Daughters car (again) 1.6 golf 2000 my AKL engine.

Uses huge amounts of oil, has a suspect spark plug thread, and the clutch is close to the end of it's useful life.

These engines seem to have a rep for burning oil past the rings - I have driven it and there is no noticeable smoke but it is using I guess around a litre in 500 miles..

So do I rebuild the motor with new rings (assuming the pistons are ok) fix the plug thread and replace the clutch

Bung in an ebay motor and hope for the best

sell it

Looking for the most cost effective option

Try to think like your daughter.
Its not about what makes sense. It is about what will make her happiest.

No, I don't know the answer, but I bet you can work it out.

Matt

Depends on the condition of the rest of the car and what facilities you have but my instinct would be do the rounds of the auctions to find a replacement.

Fitting new rings to worn engine even with preping the bores with a glaze buster or hone is a hit or miss job, it might work it might not.

Whats the milage? if its high I'd go for a low milage replacement, or sell it, re ringing would probably be a waste of time if the bores are worn, and gone oval / tapered, and re boring / new pistons is going to exceed replacement engine cost.

Try and get an engine from an accident damaged car, not one broken because it was beyond MOT repair.

It would be a shame to do all that work to the car and then sell it and let someone else have the benefit of your hard work. If it was me and I wanted to replace the car I would sell it on as going concern and accept that I am going to get a below market price due to its condition.

It is a buyer's market especially in older cars, the market is so low even a long established car auction house went bust last week because next to nothing was actually selling.

Move it on and get something else would be my instinct at that age.

1.6 Golfs of that era also suffer issues with the crown wheel breaking it's rivets and mashing the gearbox. There's a fix by removing the rivets and fitting bolts, so you'd want to do that as well if the start taking it apart for the clutch.