[Vwdiesel] Cost per mile

[travis gottschalk]

I was just relating to the cam cost. Also I expect (if I don't crash the car) the car to last 500k miles on the engine alone without needing major engine work outside of injectors, cam and oil pump (since the cam failing sometimes if not caught soon enough takes that out as well). The gas engine by design I have heard stated won't last much past 250K miles (give or take some) because of the dryness of gas wears the rings causing compression loss and oil burning. That and you have to figure most engines have (with the rear exception of cummins and maybe a few others having gear driven cams) have chains that don't last much longer then the rings either so you will also have to replace the chain. The repair to do that at 250K miles plus labor (rings, honing and timing chain) will be more then the diesel with the timing belt with cam cam change at 100K plus labor since you don't have to remove the engine on timing belt and/or the cam. 

We are starting day three on the Honda timing belt. We got the bolt off with 6ft of breaker bar and pipes. I find it funny that they don't require the idler pulleys to be replace nor the water pump. 

On a side note my brother is rebuilding his 80 VW truck. So far no damage from running it out of oil. This is where he drove up to his place and left a trail of oil from the busted oil pressure gauge line. So it was still bleeding oil when shut off but didn't have any left when he drained it but I think it was caught literally in time. All bearings and cylinders look good. He is getting a gasket kit and putting it all back together. It needed to be sealed anyways as it was weeping some. 

One the tranny output flanges he couldn't find new ones and the old ones have seal groves worn into them. He is getting a speedy sleeve put on the old ones. I will list the part number when he gets it to me but his drivers side was leaking and the parts place guy said they almost always leak on that side. Come to think of it so did my 4 spd (my brothers is a leaking 5 spd at the moment with less the a year old seals). Is that from the shorter drive shaft putting more of a steeper angle on the CV joint and pressure on the flange then?

Travis G