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Can anyone recommend a repair/rebuild manual for the VW beetle motor? I would like one that goes all the way rebuild from crankshaft replacement.
Just bought an MIGI, and I need to determine if the engine rebuild would be a viable alternative to just dropping in a replacement.thanks…..I use primarily two manuals for engine rebuild. “How To rebuild Your Volkswagen Air-Cooled Engine” by Tom Wilson and the “1970 – 1979 VW Service Manual” by Robert Bentley. Both I purchased from Amazon.com. I also recommend “How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive” by John Muir. Try Amazon and/or eBay. That should do you just right.
Allen Caron
VW based 53MGTD - "MoneyPenny"
"If one thing matters, everything matters" - from the book The ShackDepending on whether you have any experience with tools (these are all metric), not only is it a viable alternative to buying a replacement, but rebuilding is fun. No engine is more forgiving and easier to rebuild than an air cooled VW.
I would recommend:Become very familiar with Rob & Daves VW pages online. http://www.vw-resource.com/John Muir’s VWs for the compleat idiot is also good.Tom Wilson wrote a pretty good one on “How to Rebuild your VW”Bentley’s Service Manual is ok but I really found that the above gave the same info in an easier to read manner.Very few special tools needed for a VW.An engine stand is a super big plus and will help you to do a better job. About $90. Sell it when you are done.Buy quality parts (stay away from stuff made in China). I always ask the seller where it was made – don’t just order an oil pump (for ex) ask who and where it was made.Don’t be in a hurry, – you can do it and many of us on this site Newkitman, KentT and others have a lot of VW experience and we like to help.There is a lot of good advice on youtube but you need to be careful and know who you are “listening to”.If you are interested in “souping it up” a bit, there is another good one on “How to Hot Rod Your VW” that I have but can’t find or remember who wrote kit.There is a CD available on ebay that covers rebuild that is very thorough and if you have a laptop, you can take it to your garage and basically follow it through step by step. A bit pricey.What makes you think that you need a new crankshaft?Actually, what makes you want to rebuild the engine you have? andWhich engine do you have? The engine coding # on the bottom of the generator stand will give you a clue as to the year of mfg and the displacement (assuming the prior owner didn’t rebuild.)Just because your VW was built in a certain year and used a certain year VW chassis, do not assume that the engine is from either of those years. Get the engine #’s and look it up.And my last 2 pieces of advice:Don’t listen to anybody that says that VW engines are supposed to leak and mark their territory.Post your intentions, wants, and progress here on the TDr site and you will get more advice than you would have dreamed of.Welcome and good luck enjoying your TDr. (Where the heck is Baytown? Within a drive to Carlisle Pa?)And thanks for chiming in, Roy.Welcome! I’ll chime in and say the Fisher’s book is great for “souping up” a VW — but be aware that it is quite dated when it comes to both carb and distributor choices.
Similarly, Gene Berg’s site ( http://www.geneberg.com/cat.php) has a wealth of great info buried in it, but it is also getting dated since Gene passed away and the kids are running the business. I used to get his catalogs just to learn from them — his parts were always expensive, but considered my many to be the absolute best available…One general theme, regardless of stock or high-performance. Understand how the factory cooling system works, and make sure your car has all the needed pieces. Over the years, many unknowing people, often following bad advice, tossed away or left off/out important little pieces of the overall cooling system… The stock VW cooling system will work well for any engine up to about 1900-2000cc, where you need to go to larger exhausts — which may require doing away with the factory heater boxes, which will then require major mods to the overall cooling system…Early FF TDr on 69 VW pan
Slowly coming back from the ashes...Thank you, gentlemen, that is exactly the kind of advice I was looking for.
As for the motor-I really know nothing about it other than it has sat for about 10 years. I do not know if the motor is bad, but sitting that long I really suspect I”d be looking at new cylinders/rings at a minimum. So the motor has to come out. Since it’s out and on the stand, makes sense to me to check it all the way down. Now, I have to balance the cost of parts-and maybe a bit of outsourced labor- versa the cost of replacement drop-n.I do know my way around this type of engine rebuilds- old enough to have cut my teeth on flat-head Fords and Blue Flame sixes…. And various types of motorcycles, English, German and Jap. So I know general rebuild procedures. Long ago, and far away, I once rebuildt a Ford 390 in the bed of a pickup. I was younger then, and could wrestle better. But that story is for another time and place. 🙂Baytown is basically a suburb of Houston, about 20 miles east of Houston along I10, maybe 15 miles north of NASA. Claim to fame-its the starting point of what now is Exxon-Mobil. (Humble Oil) At one time had the biggest refinery in the world. -May not be now.
Ditto Kent’s concern about cooling air. Especially now that we know where you live. It’s no fun worrying about engine temps and the well maintained stock VW doesn’t have cooling problems. Where it may be subjected to higher temps and hotter roads in/around Houston, there are no mountains to contend with.Speaking of flat head Fords, I once knew a guy that put an old 60 hp flat head V8 in a TD. It was a beautiful conversion. And I always loved the sound of the flat head V8.
