Rebuilt Motor Longevity

[DRS1984]

Hey folks!

I'm wondering what the consensus is on how long a type 4 rebuild should last in a bus. I'm thinking of buying one that has 175,000 on a rebuild but the top end was rebuilt 50,000 miles ago. I've been out of the VW game for a while, but this motor is on it's last leg, right? Thanks!

[Wildthings]

I got 250K miles out of my rebuilt 1800, before it lost a valve seat. The head had something like 400K on it from new and had only ever had the valve guides replaced, this was done at the time of the rebuild. The rings, cylinders, bearings, crank, and cam could have gone much further as they showed little or no wear. The cam bearing were at the end of their life though. I was also seeing wear where the cylinder sit against the block.

[SGKent]

in general I would look at a set of heads on a T1 in the 40,000 mile range if looking for like new performance, and 80,000 miles on a T4 the same. I would consider any lower end T4 with 100,000 miles on it to be spent and any T1 with 80,000 miles to be spent.

Stories of 250,000 miles are optimistic at best.
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[Wildthings]

[RalphWiggam]

175k and Id say its past ready.

Cam bearings are probably on their way out. Lobes are probably shot. Endplay is probably high.

All things you can check without pulling it apart if you have a few hours.

[Glenn]

I would not buy any aircooled engine with 175k... unless it was free.
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Glenn
74 Beetle Specs | 74 Beetle Restoration | 2180cc Engine
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[mikewire]

[timvw7476]

[orwell84]

With that kind of mileage, you are well beyond just replacing the top end. I wouldn’t pay much for it. I wouldn’t take anything for granted with even a newly rebuilt motor unless I knew the builder, the parts that went into it and all the details. It’s always a crap shoot.

It’s possible that there are a lot of good original parts or usable after market parts depending on when it was rebuilt. Pistons and cylinders may be serviceable. They used to be throwaways. The Mexican pistons we turned up our noses at in the 90’s look pretty good today. A decently treated but tired engine rebuilt a long time ago when aftermarket parts were decent may have avoided the repeated mauling often seen with these engines today.

[DRS1984]

Thanks so much! That's all super helpful. The bus I was looking at ended up selling, so the search continues.

[orwell84]