She ate a valve in Jan 21, finally got her back and running in Nov 21, then the idler went early failure in July 22 and wiped out the new cylinder head job
August 23 I am finishing up the second cylinder head rework
November 2025 - she is back on the road fully after work/life took two years , two valve jobs due to a failure of a new timing component, a new clutch hydraulic pipe.
Original Jan 21 text begins
With sadness I report the demise of my T5.
On a trip back from central NY, 3 miles from home, #3 valve was ingested and I limped home, thanking her for her decades of service
Elizabeth led me to MVS back in 2013, when I was contemplating selling her, but decided she was a really nice car worthy of refurbishment. she gave me another 7 years and 120k miles of service at ridiculously low cost and equally ridiculously high smile factor, waggling her gearbox from DC to Chicago to\ Boston and all points in between. Many a Bimmer was dispatched in the rear view as the HPT spooled up over 3000 rpm.
Disposition? She needs a steering rack and the valve dealt with, but is otherwise a daily driver. I have an offer from a local speed guy that I won’t seriously contemplate due to his reputation of his cars lasting 6 months. I can’t possibly get to this for 4 months and I don’t want the car to sit that long if at all possible.
I will put a classified shortly, maintenance history, of course, is detailed in the link below - under “Elizabeth” of course.
The tears of sorrow already are being quenched with the many happy memories.
Added photo of exhaust #3 valve