I forgot, but also, Aircooled.net has some good tech articles.Yeah, that V8 gave him six horses over the stock four-banger!
Hugh (Baytown), are you intending to tear the engine down before you try to get it running? Cuz I bet she’ll run if you squirt a little oil in the spark plug holes, turn her over by hand, gumout (and blow out) the carb, replace the points and condenser–you know the drill.If it were mine I’d sure try to start her and hear her out first before taking a prybar to the crankshaft.Clean out the gas tank, change the oil, put a piece of cardboard under her and maybe get a season or two out of her before deciding where to go next.A word on displacement: You can install larger cylinders that “slip in” to the existing case holes, but you get only a little more size. They’re 87mm (gives you 1641ccs), and because they have to fit in the stock case the walls are on the thin side. Several of our members have these cylinders though and I’ve heard of no problems.If you want to try to make some power, the next step is 1776/1835/1915 cc jugs. They all cost about the same and they all require machining of the case to open up the holes they slide into. Paul has a new 1776 mill and a lot of the fake Speedsters come with those, or the 1835 or the 1915 engines. You can run a single carb on them but they much prefer a dual carb setup, I am told. You can get 100 horses without difficulty, though you’ll need to get smart about camshaft and rocker arm ratios.If you get really smart (and want to build something lumpy) 120 horses are not out of the question. In my humble opinion, the guys claiming 150 and 180 horse out of 1915cc Type 1 mills are full of crap.To get that, you’re into stroker cranks. More torque down low, more money out your wallet, more complications to make it run cool or last more than a few seasons. If you are like me, you will be shocked and delighted (at first) by how cheap some of the parts available are. Rebuild kits for a couple hundred, etc. Don’t be fooled. If you want quality*, you will end up paying quite a bit more per horsepower than with most other engines (maybe any other engine) you’ve ever wrenched on. A professionally done 1915 cc engine is often over $5,000, all told.Yes, I know you could buy an LS2 crate motor for that and get 4x the horsepower. Just try hanging that off the back of your transaxle though!So building your own will save bucks, and you can do it. Just get knowledgable about parts–try for German every time & pay the money.*Quality in air-cooled VW speak means “won’t blow up within 500 miles”Welcome…a long time ago I rebuilt my 71 VW engine with the help of the VW Service and Repair Manual by Clymer Publications (don’t know if it is still avail.) and it worked out fine. As Roy pointed out the engine is easy to work on..just follow the steps. Also, Hot VW’s Mag published a book called All About Performance VW engines (I think it is still avail. thru Amazon) and it covers various engine builds from stock up thru 2853 cc’s and also has an excellent section on how to seal your engine during rebuild. I just bought the John Muir book and it is good also. I’m pretty much in the same boat as you are in that my car has leaks and I’m not sure what the PO has done or not done, so as soon as I can I’m going to pull the engine and do a complete rebuild and maybe bump the cc’s up to 1641….you might as well do the complete rebuild while you have the engine out. My 2 cents worth.
Sam
Sam & Hugh, I once helped a friend rebuild a VW and he had pre-ordered jugs and pistons. When we took it apart, we found that the prior owner had flycut the block, put in an oversize kit and he really had a 1800+ cc engine, not the 1600 he had thought. Had to sell the 1641 kit that he had just bought. I mention this because there is no way of knowing, for sure, what you have unless you pull the heads and measure the pistons.
To piggy-back on Ed’s comment, there are also 88mm “thick-wall” cylinders that require only the machining of the heads, and not the engine case. They’re the same outside size as the 90.5mm jugs, but the case-end has been machined down to allow them to slide into the engine case without further machining. It’s common to take the heads off and take them to a machine shop for resurfacing and a new valve job — and using these lets you go to the biggest size available without splitting the engine case and the more expensive machine work.
They are the coolest-running of any of the over-sized piston/cylinder combinations because the cylinder walls are so thick. Similarly they give great engine life because that thickness yields less distortion (due to running cooler) and wear, over time…Early FF TDr on 69 VW pan
Slowly coming back from the ashes...I am definitely going to try to start the thing -if it will turn over- before I pull it. There is always the chance it’ll be fine! 🙂 I don’t think I want to hotrod the thing much. If I do have to replace the cylinders, yah, go for the bigger displacement, but don’t think I’d want to do crankcase machining, cams, etc.
I don’t have the car here at my place, yet. One car garage, got to get my 2007 Solstice squared away somewhere before I can put the TD in. Right now, it’s still sitting on the trailer at my B-in-L’s.And grandson & I have a little weekend project for the Solstice anyway. (Wire mesh grill install) Realistically, it’ll probably be after Xmas before I can get my hands dirty.
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