Need more advice on buying a Turbo Motor

[SolarSteve]

I bought a 1.6 out of a 1990 Golf today.  I know the guy and wanted to buy the entire car from him a year ago, but he didn't want to sell at the time.  Back then he did tell me that the car ran and moved under its own power to the spot where it was at the time.  He eventually pulled the motor and tranny and junked the car and now I have the motor/tranny.

So I plan on pulling the head off of the Golf motor and intalling it on the motor in my Jetta.  Then I plan to rebuild the Golf motor and then swap it out with the jetta motor.

In the meantime, I found a guy who is selling a 1.6 Turbo motor that he says came out of an '86 Golf.  He says he got the motor from a friend and that the friend pulled the head becasue a piston needed to be replaced but he never did the work.  Right now he is telling me that I can have the block with all the internals, the head, turbo intake and exhaust and the turbo for $325.

This whole bit about a bad piston and getting the motor from a friend all sounds a bit fishy to me.  I would love to have a turbo motor to rebuild and to transplant into the Jetta, but this guy sounds like I might be getting into a can of worms.

Is this "par for the couse" or am I being overly cautious?  What do you guys think?

Thanks

[Rabbit TD]

Well if he is saying it needs a piston in 99% of the time on these engines it's because it came in contact with a valve which can mess up the head too at the same time and even bend a rod too when the timing belt breaks which it probably did.  The heads are pretty much interchangeable other than the fact some have different size head bolts 11 or 12 m/m and some are hydraulic.  From what I see in your post the oldest thing you are talking about is 86 so everything should be 12 m/m with hydraulic valves.  Am I right here guys on this, the newest parts I've dealt with so far has been 83.  I know the turbo head's exhaust valve is supposed to be made from a different material than the N/A ones but in reality I don't think it's that big a deal really unless you're going to run excessivly high EGT's for a long period of time which in that case will probably melt the pistons anyway first.

[SolarSteve]

Yeah, his story just doesn't sit right with me.  I would really like to put a turbo motor in this car, but not that way.  I guess I will let it pass or if nothing else see if he will half his asking price!

[Rabbit TD]

Yeah, his story just doesn't sit right with me.  I would really like to put a turbo motor in this car, but not that way.  I guess I will let it pass or if nothing else see if he will half his asking price!

  Actualy the turbo and the injector pump are the expensive parts, it might not even be a t/d pump possibly and the turbo could be worn out too.  But when building a turbo motor you have to start somewhere