Strategy: Head Rebuild or Used Engine Swap

My Situation:

I live in Western New York, I purchased a 98 NB TDI Standard Trans, with 245000 miles for $3000. It was a PA car which had not seen many miles at all in NY.

Plus side- interior and exterior very good- no rust underneath, but missing the belly plate. Timing belt appeared fresh on visual inspection, rollers and tensioner seemed fresh as well.

Minus side- no real maintenance records, other than assurance that the timing belt had been done a year ago, and his daughter (who the car was intended for) wanted a mustang and was not interested in keeping it. The person had a small shop, and was driving a TDI conversion 84 Rabbit pick up, so I felt reasonably confident that he had done the work correctly. He seemed like a stand up guy, and I decided to roll the dice and become a TDI person.

My wife began driving it, I ordered some manuals and began pricing the tools and TB kit to get myself started. Nine days into ownership, the car (according to my wife) misses once or twice then stalls while driving to work. She had just put her first tank of fuel in the night before. The first two things that jumped to mind was Relays/Fuses and losing prime in the fuel system. Manuals arrive two days later.

Towed home, and began diagnosing- replaced relays, fuses- cranked and got nothing. Cracked and bled fuel system repeatedly, pulled sender etc... plenty of fuel in the injectors. Now I am beginning the process of thoroughly checking timing, but am resigning myself to the the thought that it jumped a tooth or two.

My skills:
Amateur mechanic who has always done his own timing belts, and most routine maintenance- a few clutches and engine swaps along the way. I have never owned a TDI or anything with a turbo, but am not completely unfamiliar with diesels in general. I haven't done an engine swap in a while, and have never done a fwd. My engine swaps were mostly fords- 302s mostly and some SuperBeetles and other older VWs. All of them were before my now 20 y/o son was born.

My options:
I am an hour and a forty minutes from Select Euro in Waterloo NY.

1) Have head done at Select or another TDI specialist
(+= I know it will be done well, -=costly, and I am not sure about the longevity of the bottom end.)

2) Buy a used motor from http://www.qualitygermanautoparts.com in the $3000 grand range and install myself.
(+=i now know exactly what I have, longer life etc...; -=time, time, time...)

3) Cut my losses and buy something else?
(I hate to be a quitter this early, but...)

My questions:
I am thinking the cost of having top end done by a specialist is comparable to swapping a motor at home. I also think as an amateur without a vagcom and other specialty tools, an engine swap might be far more of an "easy" project than it would be for me to buy a head, do the TB, headgasket, time the IP etc...

So what are others' thoughts on this? Am I wrong to be leery of doing a head by myself, but willing to do a motor swap? Which do you think actually requires more expertise, the top end refresh, or the swap? The swap also gives me some experience for when I do the Timing Belt next, or a clutch...

Any suggestions about any of my thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Gosh I would figure out what exactly was wrong with it first before thinking about replacing motor. First thing I would do is see if the Crank, Cam and IP are in time by using the tb tools. See if you can lock it down. Pull valve cover and take a look at the lifters to see if there are any signs of spider cracks...

I've never pulled and replaced a motor in a TDI but have replace a head once. It's not all that bad of a job to be honest...4-5 hours to pull the head and about another 8 or so hours to put back on. For me anyways...

x2 what jgerni says.
These cars are fairly simple, but the engine management is very different. Keep reading, learning and find out just what is wrong. If the timing belt is loose or you think you may have jumped a tooth or 2, that's not necessarily the end of the world.

Its about time I get back to this.

Long story short-

Life gets busy and I did a bit more work and then pushed this car into the back of the garage and got on with other projects. I did take it apart enough to find out that the Timing Belt was free wheeling because the tensioner gave way. I needed reliable transportation and kept moving onto what I had.

Now I want to get back on it... my daughter is old enough and really wants it, and if it goes well, I am thinking about picking up a Golf or Jetta. If I invest enough time learning TBelt and other things- why let it go to waste?

So here are my new/old questions-

Head removal and thorough bottom assessment- (which I am a newbie at)?

or

Engine Swap at Home?

or


Trailer it to Select EuroCars in Waterloo, NY for their assesment?

(I am about 75 miles away)

Thanks in advance!!!

If you had valve piston interaction, you're going to want to measure piston protrusion to make sure a connecting rod isn't bent, which will require the head to come off. If rods are OK, have head rebuilt if it's able to, and reassemble.

If that's too much work, then engine swap or trailering it may be in your future.

Your first post was mid 2014. It is now 5 years later. So the vehicle has sat without any attention for 5 years??? Whats a perfectly running 98 beetle worth
in New York these days???. I'd cut your losses and move on. Much as I like TDI's this sounds like a money pit in the making.

People are head over heels for bugs. I was in the same boat a few months ago. Ended up building an engine for an 03 for the guy.

Definitely try to decide on how badly you want this car. You're looking at either a replacement engine or a complete overhaul. Do you plan to keep it yourself or flip it? In its condition it isn't worth fixing to flip.

I like A or C, it's too old for finding a low mileage replacement motor.
Definitely good to go ahead and assess the damage, Go from there.
I can't interweb guess what it is, the timing belt won't freewheel with no tension, unless of course if it shredded teeth, in which case you need a head rebuild at the least.