Walt Disney was Right

"Do not be fooled by its common place appearance. Like so many things, it is what is on the inside that counts." - Alladin

Call it a moral victory. I have done everything short of file the rough spots on this case down with my tongue. I just hit the 'point of no return.'

Last time I described the nasty surprise I found in the form of a beat out bearing saddle. Tonight I met the 'final straw.' SOME GOON BUGGERED THE THREADS ON THE OIL DRAIN AND HEILCOILED IT!

There. I feel better. The picture is not of my engine because I don't think I can bear to take any more pictures of it. This is on a poor Mazda.

In theory, there is nothing wrong with a Helicoil to limp by when the threads are stripped, though I prefer a TimeSert, which is a much more elegant solution and more robust, as well. But this was finally it. Removing this Helicoil and then renting the tool to install the TimeSert, as well as the TimeSert itself, plus the cost, delay and aggrevation.... We're done here.

To reassure myself that I wasn't simply blowing my stack in frustration, I made a list of how much it was going to cost me to save this crankcase so I could put brand new internals into it. I didn't like the numbers so I rearranged them. Unsurprisingly, the total dollar figure didn't change. Here's what a competent shop (Like AJ Simms' LowBugget) in Orange County, California would charge for the work that I would need on this case:

• $130 for align bore (If I can find someone closer than Virgina, Conneticut or Georgia who is qualified to do the work.)
• $50 hot tank cleaning
• $85 oil gallery drill and tap (to provide the oil galleries with a thorough cleaning after being machined)
• $20 oil gallery plugs
• $50 timesert drain plug (insert plus tool rental)
• $50 reweld breather tower tang (Which I busted off trying to get this ooey-gooey case apart according to directions.)
• $90 for a set of SilverLine steelbacked .50/STD/STD mainbearings to replace the STD/STD/STD Kolbenschmidt steelbacked mainbearings I've already purchased. (So in a way, I'd be in it for the combined price of both bearing sets.)

That'll be $475. Which doesn't sound like much, but this crankcase is not the Hope diamond. Why am I going through heroics trying to save THIS case?

Because I'd love for this build to be 'numbers matching' which means that I've forgotten the vision statement for this project: "Don't restore it ... make it run reliably." So it won't be numbers matching. Because I'm not building it for preservation, I'm rebuilding this vehicle to HAVE FUN in with my family.

So Vaya con Dios, ya poor jerk. There's going to have to be a replacement case and I found just the ticket: John Connolly at aircooled.net happens to be selling a VW Factory Reconditioned Type4 crankcase for substantially less than half of what it would cost me to repair my present crankcase.

Here's the same breakdown for the Factory Rebuilt crankcase:

Crankcase, Shipped from Utah: $285

• $130 for align bore NOT NEEDED! STD/STD/STD ON CRANKSHAFT!
• $50 hot tank cleaning ALREADY DONE
• $85 oil gallery drill and tap ALREADY DONE
• $20 oil gallery plugs
• $50 timesert drain plug NOT NEEDED
• $50 reweld breather tower tang NOT NEEDED
• $90 for a set of SilverLine steelbacked .50/STD/STD mainbearings. NOT NEEDED

Let's call the lady in the picture 'Oma.' Oma built these engines in the factory. Oma is my friend because with the Factory Rebuilt case that I'm getting from John, I will have (wait for it; this is hilarious) replaced all of the components of the engine except the alternator and some assorted bracketry. I'm assembling my new engine from all new parts and just keeping the valve covers, eh?

Bloody Type 4 engine. I shouldn't carp about the impossibility of finding parts; if anything, good deals have blessedly continued to fall into my lap. But they keep doing so because the sellers 'don't have any use for these parts' anymore. Built right, I'll be sporting a walker or a wheelchair the next time this engine needs to be replaced. But I find it a real knee slapper that after having wasted the better part of a year carefully analyzing the engine to see how much I could save, to determine that it is only the tin-work and accessories that are worth keeping is pretty shabby. If I'd tossed the engine out and started fresh back in December, I'd be driving it by now.

Instead, we get progressive revelation. Oh well.