Sell, Fix, or buy lots of oil?

[Waspy]

So my beloved mk2 8v is burning a fair amount of oil. It has done 188,000, but more to the point is that I am using it everyday and covering a lot of miles with my job which I hadn't expected when I bought the car. In an ideal world I would have the car for pleasure and have a run around to clock the miles on. But right now I just can't afford to run two cars.

So, brings me to my question.
Do I get it fixed, which is going to be piston rings and seals. Well, that's my guess on an engine with that milage. I tried a compression test but the results were between 2 and 4 bar, so I guess I did it wrong. I dont know the cost of this, but I am confident I can't do it myself. Alternatively a recon engine would be nice, but it seems that would be ~£1000. Which I don't mind too much as I plan it to be a car for life.... Providing I can make it run that long. The real comparison between these is if piston rings and seals will give another 100k miles, do I really need a whole new engine?

With the above costs considered. I could sell mine, use the money I would have used to mend the current one and buy what should be almost a minter... But it may actually have issues (better the devil you know?)

Finally I can get mine tuned by someone who knows what they are doing and just keep throwing oil it in until I can afford another car (a few years realistically)...

Opinions? Also can't find how to do a pole on the mobile version, but I'll add one when I can.

Cheers guys

[Lewy]

Fix, or ABF it.....

[Waspy]

Oh yeah, ABF was an option, but I can't get insurance on it, so that's out. One vote for fix...

[Craigwilson]

I take it the body and chassis is solid?, worth keeping, id fix it

[Gambit]

Stick a mk3 2.0 8v bottom end on it. Least hassle and cost. And insurance wont know anything about it as it still looks like a 1.8 8v in the engine bay

[Waspy]

Bodywork is good. I love the car, so selling would only be if it made perfect financial sense.

Interesting thought about the bottom end. Of course it could throw up similar problems a few thousand miles down the line as it will probably have come from a high milage engine anyway, no?

Added a pole.

[Sgt_Lemon]

I'm voting for 2L bottom end

[VW BUSH]

I say kill a Mk3 to keep it going, use the 2.0l 8v gti as a doner if you cant afford an ABF.
You can pick up fairly low mile failed rot boxes for under £300, not just the engine you can use either.
Worst thing I ever did was not fix my last Mk2 and let it go

[Waspy]

Wow, a few of you supporting the 2.0 bottom end. Thanks for the input guys. However, if I replace the bottom end and its just the valve seals ill still have the problem. So I guess the solution is to have the valve seals done and while im at it stick in a 2.0 bottom end for longevity...

[Sgt_Lemon]

You will have the current 8v head off anyway if you put a mk3 bottom end on. Easy enough to replace the valve stem oil seals then. You could even give your head a good clean and reseat your valves. If it was me doing it I would clean up the bottom end too when it's out the donor so the thing is all fresh and new when you put it in.