First-hand "brand new" GEX experience.

[jamestwo]

Nothing wrong with the case saver, and as mentioned the marks are from the cylinder tin rubbing the case.

I don't see how it's that bad, what would one expect if you go with the cheapest price.

[auslander]

Its amazing that that company is still in buisness
_________________
Zombie
Wandering...Have you found what your looking for?

66 POS Bus
69 Class 11 Beetle
71 Cat-Look Beetle
64 Old Skool Baja
74 "Swamp" Thing

!!! F**k Cancer !!!
Time's Tide will Smother You
"You can't throw a rock in Long Beach without hitting a tweaker" Steve Tucci

[KennyD.]

They are still in business because alot of people will do no research before buying from them...after they see there huge one page ad they are like wow, thats cheap for a "brand new" engine. So they buy one with no worrys. My dad almost made the same mistake, lol. Good thing I talked him out of it.
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1974 Super Beetle-turbocharged 1915-mine
1974 Thing-dads

[Muffler Mike]

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=214922
any idea why that groove is there in the case?
is that a GEX thing?

working on, well disasembling and thowing away a stocker that has a similar groove over the number 1 cylinder right where there is a crack and thought that groove was suppose to hold on to the jb weld that was over the crack.

ill have to clean this case and see if its a GEX
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Muffler Mike
http://MufflerMike.com

[Bugzlife]

She also helps sell a lot of engines, back in the day...............................
we weren't thinking with our right "heads"..................................

she's been bored out 60 over too.................................
But she does have her own new set of "Jugs"..................................
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I'm looking for some rear wheels for my rail( 4lug), 8" wide up to 12" with or without tires,

[bgs]

Nothing wrong with GEX. They make some of the best
boat anchors around..
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Hmm, ruff.

[truckersmike]

On a quick look at their web site, they don't tell you anything about what parts are new, what parts are used or anything. They seem to leave a lot of info out. It's a different world from a company like CB or others.
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59 DD panel. Former Romano's TV delivery bus
67 Westy SO-42 pop-t

[Gary L.]

[jamestwo]

Are you serious? the grove is from the cylinder tin rubbing against the case. This happens after about the first 150,000 miles or so.

[Muffler Mike]

Well that makes sense.
Never worked on or had a motor that the tin actually touched the case. (wide motors)
my first stocker motor. I guess im doing things backwards.

[Rome]

Oh my. thank you for that detailed dissection so far.

And the 2-liter engine in my '83 Vanagon (still air cooled) has a GEX sticker on it too. Sucker used about 1 qt oil every 50 miles. Yes, it's now out of the van, and now I expect to do a thorough tear-down and inspection before rebuilding it myself with new German parts...

[brookester]

Has ANYBODY here bought a Gex motor that has actually been reliable?
Just curious.

[bugnut68]

My buddy Ron Bullard (Stevemariott on here)had a GEX 1641 in his Bus for a good number of years before switching to a 1776...never had a problem with it that I know of, but I'll let him fill you in on details...It was a hydraulic lifter engine too...

[Failer]

[nsracing]

A good lesson learned...expensive but a good lesson nevertheless.

What is really the big problem with large companies doing less-than-competent work? They certainly can afford good technicians. Hell, they have good machines. I really do not get where all the incompetence is coming from. I would like to think the people can read...not drunk...and have all ten fingers when doing a motor.

I could pave my driveway with the thick paint they use on these blocks. Geeze H. Man. WTF?

I have torn into GEX motors the blew up or seized a rod or blew a head and stuff. I love it....you laugh the whole time. It is even more fun putting the parts on a surface plate for inspection. You want to see some tolerance out of whack, you know where to get one.

I knew of someone who wanted to buy a motor and really was a low-baller and thought that he can buy a new GEX engine with all these good parts and still kick ass. Well..the story is the same and the ending is predictable.

I did not take the job. I figured he needed a lesson or two that is really deserved. You want to see a beat down man and spreading leaflets that describes how he took it in the rear from GEX at a swap meet. It is not a pretty sight.

I tried to save his money from disaster. Sometimes it has to happen this way.

New top end and P/Cs...the only way to go. Unless the heads are extremely rare and must have them in there, there is no other reason to go rebuilt Type I heads.

