Rebuilding a 1600 cc VW engine

[Wes Bender]

I'm sure that there are more than a few of you guys who have successfully rebuilt VW engines. Although I've rebuilt my Porsche engine, I haven't tackled a VW engine yet. That is about to change as I'll be helping a friend rebuild his this next spring. It's a 1600 cc engine, s/n AE7XXXXX.

Has anyone put together a comprehensive rebuilding guide for these engines similar to Harry's Secrets of the Inner Circle? Or are there any other good reference works?

Thanks in advance,
Wes

[George Walling]

Wes, I have no rebuild guide made up but I can add this little bit of help. My dad and I had a VW shop for a few years and one of the most important things is to check the line bore and also the AE case is a nice case to build as it has the larger oil passages and most had the dog house style oil cooler. which we always found to give the best for rebuilding. If you have rebuilt a Porsche engine with good success why a VW engine will be a piece of cake as long as you remember keep everything clean and measure all clearances and then measure them again. I'm sure that there is folks here that can add more help than I but these are a starting point and good luck. Have a Great Turkey Day.

[Wes Bender]

Thanks for your thoughts on this George. I'll treat it the same as a Porsche engine regarding careful measurements and cleanliness. I was wondering if I can use similar torque specs too. We won't be in a hurry to get it done so we can be as careful as we need to be.

Have a good Turkey Day too. (Ours is about to go in the oven as I write this.)

Cheers,
Wes

[George Walling]

Wes, I'm getting ready this spring to try my hand at rebuilding my spare engine for my 55 Speedster the engine is a 59 small oil pump 1600N. This will be my first attempt at building a Porsche engine. I don't have any of the VW books any more but I do remember we would cc each cylinder head and make sure we keep all the cylinders as close as possible, it was always important to us to keep everything as close to being the same cylinder to cylinder and side to side as possible. Always paid close attention to wrist pin fit and bearing crush and so on. We always used case savers on the case where the head and cylinders attached to the case. I know that like a Porsche engine VW engines you have to use a good sealer on the case half VW being a 2 piece case is a little easier to seal. and of course crank end play is important . I can say this from my side of the air cooled game I'm more nervous about doing my spare Porsche engine than doing a VW engine. mostly because of the price for parts and then getting all the parts matched and installed properly, but I guess it will be just a matter of getting my feet wet as it is about what you are getting into. VW are a lot more forgiving than what I understand the Porsche engine is. I'm sure you are aware of the service books available on the internet to help you through this even though after market there is some very good ones and they are cheaper than the Porsche book. lol
Hope all goes well for you and Have a Great Christmas Holiday and New Year.

[Spencer Harris]

Has anyone put together a comprehensive rebuilding guide for these engines similar to Harry's Secrets of the Inner Circle? Or are there any other good reference works?Thanks in advance, Wes

Lots of build threads on the Samba site Wes. This may contain the type of rebuilding info you're looking for, or you can search the forum same as on the Registry site.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=536400

[Dan Epperly]

I've built quite a few VW engines. I would suggest John Muirs "Idiot" guide, available on Amazon. He walks you through it step by step and pretty much any VW repair manual for type one up to '72 will work to fill in the gaps. Muir has all the torque specs near the back of the book. You will find parts are insanely cheap compared to Porsche and easy to get from a number of venders.
Muir does have some off ideas about 009 distributors (like Harry and the 050) and auto chokes, which I would disregard.
You will undoubtedly discover that there is more alike when it comes to these engines than there differences. Have fun.

[Mike Horton]

Wes, go to Amazon, or other used book seller, and find Tom Wilson's VW book, excellent data, you'll not regret it, it helped me through 1600 KG engines for both my daughter's school cars. Go to HF, and find their packaged circle magnet, which just fits around the centered drain plug, a friend told me that one... I still have one I built in '88, & the KG coupe it went in...lower C/R to 7.2:1, to run regular fuel. Good stock Solex carb, and single vacuum, dual (vacuum/centrifugal) advance Bosch distributor (was used in '74 year model) Use a richer main jet, for the PC 10% ethanol, use good stock heads.

[Wes Bender]

Thanks for all the tips guys. I was sure that there were plenty of experienced folks here. I'm not overly worried about the project. It's going to be a learning experience for my friend and I didn't want to mislead him on anything. I'll buy a couple of the books and leave them with him when we're done. A big advantage is that I've already got all the specialty tools for the job.

Thanks again,
Wes