Thats a tough break Ray.
I think that there have been some very poor rebuilds of these engines that people have paid good money for. They are not engines that any old engine shop can rebuild for sure.
I think that two minor engine rebuilds is really not to bad for a 25 year old syncro.
If it makes you feel better about the running costs of a syncro then bear in mind that the depreciation on a new Range Rover is at best over £500 a month, and add on top of that a regular finance package which is around £1200 the syncro is a cheap little runaround.
Like toomanytoys I (and mainly my dad in his business) have covered huge distances in WBX's, around 700,000 miles. And the only water leak or breakdown suffered in those miles was the first syncro D874URP which decided to leak water around the waterjacket seal. The VW recon 1.9 that replaced it covered 80,000 miles before the vehicle was written off on the M1 motorway keeping the ocuppants safe. Dad used to change the vans at 130,000 miles or 2 or 3 years.
How many of us VW fans have original engines in, I bet it is very few.
The alternative is perhaps a T5 4 motion California, So bland, so expensive. Even with 35mpg you would need to drive to the moon and back before you saved money.
My dad has just spent nearly £1000 at VW for the turbo waste gate oily dirty thing(?) on his 110,000 mile T4 5cylinder TDi Syncro, none of these vehicles are cheap to run, but it is always cheaper than going for a new one. His is now really very noisy inside and I have never liked driving it. dagadagadagadaga no rev range change gear, dagadgadagadagda run out of puff. Boring. Does tow nicely if you dont mind the black soot over the front of what you are towing.
overall that vehicle has covered over 200k miles in my ownership