hey guys, VW newbie, just bought a 73 square, crapped out on me 3rd day, turns out engine needs a recon/rebuild.
i mainly work around imports and not familiar with VWs, is it hard to recon the whol engine? if so how much time/money/effort would it take (ballpark figures obviously).
if i choose to get a workshop to do it, where do u reccomend? i live in melb

I would recommend Dieter at Volkspeed in Bayswater (03) 9729-1308 for a rebuild. Many of the workshops will send your engine there anyway.
Around $1600-$2000 is a ball park area. Depends whether you use reco heads or get new etc... best to get your dizzy and carbs checked out at the same time too.
It may take a month or so he is usually pretty busy.

Is the 'needs a rebuild' a guess or has someone checked it out?? What did it do?
Where abouts in Melbourne are you?

yeh well today i went down to volkspower (car died half way there), and Dean there looked at it, the fuel aint pumping to the engine, so thats fucked, low comp. in #3, there's a leak somewhere and carbys need a full clean. Thats so far from what we have found just by giving it a quick look over. a rebuild is obviously not the only option but it is in the cards, so im sussing it out so i wont suprise myself with a bill later down the track. i live in the inner eastern suburbs (balwyn). Any up for checking out my car or helping me out with anything, i will repay in slabs and gratitude.

fuel not getting to engine would either be blocked filter, blocked tank strainer or buggered pump... ya can put a kit thru an original german pump... brazillian ones are throwaway i have been told. fuel filter is about $5 from Repco. Cleaning the strainer might mean taking the tank out... not sure as ive never had to do one.

Low compression in #3 could be a number of things... older upright engines used to suffer burned valves and cracked heads above #3 due to the oil cooler being directly in the cooling air stream to that cylinder and hence preheating it. I am pretty sure this was fixed by repositioning the oil cooler and modifying the design of the fan shroud around abouts 1970 tho?... but still... ya never know.

Oh wait this is a type 3... hmm... not sure if that was ever an issue with type 3 suitcase engines anyway.

but anyway... bad compression on one cylinder with 3 good cylinders... particularly if the bad one is #3... sounds like either a cracked head, sunken or pocketed seat, or burned valve... either that or a very badly adjusted valve on that cylinder which is staying slightly open, or carbon buildup having the same effect. Worn rings are also possible but it is fairly unusual for them to wear dramatically faster on any one cylinder. a cracked ring is a possibility to i guess...

To find out if its head or cylinder related, do a compression reading as normal, then take the gauge off, squirt oil into the cylinder and test again... if the reading leaps up dramatically, worn rings or cylinder bores are your problem, if it doesnt make a great deal of difference the problem is more than likely head/valve related.

Out of interest, how low is low?.... can you supply the compression readings for all four cylinders?

anything down to 100psi is considered acceptable (down to 80psi on a type 4 motor!), and 115-130ish is healthy... obviously the more the better.

CHeers!

usually i would be happy to help, when in the country! Im in the US at the moment...
im home for a while in march, and if you still need a hand then im happy to check it out for you...

It might pay to check the flow to the fuel pump, and if thats all good then swap the pump over and ensure flow to the carbs. It will certainly be worth changing fuel filter/s as well. You may be surprised with the fuel and carbs sorted, and balance the carbs too that it may run ok. f its down in comp in a cyl its not the end of the world. May have a bad seating valve which is giving the low reading, could be cracked too, but thats common and will not make the car undriveable.

ive sent u2u

ok update. i cleaned out the tank, pressure washed it, etc. my mate who owned a couple of VWs check it out, we figured that even though the cylinder #4 was the one with low comp. (sorry typo before when i said #3 [ its about 75 psi]), it was pulling most of the weight whereas cylinders one and two were doing crap all. tomorrow im going to clean out the carbies, so any tips or methods you guys found easy? we've checked all the tappets and theyre alright, none too tight, but the car is running rich, so cleaning out the carbies should help a bit.
thanks for the help guys by the way.

The third thread down on this page (Tech Talk) is a thread about helpful sites.

the first one is http://www.vw-resource.com 

One VERY helpful site

Grab a cup of whatever, sit down and have a browse