure after 10 months (I'm at 6 now) I'm breaking even!
Packrat

Jeff Doble

To answer your questions:

>How much for new rings and pistons?

That all depends. If your pistons and cylinders are within stock spec and you only have to replace the rings (and hone the cylinders), the cheapest one's I found were $50 at sasponline.com (Smitty's auto service + parts). FYI, I found that same set of rings for over $100 at other places. Smitty's doesn't exactly have great customer service but they're cheap! I have to return these rings as I'm going to oversized pistons.

On that note, when you buy pistons they generally come in sets of 4 along with wrist pins, piston rings, and those wrist pin clips.

Looking around I found a 0.50mm oversized piston set for $175 from Autohaus. Other places were selling them for closer to $250. It really pays to look around (much to the dismay of online retailers everywhere)!

According to the Bentley the first overbore size is 0.25mm and the second is 0.50mm. FYI, stock piston size is 81.00mm for my car. Therefore a 0.50mm oversized piston measures 81.50mm. After looking around I didn't really see anyone selling the first overbore size which turned out ok since the machine shop recommended the larger size. I actually found 82mm pistons and larger but they were mostly for race motors. The big pistons I found were from:

http://www.techtonicstuning.com/displayparts1.asp?catid=6

and:

http://www.bsiracing.com/

>How much for a low mileage 1.8 l. engine from the wreckers?

Chris at Force5 said he could find one in a couple weeks and ship it to me for around $400-500 IIRC. Considering the age of the motors though it's a crap shoot whether you'll have the same problems with them or not. I thought about this and probably should've bought one to rebuild before pulling the old one out. That would've eliminated a lot of down time but let's face it, that's too damn easy. I actually should've bought the 2.0L 3A block to rebuild first. The cylinder head shouldn't take too long or cost to much to do by itself.

>Where abouts are you located?

Outside of Philthydelphia in the Suburbs. The car is located at my poor parent's house which is about 20 minutes from where I live. Thank god they don't mind me taking up half their garage!

JD

PackRat

Thanks Jeff, we'll be watching your progress! Keep the pictures coming!
Packrat

chris grant

But the 1.8T motor , complete, would be a good swop ? Anybody done this ??

odelay12v

2 car payments worth of work.. but anyway... i am about to get new piston rings for my 86 4kcsq and some stufff i dont know yet