TDi engine specialists?

Hi all. I'm going to buy my first ever VW. The idea is to get the least expensive 4d 99-03 Golf I can find and have the entire power plant completely rebuilt from the ground up. My experience is that specialists can do a much better job than the typical "import" shop so I'm looking for TDI specialists that eat, breath, and live TDIs to send it to. Recommendations? Thanks.

There's a link in my signature for 'trusted tdi mechanics'. That's the first place to start.

Tony

For all of your head work contact Franko6. He's the best out there for that IMO..... and many others .

I feel you're going about this wrong. If you purchase the cheapest TDI you can find, then you might have to rebuild the engine as it probably wasn't serviced or maintained. I also would think if the owner didn't perform engine maintenance then maybe everything else will need replacing (brakes, struts, rubber bushings, etc). Where-as if you purchase one with service records, work performed by a trusted service shop and one owned by someone from "the club" then you will pay more but can drive and not worry what might need replacing or if something was repaired sub-standardly. Something to consider.

Take a look at my 'project' link in my signature. That will give you a good idea of what you are in for, in the scope of a poorly maintained VW.

Tony

I need to replace the rear shocks? Waht are the best shocks recommended

Duster408 said:

I feel you're going about this wrong. If you purchase the cheapest TDI you can find, then you might have to rebuild the engine as it probably wasn't serviced or maintained. I also would think if the owner didn't perform engine maintenance then maybe everything else will need replacing (brakes, struts, rubber bushings, etc). Where-as if you purchase one with service records, work performed by a trusted service shop and one owned by someone from "the club" then you will pay more but can drive and not worry what might need replacing or if something was repaired sub-standardly. Something to consider.

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Well, I'm going to be doing a lot of high mileage, high risk trips from MT to Canada and AK in the next couple of years. It's either a brand new car or a new engine and at 25 F-ing thousand dollars for a compact car, a new car isn't even possible. Besides, this way when other components go bad I can replace them with performance parts.

If your hell bent on a complete rebuild, find one that broke a timing belt. Should be able to find one for really cheap.

ob1coby said:

Well, I'm going to be doing a lot of high mileage, high risk trips from MT to Canada and AK in the next couple of years. It's either a brand new car or a new engine and at 25 F-ing thousand dollars for a compact car, a new car isn't even possible. Besides, this way when other components go bad I can replace them with performance parts.

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I'm not sure what you mean by "high risk" but a typical well maintained TDI engine easily goes 300K miles. Is that enough to get you back and forth between MT and Canada?

Find one in good shape, standard transmission, have the timing belt replaced, intake cleaned, carry a spare 109 relay, and have a good trip!

I'm surprised at the reactions I'm getting to all of this. Some of it is borderline hostile, ie.. olRattler. Why is this a bad Idea? Maybe I AM looking at this the wrong way. IMO it WOULD be a great idea to find one with a broken timing belt (i saw one today for $2500) and have it completely rebuilt. BUT, it seems like there is a lot of resistance to the idea. What am I missing?

no, olRattler is giving you good advice. and i really don't think he is being hostile. The term hell bent just means that you cannot be dissuaded from a course of action. What he is saying is that if you are going to go the route of a complete rebuild, you may be better off buying a car with a broken TB. you may be able to find an otherwise well maintained car at a huge discount.

ob1coby said:

Maybe I AM looking at this the wrong way. IMO it WOULD be a great idea to find one with a broken timing belt (i saw one today for $2500) and have it completely rebuilt.

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Personally, I'd jump all over this. Been looking for one of these to replace Eric's ailing Passat.

However, I can do all my own work after the machine shop did their thing. That makes a huge difference. I also have a spare ALH engine that I can swap in, if necessary.

If you are looking for a car with a poor engine maintenance history - it probably has a poor tire maintenance history, a poor filter maintenance history, a poor "quality fuel" maintenance history and a host of other issue that probably assure you of miles, years and many dollars of future support costs.

