Wused to have a rule of thumb about type I engines lasting say 80K miles between rebuilds. I remember someone got 300K out of his type-1 by changing the oil every 1K miles. Is there any rule of thumbs to go by for the type 4? Another rule of thumb was that a modified engine with higher compression would last even less.

The main thing that limits life spans of the engines is misconfiguration..AND IMPROPER TUNING! Most engines are neer optimized!

I don't believe in running things into the ground, so at 40K, you spend 500 bucks on a valve job, and at 80K you do the same thing.. Then at 120K you rebuild it....

I have many 145BHP engines with over 120K on them, hell I have 60K on the one in my 912 and I built it out of used parts!

Done right, the engine will last as long as the car will- done wrong it won't last two weeks.

I have seen lots of 2.0l and 1.7 motors last well into the 145k range with proper maintanance.

Of course, I have seen oem motors blow up at 60k too without oil changes.

Geoff

I have a 74 1.8 that has never been opened up with 125k on it. It's getting pretty weak, but runs fine.

that is how my 1.7 was... getting weak, but still going ok at 140K ...

ahh - this gives me hope. I have a 1.7 that has 89k on it but had been sitting for a few years. I'm in the process of updating the essentials and hope to try and fire it up by the end of Aug. I would be nice to get some use out of it before having to tear it all down.....we'll see.

a 1700 gets started at 100K, I have seen them go 250!