Praise for Northwest Connecting Rod

[rblake3]

Long story short, old van old motor, got motor replaced in 2015 at Porbug in Edmonds WA. (George and Jason great guys and service BTW). Motor selected was a 2.3L WBX from Northwest Connecting Rod. NWCR is a small mostly one man show and does a lot of the aircooled and WBX motors for local shops up here (Seattle Area). Also completely replaced the coolant system, SS pipes and billet manifolds and stuff. Van ran great and I was happy.

Fast forward to 2017, coming back from the Cascades after an extra long weekend trip over some big mountain passes, experienced some knocking on deceleration which was very concerning and definitely not lifter noises.

Made it home after very stressful drive and got in contact with Jerry (owner/builder) at NWCR to discuss the issue. Factor in that this motor had been in the van over a year and outside the "warranty" period. However it only had about 12,000 miles on it. Jerry agreed by my description that there was certainly issues with the motor and it needed to come out. After listening to me blab about figuring out a time and renting a U-Haul to get the van to his shop he stopped me and said this:

"No don't need to rent stuff, I'll just come up there and pick up the van with my truck and trailer".

Now keep in mind that I live about 75 miles from Jerry's shop. In order to make this motor right, he was willing to drive the distance, load up the van and take it to the shop to be repaired on his time. My jaw hit the floor.

I don't know about anybody else but I have never experienced or even heard of this kind of high level customer service in the auto service industry. Jerry clearly values his reputation and wanted to ensure his customer was happy. After the rework, which was required due to a broken circlip in one of the piston wrist pins (lucky I made it home), the van runs awesome now, has gobs of power and will provide many years of faithful service I'm sure. There are not a lot of dedicated VW engine rebuilders anymore and in my book after this experience NWCR remains among the very best.

Just thought I'd share.
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90 Vanagon Carat Wander Wagon
88 16v GTi
01 1.8T Beetle
94 Miata
Vanagon H4 E-Code Lighting Upgrade page

[jimf909]

So glad to hear this. My impressions of Jerry have all been good despite never having him do any work for me (the PO of my my van had Jerry do some head work on my van, I’ve toured his shop and he’s spent a few hours answering my questions).

This post seems like a good epilogue for your other thread. Is this the same motor in both threads?

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=655110&highlight=

Did Jerry take the ferry with his trailer to pick up your van or go the long way ‘round? Regardless, that’s damn impressive service! Thanks for taking time to share this story.
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- Jim

[E1]

Absolutely, the shops that respect us and our money have to be publicly referred.

We all OWE that to the good guys.

I'll definitely keep Jerry in mind if the need arises!

Thank You very much.
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‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[rblake3]

[E1]

I just put in a VDO oil pressure gauge so am curious what kind of pressure you're seeing.

I see about 60 when cold, and somewhere north of 40 when rolling at "speed."
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‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[jimf909]

40 sounds pretty good.

Here’s a good thread with a link to others on observed oil pressures. I don’t think I ever saw 40 when warmed up in my old 2.1. It was more like 24-26 at 3K rpm, sometimes as low as 18 when hot heading up a pass.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7630162
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- Jim

[E1]

Thanks for that Jim, one less thang!
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‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[Snort]

All of what you report on your NWCR experience is the same kind of service I have seen from Jerry for the last ~30 years. All the work I've had him do for me was small potatoes kind jobs like head rebuilding, case crank rods and p/c prep, a small used part here and there.

I had some connecting rods come back from the balancing shop that were out of round and tightened up on the crank when I was installing them. No problem, resize all of them no charge.

My son and I had a 40hp rebuild project that seized up on us after about 20 minutes of break-in. Turned out to be a bad new main bearing which he supplied. No problem, replace the bearing AND put the case crank rods etc. back together for us no charge even though we had assembled it ourselves the first time around.

It doesn't seem to matter to him how much you are spending as long as you come in with a positive attitude he will treat you as if you are his most important client.

[Zeitgeist 13]

I just fired up one of Jerry's rebuilt 2.1s this afternoon, and it purrs like a kitten. It's gotta be the smoothest WBX I've ever seen, but I did have Dr Injector go through the voodoo that he do, and I did painstakingly rebuild the engine harness. Nevertheless, Jerry's work is top notch.

And, I was able to get my recommended daily allowance of F-bombs, which was the cherry on top. Jerry reminds me of the Jack Warden character in the '80's movie Used Cars.

He's more of a Luke Fuchs, but he talks like Roy L. Fuchs


Link


If you haven't seen this, then you're in for a treat. It's a classic. Seriously, watch this movie.


Link

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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[Zeitgeist 13]

I heard that Jerry put the ol girl out to pasture recently. Can anyone confirm?
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[Snort]

I was at his shop last winter and I didn't hear any talk of shutting down.

He did move within the last couple years, here's the latest address.

3506 C St. NE, Auburn WA 98002

[jimf909]

Hmmm, the phone number at the Kent and Auburn locations are disconnected. Yelp says Auburn location is closed.

All signals suggest he’s closed but the plot thickens. There’s a google result showing NWCR in the Southpark area. Was this one of his previous addresses or could he have headed back north?

https://www.google.com/search?q=northwest+connecti...ent=safari

Edit: It looks like the Southpark address was a previous address, before Kent. I guess it’s back to being closed?
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- Jim

[Phaedrus]

He's still in business, busy at that. Address above is correct, sounds right. If you're driving a 1950s-1991 VW and thinking about motor work in the Seattle area, I'd get in there while you still can. These old wizards won't be practicing their magic forever...
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1986 WBX (Tin Top Camper)

[Zeitgeist 13]

Here at my shop I have a turbo VR6 12v for a '93 Corrado he built, so he also works on newer stuff. It's good to hear he's still around.
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Casey--

'89 Bluestar ALH w/12mm Waldo pump, PP764 and GT2052
'01 Weekender --> full camper
y u rune klassik?

[Abscate]

shirley he has been schooled in hard knocks...
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.ssS!

[jimf909]

Higher octane gas can help with that.
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- Jim

[Snort]

Maybe you just have the wrong phone number. Also, Jerry has never had any kind of internet presence so Yelp and Google are not reliable indicators for him.

Here is my current phone number, I called it today and it went to the correct voicemail message, not disconnected. 253-204-4795.