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My hell experience just keeps getting worse



Okay, so I bought a 1984 'rocco the weekend before Halloween.  It is in
good shape, ran decent, body is straight.  I'm thinking, cool, I want a
'rocco, this one seems to be good, I'll drive it for the winter and play
with it come spring.

So, I'm driving it.  It runs rough until warm, then it runs good.
Overheated once, the bypass hose on the front of the engine is bad,
replaced it, $10.  But the flatbed from there to here cost me $290.
Still driving it, it starts not starting when hot, leaves me stranded a
couple times.  Oil light starts flickering, figured it was just a bad
ground/connection, so I wasn't too worried.  Driving down the highway,
it falls out of 5th gear.  Twice.  Filled the tranny with Mobil 1, and
it all leaks out past the passenger side driveshaft seal.  Got the seal
and spent 2 days working on it (no manual, including Bentley, told me
about the spring that pushes the flange off the tranny, so I almost got
dead when it went past my head at 90 kph).  It's still leaking a bit.
$40 in synthetic fluid, on my driveway.  Drove it to work, it starts
running hot, oil light flickers, it dies while in transit.  Seeing as
how I was 80 miles from home, I left it and rented a trailer to tow it
to the local stealership ($68 for the trailer).  They told me, for $285,
that the timing was off and I needed a new head.  Compression in #1 was
at 20 psi.  Oh, and the inlet on the coolant overflow tank was melted
and the hole was almost closed.  Oil light was coming on because of
thinned oil, due to....yep, gas in the oil.  Thanks for the info, I'll
get that taken care of right away.
So, now it runs, but rough (on 3 pots, ya know).  Changed the oil 3 days
later, it's BLACK with gas.  Driving it around, and it leaves me at the
gas station.  Still won't start when it's hot.  Could be to the fuel
leak while running near the fuel pump.  Leave it for 20 minutes, starts
right up.
Okay, so I'm gonna take it to a local VW shop (they ONLY work on VWs, so
I know I can trust them).  They take a looksy at my problems.  Leak down
test on #1:  Pumped 100 psi into it.  It lost all but 5%, and the
remaining came up through #3.  Pumped #3 full of 100 psi, it lost 5%.
Sounds like rings!!  It would cost $300 to pull the head to check leak
down on individual cylinders, but if it was rings it'd be $3-400 for
parts and labor.  I can get a good '85 GTI 1.8 for $400, and $300 to
install it.  So I'm thinking that'd be the route to go.  Next, the fuel
leak.  I'm thinking bad pump, maybe, or bad fittings.  Turns out all the
fuel lines are not even correct for that car.  Everything is rusty,
paper thin, needs to be replaced.  Lines, $36 and $82, accumulator,
$212, used pump $50.  He checked out the fuel system, the timing was WAY
off, and somebody messed with the mixture screw and had it cranked 3.5
turns too rich.  Mr. Brigham was dumbfounded it was so off.  Bad rings
and insanely rich mixture, plus the bad injector (3 week old
Borg-Warner, I replaced all 4 just after I bought it) was bad, leaking
fuel into the chamber.  Replaced the injector, adjusted the mix,
adjusted timing.  $96.
Shall we tally possible costs?
290+10+40+68+285+700+36+82+212+50+96=$1869, not including the $1200 I
spent on the car.  So, my current plan is to put it in storage, get some
parts as I can afford them, put them in myself, and see what happens.
All I wanted was a good car for the winter, and I got screwed.
Anybody know of a strong 2.0L near Southern Wis/Northern Ill area?  I
could get a 1.8, but as long as I'm doing all this, I should do it
right.  No turbo, no 16V, no VR6, I want to keep it mostly simple.
Hope you all have had happy experiences with your 'roccos, mine hasn't
been fun.
Nate
Unhealthy '84 1.8 (at least the wheels look good)



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