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Mon Jul 28, 2025 1:52 pm

Hello all, been a long time since I’ve posted here. After a few years hiatus, I’m back with another beetle. 1972 standard. I am going through it all and currently have done a full brake with disc up front, all new tie rods, all new ball joints. Since I’ve been working on it the biggest issue is the stuck motor, turning by hand it seizes up. So it will be pulled next and tore down to evaluate and determine the path forward.

I’m thinking at this time to rebuild and have a 1776. Im searching the forums and reading up on the builds out there to help guide me along. Any guidance as to where to get parts and what works good together would be cool. Want to do it once and do it right.

It’s been built before by an old friend and they lost interest in it. I was never involved in the first build.

Mon Jul 28, 2025 2:12 pm

Welcome back!

The thread below was completed recently and was done right the first time. Read through it. Dave did a fantastic job of being thorough on his build.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=797694&highlight=

Mon Jul 28, 2025 2:19 pm

Thank you! That is one of the threads I have seen, but haven’t read completely through. I will go back and have another look

Mon Jul 28, 2025 4:00 pm

That car looks like a nice starting point and I like how you addressed the suspension and brakes before getting to the motor. Please post what you find when you teardown the motor as it is interesting to see what failed. My early guess would be an errant valve. Good luck-Bob

Thu Jul 31, 2025 6:34 pm

Finally got the time to pull the motor. Tore down to long block and just took a peak at the rocker arms. Cylinder 3/4 are the nasty ones and only 1 moves. Cylinder 1/2 look better, but only 3 of the 4 move.

Fri Aug 01, 2025 3:46 am

That's some nasty looking stuff. Once you pull that head I think the mystery will be revealed.

Fri Aug 01, 2025 2:03 pm

Some more year down and more surprises. Not liking the look at all. Last photo, this little guy was rolling around in the head port

Fri Aug 01, 2025 2:47 pm

That motor looks like it had water in the crankcase. I have one that looks like that it was out of a car that sat in a yard for 21 years. The cam followers were rusted and seized in their bores. I hope you can salvage some parts out on your engine. How did the valves look?

Fri Aug 01, 2025 3:10 pm

I can get a pic of the valves in a bit, but I haven’t tore them apart. If I go with the 1776 I’ll need new ones anyway. I want to say the whole car was outside for a year or two, but was supposedly under some sort of cover.

Sun Aug 03, 2025 11:49 am

Got a chance to seperate the case today and first look inside. Looking like stock internals. I would guess the gears are reusable where everything else is going to be replaced.

Sun Aug 03, 2025 12:18 pm

Quote: I would guess the gears are reusable
Not so much. The crank timing gear teeth show some damage.

The distributor timing gear looks a little suspicious too.

Take a close look at both gears.

Sun Aug 03, 2025 12:27 pm

Wow! That's green!

Sun Aug 03, 2025 12:38 pm

67rustavenger wrote: Quote: I would guess the gears are reusable
Not so much. The crank timing gear teeth show some damage.

The distributor timing gear looks a little suspicious too.

Take a close look at both gears.

Good call! Hadn’t looked that closely yet. Distributor gear does have some small nicks, can definitely feel them

Tue Aug 05, 2025 6:34 pm

That's an awesome color.

What is that thing rolling around in the head? I can't figure it out LoL

Enjoy the build!

Wed Aug 06, 2025 1:59 am

Apple green. Nice one of the colours used on the rare 1300S/GT-Beetle you could do a GT tribute, with the special gearbox set up and higher revving 1600 engine. They had great acceleration and would do over 90 mph out of the factory in 72/73 . I could easily get mine to cruise at 85 mph. I don't know what Volkswagen did to them to make them lighter as there is not a lot to remove on a beetle, I recall the gear sticks are made from a perforated aluminium tube.. I don't what else was made of aluminium..

Thu Aug 07, 2025 4:16 pm

Slowly tearing the motor down and finding more things I feel need replaced. Lifters are pitted, gears are worn, looking closely at the crankshaft now.

Having been out of the VW scene for a bit I’m researching parts and what I want to build. Wanting a 1776 when all done. Thought I seen somewhere that the case didn’t need machined for that, but just read it does. Any machine work I’ll have to ship it off for, so trying to keep that minimal. Also I ordered parts from jbugs for suspension and brakes. Are they reputable for the engine parts? Is there better now? I’m a couple hours north and mid America motorworks. Just want to buy the right…correct….parts the first time

Fri Aug 15, 2025 1:30 pm

Got the connecting rods off. Thought I had a puller, but can’t seem to find it for the distributor gear. But looking at this crankshaft, if I clean it is it reusable?

Fri Aug 15, 2025 4:10 pm

Main bearing journals look like they have some scratches…
You would have to see if the journals have enough meat on them, so you could have it machined to next undersize.

Thu Oct 09, 2025 4:39 pm

I’m back after a haitis called life. Got the case initially cleaned and some measurements taken. Bore is at 2.559”. Thrust is at .865”. 4th bearing is at 1.968”. Journals are at 2.164”. Looks to me like it is stock.

Moving forward I am under the assumption that I should be able to order stock bearing to use a stock crank. Still planning on a 1776 build.

Thu Oct 09, 2025 7:27 pm

The under-cylinder air deflector tins are for a later engine with the 8 mm head studs. You can see that the semicircular cutouts in the tins for the studs stand off of the studs instead of fitting flush against them. You can try to find deflector tins for 10 mm studs; they'll have a slightly bigger arc cutout. Or, if you convert your case to 8 mm studs together with case savers, then you can use these tins. They'll fit the studs better.