Feb 6th, 2002 Wow, this page was written so long ago. My Sterling has sat for 1.5 years. Heres why. If you read the link titled "Where it all started", it will tell you how water got in to the motor. I took it to a shop to see what damage was done to the motor. My carbs had been killed by the water. One needed rebuilt, the other needed replaced (beyond rebuilding). I also had a charging problem (unrelated to water leaks). I decided that needing new carbs, and a new charging system, and knowing that I wanted to upgrade to water-cooled someday, now was the time to do it. I found an RX-7 motor on the internet for $900. I sent the guy the money and he went out of business. I lost my $900, but more dissapointing is that I spent all summer trying to track down my motor or my money. I had planned on spending the summer (and an additional $1000 - $1500) to get the RX-7 motor in and working. I no longer have the money (or time, really) to do the RX-7 swap, so I am fixing up the beetle engine. The first thing I did was fashion a garage out of a tent in my front yard. I live in a nice neighborhood, and I'm sure my neighbors don't like it much, but I need somewhere to do this work. Then I started taking things off. I took off the old carbs, and checked them out. One of my "water blockers" got clogged and water went in to the carb, froze, and cracked it. The other one looks good, and is the one that was Ok before. I went in to my basement to dig out an old pile of parts the seller threw in with the car. Turns out there was a 2bbl carb in there, with a manifold. I am going to rebuild this carb and use it, and sell my old Weber 42 DNCF. I also bought a plate to try mounting a 4bbl to this manifold. I will likely try that after I get it running with this part. I have plans to add a GM one-wire 130-amp alternator to this car. I finally found someone on-line who did it by mating the GM alternator with the back half of the VW one so it still spins the fan, and will be asking him for information on it. February 10th Most of my recent developments have been in research. I am going to change the oil and check it for water, then test the compression on the motor and if it is ok, I will leave the heads and rings on and not even mess with them. If the compression is OK, then new carburation should help out. I owe a lot of help to Jack Lewis and Tom Downie with whom I work for their knowledge in these cars. I have also found that "J-pipes" are what I need to replace my clunky stock heater boxes. They're only $13 a pair. I love these cars. I emailed with the alternator guy and he said that there was some welding and some lathework involved with the alternator plans. So, I think I will go with my plan to have it run an electric fan, and just mount the GM alternator. February 13th Well, I drained the oil, and there was a lot of water in it, so I guess I'll be pulling the heads to survey the rest of the damage. February 23rd OK, using shoptalkforums.com, I found out that I cannot use the electric fan - it just wont cool the motor. But I wanted the simplicity of the GM One-wire alternator. Well, I found a Bosch part which is P/N AP82X which is a 55amp one-wire VW alternator. While it is significantly less AMPs, it will be so much easier to install, as it was designed for the VW. That means I can also use my stock fan, which will bolt to the back of it. I have plans to run a lot of electrical equipment, but most of it will be low-powered. I had plans to run a small 12v space heater, but I dont think that I should now. I may eventually run a duct from the oil cooler to inside the car, which could provide heat. We'll cross the lack of amperage bridge when and if we come to it. I got a lot done on my engine this weekend. I ended up taking off the cylinders on the side that had water damage. There was considerably less damage there, than I thought I might have. The cylinders have minor surface rust, but nothing which has pitted anything. I'm going to just clean them up and put them back together. Even the rings and heads look like they're in good condition.