Thrown together weekend rebuilds?

[NJ John]

Everyone has had someone walk up to them at a show, cruise or in the pits, and tell you their VW memories. One of them is pulling the engine and rebuilding it in the driveway and putting it back in. Who admits to doing this or has their opinion on what was actually being accomplished?
Was it:
-top end only rebuild?
-split the case and replace all the easy bearings, leaving the flywheel and gears intact
-or legit, press off the gears big wrench the gland nut off and replace all serviceable part?

My buddy once told me, him and his friends would look for a semi automatic engine. The theory is that it’s not as abused. Split the case put a race cam in and go racing.
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1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
https://www.youtube.com/@AirSpooledGarage

[Chip]

I've done a last minute cam/lifter, compression change and head swap in an unlit enclosed trailer the night before a race, all good used parts. Used a flashlight. Got it back in the car the same night it came out, literally turned it over till it fired and ran for a about 2 seconds, then shut it off. Actually drove it for the first time at the race track the next day. Good times.

[nsracing]

I gotta have nice lighting if I am gonna stay up all nite working on a motor. 8-foot lighting is very nice!

If all the parts are cleaned and the main parts are pre-assembled, closing the case ain't that big a deal.

One hour should be plenty drying time before fire-up. I like to run the motor outside the car and do all of its tuning. It is just simpler working on the motor outside the car.

[Lingwendil]

Oil pump (swap in a 26mm)
Cam/lifters
Bearings
Gasket set
Piston/cylinder kit

Done a couple of these on an upside down bucket, borrowed an impact to get the gland nut off, and rented a puller to get the timing gear off.
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73 super beetle thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=649622 Back on the Road!

Modify your Kadrons for SVDA http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8115884#8115884

Cast iron VJU4BR8 SVDA reference thread- https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

Need replacement filters for original Kadron aircleaners? WIX #42087 is a perfect fit, as is Napa Gold #2087!

[NJ John]

I’m sure some of these stories are from the 70’s when beetle were $50 and JC Whitney ruled.
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1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
https://www.youtube.com/@AirSpooledGarage

[esde]

I did a few "rings and bearings" rebuilds in the 80's. Jack handle over the breaker bar to get the gland nut off, and a torch on the gear set to get it off. You know if you hang the crank pulley side down the gears usually drop off when they get hot? Oh, and a new main seal too....
The local shop would r&r heads for $70 each if needed.
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modok wrote:
Bent cranks are silent but gather no moss. I mean, ah, something like that.

[txoval]

I rebuilt my first engine at 14 on my parents garage floor

$250 kit from JC Whitney included:

New 87mm Cima/Mahle piston/cylinder kit
All new bearings: mains, rod, cam
Full Gasket set, pushrod tubes, etc
New valves, springs, bronze guides

I also bought their Stage 2 cam and lifters for $59.99

Crank turned, flywheel resurfaced, and heads rebuilt by local machine shop

I was ignorant of deck height, ring gaps, end play, compression ratio calculation, rocker geometry, etc 😅

Engine ran great all thru high school and then I sold it to buy my 67

[Dauz]

383 SBC stroker (bottle fed), tore down Sat evening, machine shop Monday morning, reassembled next Saturday overnight super sauced on Courvoisier. Drag raced 1/8th in the low 5s the following Friday. 65' Chevy II Nova in storage for next twelve years..

Not the same as acvw.. but whatever

[Erik G]

I've done two quick (separate cars separate motors) teardown to shortblock, new p's and c's and heads and build back to complete and go, in apartment living rooms. A type 3 and type 3 change over to upright. completely ignorant of compression ratios etc, young dumb and broke, need to get to work Monday kind of deal
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Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[jeffrey8164]

This is memory lane for me.
I’ve taken the first engine in my ‘71 Ghia all the way down twice in the driveway.
First time was when I lived in Tampa. Had a nice lean to with a sand floor.
Acquired some milk crates and a piece of plywood for a bench and some plastic things to wash parts in.
Reason?- To change cam and heads with 88 slip ins and a new carb.
Didn’t do anything to the crank and rods except keep them clean. Didn’t even change the bearings. Did it in one day. Check what? Things are supposed to just fit, right?
It was a 1679 and it worked out well and ran for a long time.

The second time was prompted by moving from Tampa to Atlanta.
I had restored a ‘70 Ghia and swapped the engine and transaxle from the ‘71 into that for the move. The ‘71 was abandoned. I took the glass, steering column, wiper motor assembly and some other parts and left an extremely beat up and rusty shell. Not my proudest moment.
Made it just north of Macon and the #2 rod bearing gave up.
I was staying at my parents temporarily but having to rework the engine prolonged that a bit. At least it was a carport so not a sand floor.
Since there was machine work being done anyway, I opened the case for 94s and built a 1915. That was back in the NOPI era.
Minus the waiting time for the machining, I did that in two days.

That ran for a while but then my employer gave me a company car and the Ghia got parked. Parked for 12 years. When I tried to start it I really didn’t do my due diligence. It had oil in it. 12 year old oil! It did start but only ran a couple of minutes. Then it was struggling to turn over. Very stiff even with a wrench.
Mains were scored.

