[Vwdiesel] smacking valves

[Val Christian]

Without checking my notes, here's my general recall on one valve
problem I had:

The 84 Rabbit had about 220K (my general recall, as I have the exact figures
elsewhere), and it was a hot day.  I was getting off the expressway about
5 miles from home.  I went to pull forward from the stop light (well, a stop
sign back then), and the engine quietly died.  A tap on the starter didn't
turn it over, so I rolled the car off the bridge, and called the 
dairy farmer down the road on the ham radio.  He brought a pickup truck,
and a chain, and it got towed home.  

It turns out that the bolt holding the sprocket (cog) on the camshaft
apparently loosened.  It had NEVER been loosened in the life of the 
car.  The fit with the cam is a tapered fit without a key (even though
a keyway is cut in the sprocket and the camshaft).  

My recollection is that two or three valves got bent, and that the #1 
piston had a good sided moon cut into it.  I filed the burs off, rebuilt
the head, as it had 220Kmiles, and I had it off the car.  

YMMV with higher speed situations.

Val