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Wasn't sitting idle---was his work truck, probably doing 100+ miles a day..
One day, it had a dead hole, so he parked it to minimize damage and so i could look at it.

I imagine if he kept driving it it might have even fixed itself, although it was fouling the plug.

Pulled the engine, loaded it in the back of my truck and took it to Paradise Motorsports in Sam Marcos Friday. They are super busy (they had a ton of busses on their lot!). No telling how long it will take, but they said they would try squeezing me in whenever possible.

UPDATE: Got a call from Paradise Motorsports concerning my engine. The mystery continues. They could find nothing wrong with cylinder #4. They went ahead and did a leak down test and found that the engine was in very good condition. The worse cylinder only lost 5%. One cylinder lost nothing! We decided to throw it on their dyno and get the whole thing dialed in. They called me after the dyno session and their exact words were, "That engine as you brought it is a turd!" He preceded to tell me that it was running real lean (15:1) and only about 80 hp (for a 2600 cc motor that's dismal). He changed the jets and was able to pick up 20 hp. He called to ask a little more about how and where I used my Baja and we agreed that somewhere around 125 hp would be about where I would like it to be. He's playing with timing and some other things and I should be getting my engine back real soon.

Made a 120+ mile round trip to Yuma, AZ yesterday to hang out with some other VW crazies at the Volkswagens on the River Car Show. Only one other Baja was in attendance, but he had converted to a Chevy Ecotec engine. It's a small show that is mostly dominated by busses as they do a camp out in conjunction with the Saturday show.

The Baja did well except for it burping a little oil out of it's breather and some curious readings coming from the Cylinder Head Temperature gauge while traveling down the freeway. These will need a little more investigation.

After about ten years of ownership, my Baja has gone to a new home. I turned 67 during Thanksgiving week and I have been fighting issues caused by Lumbar Spinal Stenosis since June (back surgery may be on the horizon). This made getting in and out of my fully caged Baja extremely difficult (not to mention crawling around on the ground to do basic maintenance on it). A chance Facebook post in a Baja Bug group by someone interested in purchasing a Volkswagen powered Baja Bug caught me at a vulnerable moment and I set a price and sent pictures. The buyer not only met my asking price, he also purchased a few extra parts I had laying around. It has been a fun run and I have appreciated all the help and advice that I have received from this forum. I will probably poke my head in from time to time as once you own a VW they get under your skin and you can just drop them. Good bye and God Bless!

Good on you for the sale. Sorry about your back. It's been a fun ride with your ongoing build. Take care.