Is SIR still in business? They are a piece of work too. How come the magazines even do a feature on them sometimes? I have seen a pregnant woman one time doing a re-chamber after welding. She looked half-blind to me.

Oh well.

[The Noof]

Whats really funny about this thread is the fact that NOBODY (except for BugNut) stepped up to the plate for Gex. When the Mofoco fiasco was at large, and others like it, there were peeps on both sides...not with this thread. I guess it's best to say the whole world can't be wrong.

[nsracing]

If anyone is thinking GEX, just mail me the money. so I can spend it. Okay?

At least one of us will be happy.

Golly!

[Campy]

I didn't need an engine but, late last fall, I had a credit card with a lot of credit, so I decided to get a 1776cc long block. I didn't have an internet service, then, so all I knew about GEX was from their colorful ads. I wasn't wanting to buy one that day, but I telephoned GEX and the employee said there would be no charge for shipping if I bought a long block that day. Thank God, because the core charge is $270. I ordered one with new heads and super cooling tins.
When the long block finally came, the delivery man had dropped it off at dinner time and handed my mother the receipt (neither of us ever did sign it). Well, it really did get dropped off: somewhere along the line, the shipper had dropped the pallet. I got what remained of it. I repaired most of the damage (two bent and one broken head stud) I was paid $110 from the shipping company. Fine so far.
There was a lot of silicone used on the long block and the cases were painted grey, but so far so good. The only problem I could see was when I gave it its first valve adjustment: when I went to adjust each set of valves, the swivels on the adjusters would not swivel; I could not get them to move so I could position them parallel to the tops of the valve stems so I could set the adjustment with the feeler gauge. All eight were like that and three of eight I bought from another company for my other engine were like that. The end rockers on each head had too much play and a couple of the adjusters could have been centered more.
Two days, ago, I contacted GEX and the employee said he would give me eight new adjusters and eight shims. No problem.
I want to find out what the compression ratio is because when I left on my trip, yesterday, in hot weather the engine got hot, so I came back home (no Harbin Hot Springs). I thought my new oil temperature gauge was off because the engine ran good at 240 degrees on the gauge and the oil light never came on. What is odd is that around town, when you think the engine would get hot, the gauge has been reading 180 degrees. I thought of testing it using hot water. After reading about Gene Berg's testing of oil temperature gauges and sending units, I really feel that they can't be trusted, though. So, when you are driving your bus, how are you supposed to know if the engine is to hot?
All in all, I would say that I am happy with the engine: no oil leaks, and plenty of power. I will have to drive my bus many more miles to be sure, though.
I think bigger companies can have quality control problems, and any bad engines is all you hear about. I have had a lot of problems with Wolfsburg West (especially their sheet metal), another big company. That doesn't mean that all of their customers have had problems.
I must be unlucky, because last November, I bought a freeway flyer centersection for my bus from Transform. I decided to go with them because a local VW repair garage has bought about thirty of them over the years and they never heard of anyone having trouble with them. Well, two months later, I found out that the owner of Transform had retired and he sold the non-transmission part of the business and shut down the rest. Does anyone know if he has to honor my warranty, since he did not go bankrupt?

[Campy]

danimal--Thanks for exposing bljones' lack of knowledge when it comes to VW engines. Its odd how some people act like they know what they are doing but they can be full of hot air. The sump plate I tooke off my GEX engine was so clean I could have eaten off of it. I think bljones has reasons for making the long block seem worse than it actually is.
It's kind of like news reports and politicians: if you here enough bad news from a tiny percentage of people, pretty soon, you will think the sky is falling.
I have been driving and restoring VW buses for over 28 years, and I have seen and heard of engines from plenty of other companies, big and small, that have had problems: that is why they have warranties!

[Jake Raby]

Its impossible to buy the parts to build an engine as cheap as the entiore thing from the company in question....

These engines simply can't be super mass produced and leaving the installation of the dizzy and carbs and cooling system up to the customer is the fastest way to get a bad rep with these engines.

Back in the day GEX stood for German Engine Exchange and the old man ran the company the right way- A few generations later time has taken it's toll.

You get what you pay for
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Jake Raby
Raby Engine Development
www.rabyenginedevelopment.com
"I've never given anyone Hell, I just told them the truth and they thought it was Hell"