I should of seen it coming

[Glenn]

So i'm doing a top end rebuild on a 1600 for a customer. It was burning oil and had low compression.

The case was painted silver and it was flaking off. I removed the exhaust, heater boxes, intake and tin. I removed the valve covers, rockers and then i saw it. Stamped in the head under the rockers... GEX.

So I removed the cylinders and the rings were all over the place. Oil ring with the gap at the bottom and compression rings within an inch of each other.

Oh... two of the top M8 case bolts were missing.

Otherwise the bottom end seems OK.

So 2 cans of brake parts cleaner, a wire brush, some steelwool and an air compressor and the case was clean enough and most of the flaking silver paint was off.

Not sure what to do with the heads. The shop owner wants to replace them with new. But they are Brazilian VW castings and I suggested we have the machine shop check them out and rebuild if they are OK.
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Glenn
74 Beetle Specs | 74 Beetle Restoration | 2180cc Engine
"You may not get what you pay for, but you always pay for what you get"

Member #1009

#BlueSquare

[FeelthySanchez]

[Glenn]

[wcfvw69]

I'm not sure what's worse in the VW world? GEX engines or Cardone "rebuilt" distributors.
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Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

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[Glenn]

[Xevin]

Hate, when that happens.

Just sweep it all in the trash next to mine and hit reset

Case was not usable and VW heads had some cracks as well. Heads might have been salvageable. But the thought of rebuilding on a GEX rebuild was never going to happen. Those three stamped Scarlet letters have no place on an engine I’m going to run. Hope it works out for you.
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Keep on Busin'

[modok]

That's nothing.
The rods should be bent and all different lengths, big ends hones tapered, and caps put at an angle and sanded so they are of uneven width.
The crank needs to have a bunch of runout on the gear area, and the heads need to have welds over the cracks and a step machined into them. Regrund cam with no taper and regrouind lifters not rotating, and that takes out the lifter bores.

Glenn, so far you have the best gex engine I've ever heard of.
Lucky, or, you have a lot more checking to do.

[ALB]

Are the case halves matching?
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On a lifelong mission to prove (much to my wife's dismay) that Immaturity is Forever!!

[FreeBug]

Not defending GEX, but as for the ring indexing, you can set them up as you want, but once the engine is running, they're spinning around beyond your control. Where they land, nobody knows...

Oh, and btw, "should HAVE", means something, "should OF" just doesn't make sense. Sorry, I used to teach English.. , and haven't had my tea yet.

Wow, what a time saver..I was thinking you didn't need ALL the case bolts, now we know the ones on top of the case are just for show.

[slalombuggy]

It will be interesting to see how big the line bore is worst I've seen from GEX is 4th over. Not sure where they get bearings. I would have stopped as soon as I saw the GEX stickers and dumped it in the steel bin.

[YDBD]

I must have lucked out. I bought a GEX 1835cc in 1990 for my '64 baja, ran it from Fresno to Pismo and back more than twice, got rear ended in '92, smashed the crank pulley-bent the horns-salvaged the body put the engine in my '60 buggy. Back to Pismo several times, shipped it to Okinawa Japan in '99, refreshed top end. Sold it to a friend, who kept it a few years and sold it to another who kept it until about 2013. Engine never gave out and was strong as ever.

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'56 pan Dune Buggy since '69
don't live in the past...but when I did:
'67 bug
'64 baja
'60 dune buggy
'73 Personenkraftwagen Type 182 "Thing"

[Xevin]

[FreeBug]

I know we all like to crap on GEX, but I was also thinking about how many VW's were saved and kept on being used because cheap, reliable engines were available.

By reliable, I mean that subjected to stock use no more than 1 in 10 failed, probably. Think of the volumes they were building, I'm pretty sure the majority of those things actually worked.

[oprn]

[YDBD]

[Glenn]

[Bugsy61]

If I may ask a stupid question, how do you tell if the case halves match or not?

[Glenn]

[FreeBug]

[FreeBug]