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Wed Feb 16, 2011 12:35 am

look into stroker cranks. as i found out in my other thread a 76 crank, h-
beam 5.5in rods and 90.5b pistons make for stock width 1955 and not much
clearancing if any. either that or go 90.5x82 = 2110 which is also stock width.

Tue May 24, 2011 8:13 pm

Hello all,

The bus has been on the road for a little while now and has around 1000 miles on it. I want to take this time to provide a little feedback and to thank everyone who had a part in dreaming, planning, specifying and rebuilding the bus.

1960 VW Bus- Final Engine Build (Specifications) 1850 cc:

76 mm Crank- Counterweighted and Balanced German (Demello)
88 mm Pistons and Cylinders- Thick Wall machine-in (Mahle)
Cam- Engle 110 with Scat Lifters
Heads- Single Port 040 Brazilian (Autolena)
Stainless Steel Valves (Ivan) with HD Springs
Rods- Chromolly I-Beam (Scat 5.5”)
Single 40 IDF Weber Carburetor
Vintage Speed- Stainless Steel Exhaust and Headers (no heater boxes)
Alternator
009 Distributor with Petronix electronic ignition
Full Flow Oil Filter
Double Shuffle Pins on center main bearings
Air Conditioning system from Gilmore Enterprises
Kennedy Engineered Products, Stage-I Pressure Plate with solid disc

Feedback:
1.Spacing of cylinders for deck clearance added 19mm to the width of the motor. Had to modify, intake and exhaust headers and sheet metal. Sheet metal to body seals barely fit.
2.Had to cut the height of the intake manifold to get the carburetor to fit.
3. Vintage Speed Exhaust- are not made to run with a thermostat and needed much modification to the lower sled sheet metal. I love the way the exhaust works and sounds and how the muffler can actually fits correctly under the bumper! Admittedly a little too much work to get installed.
4. I am very happy with the build. It has just the right amount and type of power. Enough to get me wherever I want to go (pulls up hills in 4th gear and keeps up with traffic on the freeway) without breaking other components (reduction gear box transmission). I am hoping it runs a long, long while!

Big thank yous go out to:
The Samba community and Everett- (it would not have happened without you all!) Mighty Mouse and everyone on this thread!
Kip and the guys at KB Motor Sports, San Marcos, Ca.- (all things mechanical, including final build, installation and tuning of the motor)
Adrian at Headflow Masters – (rock solid long block)
Gene Berg guys- (engineering Gurus!)
Aircooled Net- (for great and accessible general and technical info)
Ed at Gilmore Enterprises- (great product, follow up and support!)
Clara Williams (door panels), Matt Miller (seat covers).
Sorry if I missed anybody!

Through doing this project I realized how many people are out there doing this stuff with lots of love, passion and commitment and not just for the screwed up a$pect$ that ruins so many things in our modern day world. Thank you all and aloha, hope to see you on the road!

Jmo :D

"Your VW Transporter has an extraordinary capacity for acceleration. Yet, the feeling of security and safety which you will acquire after a few miles should not tempt you to become careless."

Wed May 25, 2011 6:03 am

Hy,

I am looking at the same question for the moment.
Will be for a 58 bus with a later tranny with RGB's that will be used for camping.
I do want to feel confident on the highway (100km/h, and uphill)
Looking for torque more then HP, and reliability should be good.
I also would like to keep a stock apperience, SP heads if possible, DP if needed.
Engine width should remain the same cause I want to run stock exhaust and intake (with a adapted stock carburator)

Here http://aapistons.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=33_34 allmost all sizes have the same price.
What sizes can you recommend it I want to keep stock head, cam, exhaust, carburator, intake,....
And don't want to take away to much material in the enginecase.
(and which sizes I can only take a 8mm headstuds instead of 10mm?

Does anyone has any experience with the products above?
I know about the pistonproblem on HighHP engines, but what is the quality of the crank?

Sincerly
Tanguy

Wed May 25, 2011 5:18 pm

jmo2255 wrote: Hello all,

The bus has been on the road for a little while now and has around 1000 miles on it. I want to take this time to provide a little feedback and to thank everyone who had a part in dreaming, planning, specifying and rebuilding the bus.

1960 VW Bus- Final Engine Build (Specifications) 1850 cc:

76 mm Crank- Counterweighted and Balanced German (Demello)
88 mm Pistons and Cylinders- Thick Wall machine-in (Mahle)
Cam- Engle 110 with Scat Lifters

Feedback:
1.Spacing of cylinders for deck clearance added 19mm to the width of the motor. Had to modify, intake and exhaust headers and sheet metal. Sheet metal to body seals barely fit.
2.Had to cut the height of the intake manifold to get the carburetor to fit.
3. Vintage Speed Exhaust- are not made to run with a thermostat and needed much modification to the lower sled sheet metal. I love the way the exhaust works and sounds and how the muffler can actually fits correctly under the bumper! Admittedly a little too much work to get installed.
4. I am very happy with the build. It has just the right amount and type of power. Enough to get me wherever I want to go (pulls up hills in 4th gear and keeps up with traffic on the freeway) without breaking other components (reduction gear box transmission). I am hoping it runs a long, long while!