So now I have a proper garage but the new engine is covered in my thread.
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Volkswagen!
Turning owners into mechanics since 1938.

“Let he that is without oil throw the first rod”
(Compression 8.7:1)

[Clatter]

Had a girlfriend who needed a car and we found a ‘68 beetle for a grand..
This in about 1993.
Car had 85k on the clock but was beat.
It ran, but needed everything because it had never been apart.

We drove it the two hours up to my friend Charlie’s in Ft. collins on a Friday night and had the motor out that night.
Went to Vrba’s Saturday morning with our list:
Clutch/PP/throwout
Master cylinder/wheel cylinders/flex lines
Carb kit/filter/hoses
Muffler tips/exhaust gaskets
Cap/rotor/points/plugs/wires
Trans mounts, shift bushings, coupler
Axle boots/wheel bearings
Etc etc.

Cleaned up the long block, torqued heads, started getting it back together.
Sunday morning we talked Brian Vrba into opening back up for us for stuff we missed.
It got so late Sunday night that the sun was coming up.
Charlie had to get cleaned up to go to work,
We cleaned up the shop and finished up and drove back to Denver in time for work.
I was a bit late…

Car sang a sweet sweet song all the way home.
Drove like a brand new car.
We completely re-did all the major mechanical subsystems in one weekend.
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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Dusty1]

Late hippy era we could rely on cases that weren't on their seventh line bore.


Memorable top ender:

This one was for the lovely Karen from Connecticut. I met Karen at a New England swap meet this time of year decades ago. Good times! Karen where are you now?

I was heading north after another swap meet, maybe Atco? The plan was to breeze in, assemble Karen's top end and then head north. I don't remember if the motor was out or if I had to pull it. Karen had new heads and pushrod tubes. I had any number of gasket sets in the truck. Bad news: No pistons and cylinders. New England ain't SoCal. No pistons and cylinders to be had on a weekend.

Except:

Norbert's up in Northampton had a set of honed and re- ringed Kolbenschmidts on his shelf. Kinda expensive but what you gonna do? Norbert was in his grumpy VW mechanic phase at that point, dwindling business through the door as less and less aircooleds were used as daily transportation. Karen and I told Norbert about the Litchfield show that was coming up in a week or so. A week or two later we saw Norbert at Litchfield with a trailer full of parts he was converting into a fist full of cash.

Anyway, we got back to Connecticut. I did the top end / re- seal and re- installed Karen's motor in Karen''s Bug. I must have fallen asleep under it. I woke up in the middle of the night and klunked my head on the underside of the motor. I don't think I made it into the house at all. Got my sleep on a slab of cardboard under a VW.

Old VW started up and ran just fine on its top end break- in.

Like Lou Reed said,

"Start of a new adventure."

As in same cars, different people.

Or even better:

"Ridin' in a Stutz Bearcat

Those were different times."

.
.

[buguy]

I replaced a rod bearing without opening the case once. Not real sure if i even took the engine out of the car. It was on a 1200, and drove it with that engine for 3 years before switching to a turbo 1600.

[NJ John]

I was waiting for some hippie stories. Good stuff.
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1973 standard, yellow, lowered, 3” narrowed front, 1600 blo-thru turbo w/single dell 15.4@86, so far
11.41 et buggy. Long gone
Let’s go O’s! Let’s go O’s!
https://www.youtube.com/@AirSpooledGarage

[Dusty1]

[buguy]

I'm more of a hillbilly than a hippy!

[mikedjames]

I am part way through a top end rebuild on the driveway for my bus.
This is the second rebuild.on the driveway. The first was a badly worn out engine replaced with a 1979 AS21 never line bored case.

This was a pretty new engine.. AA pistons, EMPi heads.

Melted a piston, found a cracked cylinder head the other side.

Garage left end of foam seal so it sucked into the fan. Was pretty well balanced so managed to drive it 3 miles before I was able to stop and clear it. Probably that cracked the head.

Then a timing/mixture issue climbing hills at 50-60mph took out a piston. The other three were perfect.

The new EMPI head came with one stainless steel and one steel valve per cylinder, swapped the original stainless valves over.

Oil and head temperatures spiked in a way I had not seen before. About 5 degrees oil, 10 degrees head (use that sensor boss over near exhaust port.) .
Had to drive about three miles spewing oil and smoke to find a layby parking space as there is no hard shoulder on the dual carriageway 2 lanes each way I was driving on and people do 60-70mph in both lanes.
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Ancient vehicles and vessels

1974 VW T2 : Devon Eurovette camper with 1641 DP T1 engine, Progressive carb, full flow oil cooler, EDIS crank timed ignition.
Engine 1: 40k miles (rocker shaft clip fell off), Engine 2: 30k miles (rebuild, dropped valve). Engine 3: a JK Preservation Parts "new" engine, aluminium case: 26k miles: new top end.
Gearbox rebuild 2021 by Bears.

1979 Westerly GK24 24 foot racer/cruiser yacht Forethought of Gosport.
1973 wooden Pacer sailing dinghy