Teardown

Last Saturday I rolled the engine on it's new stand out into the driveway and spent an hour pressure washing and de-greasing.  It really looks great.  I rolled it back in, blew it off with the air hose and started taking it apart.  The engine is in remarkable great shape.  The clearances are very good.  The cylinders have virtually no ridges, there is still hone marks visible in the cylinders!    The gaskets and seals are all hard, but the mechanical stuff looks great.  This looks like a rebuild that was done a  long time ago and it has been run very little since.
I checked and poked and probed to find out if the previous builder had left things un-done like the torques on the left hand head nuts, but my search turned up nothing.  Everything was touqued perfectly except the left hand head nuts.  I am forced to conclude the previous builder did a wonderful job of rebuilding this engine and simply got distracted while torqueing the heads and missed the left one during the final torqueing round.
I also found out that the engine is not the original 1600 that came with the bus.  The engine code tells me it's from a 73-74 Beetle.  I wonder what that story is?  I will never know.  Anyway, I ordered new gaskets, seals, exhaust clamps, hoses, some miscellaneous nuts bolts and screws and a new set of rings.  I don't think the engine needed the rings, the end gaps were pretty good, but I am in this far, I might as well re-do those as well.  I checked the bore, and it is as close to nominal as I can measure.  Should be a great rebuild.  Now for some serious cleaning and painting!