Case inspection prior to rebuild Options

[Cevan]

What is the normal practice in terms of inspecting the case halves prior to a rebuild? Is this something I can do myself?

All the bearing surfaces looked fine and the connecting rod play was between .008 and .010. Assuming I don't see any visual signs of damage, does it need to be sent to a professional who I assume has an expensive tool that checks the alignbore?

[r_towle]

Chris,
For a farmer check...for those of us at home...
This is not intended to replace a machine shop, but allow you to determine if you should bring it to a shop.

Remove head studs (double nut them)
Place case halve flat on a flat surface...a piece of machinist granite is the ultimate way to do this...its honed to a perfectly flat surface.
Choose your flat surface wisely...you are looking for thousandths of an inch.

Once its flat on the surface, use a straight edge on the cylinder registers and measure up from the flat surface to the registers...all the way around. Any variation requires the case to be decked, which is fairly simple. A simple straight edge across the registers will also show you any sunken registers...just see how the straight edge sits....any gap...you need to deck it. That is just having a shop mill it flat..

A second measurement requires you buy inner bore measuring tools...which are cheap (starrett sells them)
It looks like a T.. you stick it in the hole, turn the handle till it touches and then pull it out and meaure it with calipers...
You need to check all your bearings...and you need to see if they are oval...so you do this in several orientations.

If you question any measurements of the farmer test....bring it to a shop and have them check/blueprint the case for you.
They may need to deck the case.
Rarely do these cases need line boring. Question them alot of they say it needs to be line bored...then make sure you can buy the proper bearings BEFORE you allow them to do it...then give them the bearings...

Line boring brings up alot of other issues...
I never really like to hear that the case needs line boring unless they have measured up everything.
Type 4 cases are pretty tough...especially in stock form.
On a stroker, ok...it may need to be bored from abuse...on a stocker its not that common in my limited experience.
If your machine shop wants to line bore it...question if you have chosen the right shop...that is all I am saying.

To baseline the pricing, take a look at Rimco (GIYF) they are a VW machine shop in CA...they list basic (no option) pricing...

Decking is not to hard to setup for...so its not to expensive.
If you do have the case decked, it will change your compression ratio...so you will have to be prepared to do a mock build, measure your new deck height, order shims, disassemble the mock build and install the shims...then measure again.

This is something that you should do anyways...
Rich