Find one in decent shape and just drive it. The things that can go wrong are almost unlimited and trying to prevent them all is I am quite sure beyond your wallets size.
When you have a problem fix it and move on.

Insurance companies say it costs about 3 times as much to build a car as it did originally. So don't try... just find a good one.

ob1coby said:

I'm surprised at the reactions I'm getting to all of this. Some of it is borderline hostile, ie.. olRattler. Why is this a bad Idea? Maybe I AM looking at this the wrong way. IMO it WOULD be a great idea to find one with a broken timing belt (i saw one today for $2500) and have it completely rebuilt. BUT, it seems like there is a lot of resistance to the idea. What am I missing?

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What you are missing is there is no reason to completely rebuild a AHL engine (the AHL is the engine found in the year grouping you stated you want). By all means, purchase one with a broken timing belt if you can do the wrenching work yourself. The head will need to be rebuilt (Frank06 is the choice for this work) at the very least with the possibly of needing a piston and/or con-rod if damaged from trying to compress a valve or two.
If you purchase a running car, then timing belt and intake cleaning are the two most important items that need to be done. unless it has 300,000 plus miles then rebuilding the entire engine is a waste of money. If you did rebuild the engine, would you spend the extra $700-$900 for a injection pump? New engine is going to do any good if pump fails or develops a simple leak.

If you're going to buy a cheap ALH, it'll probably have a lot of miles, a beat up interior, etc. The engine will likely need some vacuum lines, an intake cleaning, a MAF, and oil and filters.

The 'new engine' money will be better spent on the suspension dampers, wheel bearings, bushings etc.

It's not the engine that wears out...it's the rest of the car. Take it from a guy with an old MK4.

That engine will last upwards of 500,000kms before a rebuild makes sense (unless prior damage has occured). Regular, scheduled maintainence makes more sense with a less beat up car IMO.

ob1coby said:

I'm surprised at the reactions I'm getting to all of this. Some of it is borderline hostile, ie.. olRattler. Why is this a bad Idea? Maybe I AM looking at this the wrong way. IMO it WOULD be a great idea to find one with a broken timing belt (i saw one today for $2500) and have it completely rebuilt. BUT, it seems like there is a lot of resistance to the idea. What am I missing?

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I have a feeling you're thinking about this from the point of view that the engine on a used TDI will not be reliable, and you might as well "start fresh" with a new engine. The problem with this thinking, as someone else pointed out, is that it's the rest of the car, not the engine, that wears out. Your strategy would work for many gasoline cars, but TDI engines deliver ALOT of miles. It's very typical for engines with 200K+ miles to have excellent compression and zero oil use. An engine like that, with 200K miles, could take you from Canada all the way to Mexico at least 20 more times before 'wearing out.' Other parts of the car might be giving up, though!

I wouldn't even go the route of the broken timing belt car, unless A)you get a GREAT deal, and B) you know someone who can really work on these engines. You can't test drive a car with a broken timing belt.

Take a deep breath and start from scratch:

1. What is your goal? Sounds like you need reliable transportation that gets great mimlage. An ALH seems to be a good bet.

2. More importantly: How much do you want to spend? It sounds like you think that the best deal would be to find a beat up ALH and rebuild it. As paramedick touched on, this would be a decent idea if you are doing the work yourself. From the thrust of your initial post, it seems like you would be taking it to a pro. Between parts and labor, your idea seems to be the most expensive option available.

You can pretty much guarantee that an ALH with a busted timing belt was poorly maintained in a bunch of other ways, as well. The costs to fix such poor maintenance add up quickly. Financially, your best bet would be to find a high-milage but impeccably maintained ALH. Throw your money at a new suspension and an interior refresh, both of which you can probably do yourself with a bit of patience. With winter coming, diesel prices will be on the increase and the prices on TDIs will start dropping.

Don't make this harder than it has to be.