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Tue Oct 21, 2025 5:01 am

Assembling a 2007 for a 1971 Bus. Plan to drive it not a show car. Planning to install a 4.57 ring and pinion to improve highway driving.

78mm Crankshaft
AA 90.5 Pistons and cylinders
Stock VW rods
CR planning on 8.5 though could go higher just want to keep it cool
AS 21 Case full flowed
CB Panchito heads dual springs stock rockers solid shafts
Dual 40 IDFs
Exhaust TBD
I have a Engle 120 Cam. Not sure if this is too much cam for the engine. Looking mostly for torque and drive ability. Just don’t want a cam that comes into the torque curve too late making start and stop driving difficult. Thanks for any help

Tue Oct 21, 2025 6:15 am

From personal experience of a similar engine with slightly milder cam (C35) I wouldn't do it again. Bags of power above 3-3,500rpm but like a 1600 below that. With the 6 rib box I had it wasn't on cam below 60mph so cruising was a bit painful as it really wanted to be in 3rd gear! I sold it to a guy who fitted it to a Beetle, it was a great engine for a car. He emailed me later to say just for fun he drove from 0 to 100mph in 4th so it's not like it had really poor low down torque.

It wasn't any more difficult to pull away from stop than a stock 1600, it wasn't all bad and if you used 3500-6000rpm it flew along, lots of fun but in truth I spend 95% of my time driving in traffic to some degree and prefer the low rev max torque of my 2.4L stock cam type-4 despite it having 35 less peak HP

Tue Oct 21, 2025 6:42 am

Thank you for the info. That was what I was worried about. Ideally want the torque band to be maybe 1500ish to 5500.

Tue Oct 21, 2025 6:46 am

A few years ago I build a 2017 (90.5x78.4) and installed a CB - Eagle 2242 cam.

The customer loves it and has put many thousands of miles on it. He didn't specifically mention and issues so I assume no new is good news.

A W120 is more for a Beetle, Busses need more torque than horse power.

Tue Oct 21, 2025 7:07 am

Thanks. I see that CB lists that can in their 2017 kit which will be very close to my build so that may be the cam of choice.

Tue Oct 21, 2025 7:09 am

tjbayless wrote: Thank you for the info. That was what I was worried about. Ideally want the torque band to be maybe 1500ish to 5500.
That's more or less a stock 2L type-4 cam. Others will advise on type-1 but I can show you what happens if you build a 2.4L type-4 with a stock cam in a hurry with 3.5mm deck - it doesn't rev but it was more HP at 1800rpm than a 1600 at peak power which makes it very relaxing to drive.
This is obviously the other extreme, I'd give it a little bit of cam if I did it again and solve the deck height/CR problem.

Tue Oct 21, 2025 8:13 am

tjbayless wrote: Assembling a 2007 for a 1971 Bus. Plan to drive it not a show car. Planning to install a 4.57 ring and pinion to improve highway driving.

78mm Crankshaft
AA 90.5 Pistons and cylinders
Stock VW rods
CR planning on 8.5 though could go higher just want to keep it cool
AS 21 Case full flowed
CB Panchito heads dual springs stock rockers solid shafts
Dual 40 IDFs
Exhaust TBD
I have a Engle 120 Cam. Not sure if this is too much cam for the engine. Looking mostly for torque and drive ability. Just don’t want a cam that comes into the torque curve too late making start and stop driving difficult. Thanks for any help
Bump the bore to 94, so you get a 2165, then the W120 will work fine.
If you stay 2007 I would go down to a Web 218/119.
I´m not an Engle cam guy, but here is a 2165 w. a W120, similar heads, 9,5 CR. 1,25 rockers, 40 mm Alfa Dells, CSP Super Comp Evo exhaust. It ran ok. didnt really like the behavior in a type 1, but in a much heavier bus it would be fine.

Tue Oct 21, 2025 8:31 am

I have a c25 cam in my 2007. Pulls like a tractor from 1500 and up.

Tue Oct 21, 2025 8:58 am

Make sure you get the heads straightened out, and then swap to a web 218 or 218/119, and run 8.8:1 with .045" deck height.

A Vspeed ss143 muffler will really tie it all together, and make a great bus engine.

Brian

Tue Oct 21, 2025 9:11 am

Years ago I built a 2028cc (78.8 x 90.5) for my '68 Bus. Stock rods, AJ Simms 40x35 heads, 40DRLAs, Engle 110 w/1.25 rockers, 1.5" exhaust, 8.4:1. The stroker crank made a big difference for hills, and the rest of the combo was pretty well balanced enough so it made power where I wanted it. I didn't feel like it was lacking bottom end with the W110.

I had wanted to run the W120 just to say it had a W120 in it, but I was advised against it for my application.

tjbayless wrote: Assembling a 2007 for a 1971 Bus. Plan to drive it not a show car. Planning to install a 4.57 ring and pinion to improve highway driving.

78mm Crankshaft
AA 90.5 Pistons and cylinders
Stock VW rods
CR planning on 8.5 though could go higher just want to keep it cool
AS 21 Case full flowed
CB Panchito heads dual springs stock rockers solid shafts
Dual 40 IDFs
Exhaust TBD
I have a Engle 120 Cam. Not sure if this is too much cam for the engine. Looking mostly for torque and drive ability. Just don’t want a cam that comes into the torque curve too late making start and stop driving difficult. Thanks for any help

Tue Oct 21, 2025 11:04 am

stevemariott wrote: Years ago I built a 2028cc (78.8 x 90.5) for my '68 Bus. Stock rods, AJ Simms 40x35 heads, 40DRLAs, Engle 110 w/1.25 rockers, 1.5" exhaust, 8.4:1. The stroker crank made a big difference for hills, and the rest of the combo was pretty well balanced enough so it made power where I wanted it. I didn't feel like it was lacking bottom end with the W110.
]

Some 12-14 years agoI rebuilt a 2110 bus engine from a terrible Strictly Foreign POS that only made it 1500 miles before disaster struck. Anyway, that engine had a W110 cam which had to be reused. I ported the (quite terrible) Banditos style heads (Not from CB though, 9-1, and corrected all the tidbits. A1 Sidewinder which got a better mufler set up. That thing runs better than I expected. No crazy power numbers, Probably just shy of 130, but a decent powerband.

Tue Oct 21, 2025 3:05 pm

so just for discussion, what if someone was dead set on running a 120 in this scenario , what's thoughts on advancing that cam and how well it'd work then?

Tue Oct 21, 2025 5:19 pm

2007 in a bus I also recomend the WEB 218. Mine has been together 10-15 years in my 65 Micro, well behaved to drive