How much longer can I expect to go until I drop a valve seat? Or spin a bearing?

that depends on if you let one of my boys drive or not


mike

now that you brought it up ..... tomorrow!

Piker....

Betty has 335,000 on her 1.8L.


The 1.8L is not known for dropping valve seats, there is more meat around the valve seat area. And the Type IV bearings are not normally prone to spinning, unless they are run without oil.

Rebuild when the rings wear out and it starts sucking oil. New pistons and cylinders, new bearings, new oil pump, new cam and lifters. Do a valve job and you are good to go for another 150,000.

335,000 ... WOW ! ...

Not that unusual if well taken care of. I put 349,000 on the original motor in my 73 1.7, rebuilt it, and then another 150,000 before the car succumbed to rust.

I'll bet with Clay doing the maintenance on Betty's car it will easy make it half a million miles!

My poor 1.7 is pushing 180,000 and its time. I have a rebuilt 2.0 liter going in its place. What I see is rings and valve guides are normal wear items.
Once you start, replace everything and your good for another 200k.

The oil suck/burn is the time to start thinking about it.

Rich

I have a 73 2.0 and it has 142,000 miles and still pulls strong and uses about 1/2 Litre to a litre of oil in 5000 miles. I don't run it hard but if I do sustained high speed it will use a little more oil but I think that is normal. What oil have you been using??

Ian Stott
Moncton
Canada

FYI.. the motor in Betty's 914 is out, not because it was having a running issue, but because the bolt that goes in the center of the fan broke. It took out the woodruff key slot in the crank. Considering I have to replace the crank, I am going to rebuild it.


We have always run Valvoline 20w/50 in her car. It works great, and no adverse wear.

As for the mileage, well that is just what is on the odo. I figure it is much more considering the number of broken speedo cables we have had over the last 20 years.

Mine uses some oil, about 1qt/3000miles. I suspect most of it is going down the valve guides. I see some lingering blue-white smoke some mornings.

The bigger worry is oil pressure. Every time I get the car loaded up through a sweeper, I see the Green Light of Death glowing for about 10 seconds.

I still have decent oil pressure otherwise, and no strange knocking noises, but I'm still worried that the pin has been pulled.

Dammit, it pisses me off that Porsche cheaped out when they did the TIV. It shoulda been dry-sump like the six.