Big thank yous go out to:
The Samba community and Everett- (it would not have happened without you all!) Mighty Mouse and everyone on this thread!
Kip and the guys at KB Motor Sports, San Marcos, Ca.- (all things mechanical, including final build, installation and tuning of the motor)
Adrian at Headflow Masters – (rock solid long block)
Gene Berg guys- (engineering Gurus!)
Aircooled Net- (for great and accessible general and technical info)
Ed at Gilmore Enterprises- (great product, follow up and support!)
Clara Williams (door panels), Matt Miller (seat covers).
Sorry if I missed anybody!

Through doing this project I realized how many people are out there doing this stuff with lots of love, passion and commitment and not just for the screwed up a$pect$ that ruins so many things in our modern day world. Thank you all and aloha, hope to see you on the road!

Jmo :D

"Your VW Transporter has an extraordinary capacity for acceleration. Yet, the feeling of security and safety which you will acquire after a few miles should not tempt you to become careless."

Awesome post and glad your happy, thats what all of us want to hear. people enjoying their vws.
Only thing i see odd is, sounds like he used A pistons.
19mm is a ton of width. That engine should have been narrower or the same as a stock 1600.
Sounds about right though, cause 88 Bs are near impossible to find.
Happy motoring. :)

Fri May 27, 2011 1:12 pm

Im doing a build for my 67 Westy. I wanted to see what you guys thought about the set up and get a recommendation on compression ratio.
Full Flow
CB 78.4
Mahle 90.5
Scat C25 cam
Chromoly pushrods
Steve tims stage 1 plus oval intake ports, ported polished, 37x42 valves stainless steel with titanium retainers. Solid rockers
Weber Spanish 44 IDF
Match ported manifolds by Steve Tims
5.5 CB rods
Swivel foot adjusters
CB straight cut cam gears.
What should I shoot for on compression ratio?
Does this combo sound good? I surely hope so because I have all this stuff.
Thanks in advance.

Fri May 27, 2011 2:22 pm

What transmission / gear ratio are you running?

What is your desired end result?

Big valve heads are great for racing. Stock size valves increase low-end torque... All depends on what you're trying to do with it.

Fri May 27, 2011 2:49 pm

67 Shane wrote: Im doing a build for my 67 Westy. I wanted to see what you guys thought about the set up and get a recommendation on compression ratio.
Full Flow
CB 78.4
Mahle 90.5
Scat C25 cam
Chromoly pushrods
Steve tims stage 1 plus oval intake ports, ported polished, 37x42 valves stainless steel with titanium retainers. Solid rockers
Weber Spanish 44 IDF
Match ported manifolds by Steve Tims
5.5 CB rods
Swivel foot adjusters
CB straight cut cam gears.
What should I shoot for on compression ratio?
Does this combo sound good? I surely hope so because I have all this stuff.
Thanks in advance.

Sounds good to me. Id run an engle 110 cam. 8 to 1 CR. And id measure those CB cam gears very carefully. They clack like a diesel because they have too much gear clearance.

Youd prob be better to go with smaller valves, so you could run some heavy single springs with the engle 110 and then helical gears. IF you cant get a straight cut set that has decent tolerances, to go with dual springs.
Triple check oil pump to case clearance also. :)

Fri May 27, 2011 11:08 pm

67 Shane wrote: Im doing a build for my 67 Westy. I wanted to see what you guys thought about the set up and get a recommendation on compression ratio.
Full Flow
CB 78.4
Mahle 90.5
Scat C25 cam
Chromoly pushrods
Steve tims stage 1 plus oval intake ports, ported polished, 37x42 valves stainless steel with titanium retainers. Solid rockers
Weber Spanish 44 IDF
Match ported manifolds by Steve Tims
5.5 CB rods
Swivel foot adjusters
CB straight cut cam gears.
What should I shoot for on compression ratio?
Does this combo sound good? I surely hope so because I have all this stuff.
Thanks in advance.

Trade the heads in for a smaller valve size, get rid of the scat C35, I've used web 86, 218, 110/163 and a few custom grinds. I also have used an old school engle 110/100 in my 78, 78.4 and 78.8 engines, in my opinion the perfect bus engine besides stock.

I'm building one now, almost the same specs except cam and valve size.
I run 8.5 to one compression on all my engines