stafford va allen bristow aka gp1963
Hi all just wanted to let you guys know about a guy in stafford va who forum name here is 1963gp. His name is Allen bristow and lives near Tom. He does great work and has avast collection of VW buses and and fair share of newer tdi. Long story short I had a noise in my engine that sounded like a top end valve train noise. Sounded like a lifter tapping so I replaced the lifters and cam. Noise was still there, and I had checked all other avenues like injector noise, pump, tensioners, valve guides, so i decided to short out each cylinder by cracking each injector line...noise got quiter with number 2 even though there was no bottom end noise that i could hear. So I decided to slap a used engine. Allen had one and I decided to use the one he had. Before I decided to put that engine in, I wanted to put a new hg on and we found that the piston on number one was missing a chunk out of it. Well that threw out that idea. We figured it was still in the top end, but I was unsure so I took off the oil pan of my engine and started inspecting for any play anywhere. One thing I did check was when the number 2 piston was bottom dead center I took a prybar and lightly checked if there was any play in side to side clearance. Guess what, there was play and the noise it sounded like upper end metallic tapping noise. I also looked up and could see the bottom of the piston skirt where the black coating was rubbed off. So we decided to pop my head off and take that rod and piston out. Man it was trashed by what looked like either wash down from a bad injector or it got starved of oil from the previous owner busting the oil pan and starved it for oil. Well the dilema was I had to get the car back together for work monday, so we had to figure out something. Plus the cylinder walls had aluminum from the piston rubbing on it. Well he had extra pistons lying around and we took the best piston to what we had and swapped the piston onto my original wrist pin and rod and bearings as they all looked to be fine. We didnt have a hone so I took 220 grit sandpaper and roughed off the cylinder walls to a smooth finsh following up with finer grit while creating a cross hatch as best as possible. We put the new (200k miles) piston in and put everything back together with new hg and bolts, seals etc..we also took the trans out and insalled a new clutch while it was there since we never actually removed the block and did all this with the engine still in. I even reused the rod bolts which i know you arent suppose to do and made sure the bolt wasnt stretched out but I needed to get the car running. So after all this, we both had our doubts but we fired up the car and to our suprise, it was quiet and no smoke. We set up the timing and iq and made sure the engine warmed up proper, drove it home 1.5 hours with no issues. Its now been a month and over 2000 miles and its still quiet and no blue smoke.
All I can say is Allen is super nice for letting me use his garage shop and he knows his stuff. He can do just about anything with the tdi's from control arm bushings, auto to manual swaps, clutches, timing belts, suspension work, regular maintenance, performance upgrades like exhaust and intake installs and installing upgraded turbo to head gaskets and complete engine swaps. He can weld as well. His shop is nice and he is very hospitable and will help out anyway he can. His prices are very reasonable and are usually lower than most. Give him a shout and see what he can do for you if you need any repairs to your tdi. He also has a nasty gp that runs 10's all motor.
I am a master Volvo tech and I was suprised myself about the outcome as was he, but we both worked as a team and got the job done in a weekend including the clutch and engine dissasembly. We wasted more time trying figure out what we were going to do get me back on the road and which game plan to take but once we made the decision, we got it done pretty fast. If you have any questions, give him a shout. He also has a pretty fun golf with 17/22 and rc4+
So if you need any work at a reasonable price from a super honest, knowledgeable, and nice guy, get in touch with Allen.
Greg
