Need a New Heart

So the motor in my bug has finnaly pushed its last beat.

so the question is - I need a new motor, and i dont know if to just get my motor rebuilt (off the road for longer) or get an exchange motor.

So who can i see about a engine?

I live in Temora (NSW) so Canberra or Sydney places would be fine.

Half my relatives live in Temora 👍
Great town, good takeaway at the Waratah 😂
What actually went wrong with your motor and whats damaged?
Simon

just buy a brand new Brazilian long block........try Rod Penrose

Temora is pretty cool, only been here for a few months. well the VW is still in Cowra (where im from)

well everytime i drove it i had to fill it up with oil, and on theweekend while driving it to Bathurst for some weird reason the Points closed up, so we "fixed" it on the side of the road. but my dad went to move it to have a look at the engine and now it just blows smoke and alot of it.
uses about 500ml of oil everytime i drive it, but does not leak oil, and everytime i change back a gear a puff of smoke comes out from the right hand side head.

Hmm well may as well pull the heads off and see whats going on IMO. May only need new pistons, cylinders and rings which will save you spending money on a new engine.
Simon

there are a few good VW businesses in Canberra. The beetle exchange comes to mind. Buy the a new longblock if you plan to keep it COMPLETELY STOCK. If there is any plan for something hotter in the future, get it rebuilt.

well i want a mild 1600 motor

if you are going a MILD (as opposed to stock) 1600, may as well go a 1640 and have some kads or twin solexs put on it. Nice basic upgrades that won't break the bank and give you a little more poke without sacrificing reliability.

Re getting one build, you could always contact Stan Pobjoy or even Dangerous (Dave Butler) and get them to build the motor and freight it to you. Might be cheaper than towing the car to them and lobbing a new motor in is not hard. Hans Klaack (klaack motors in Sydney) builds some lovely mild 1600/1640s. I'm sure he could do a similar thing too.

Just a question, why go for a 1640 when it isn't much more to go 1845 / 1915?
Barrels and a bit of machining which you need to do if you are rebuilding anyway.
T54

sounds like its a time to just wack a subaru ej20t donk in it.😂🤪 you can get a front half cut wrx imprezza for about $1395

Some how i dont think the Vintage car club will aloow me to put the beetle on club plates with a rex motor

if ur contemplating one of the new factory mexican 1600s id act quick cos they went up 50% in price a few weeks ago
all the new ones are $4500 now but i imagine places that have old ones would still be selling them around the $3k mark

u may just need a good freshen up tho
might pay to atleast pull the topend down b4 u go coughing up $$ as simon already said

Turbo54 wrote:Just a question, why go for a 1640 when it isn't much more to go 1845 / 1915?
Barrels and a bit of machining which you need to do if you are rebuilding anyway.
T54

heads need machining too. costs start to go up quickly. Also, if you live out where it's hot, you'll need to upgrade to an oil cooler for anything larger than a 1640. $$$ ad up.

BTW, I agree with Ian, Subies are great, turbo or otherwise.😎

pete wood wrote:if you are going a MILD (as opposed to stock) 1600, may as well go a 1640 and have some kads or twin solexs put on it. Nice basic upgrades that won't break the bank and give you a little more poke without sacrificing reliability.

Re getting one build, you could always contact Stan Pobjoy or even Dangerous (Dave Butler) and get them to build the motor and freight it to you. Might be cheaper than towing the car to them and lobbing a new motor in is not hard. Hans Klaack (klaack motors in Sydney) builds some lovely mild 1600/1640s. I'm sure he could do a similar thing too.

Wouldn't touch a 1640 they are to thin on the barrels and tend to warp.
I would take the next step and build a 1776, 1906, 1915.
or get in touch with Rodney Penrose. Top bloke to deal with and has plenty of performance knowlage and goodies to get you going in the right direction.

We kinda have decided to rebuild it ourselves, dad is a mechanic and a friend of ours has had 14 or so beetles so hewill help rebuild it with us. but i will still be looking for a cheap motor

another question, while i was ringing around about motor prices got into a little argument with one of them about my car, i said its a 71 beetle 1600 duel port then he said so its a superbug. its not a superbug its just before the superbugs (so i have been told)
so can someone enlighten me about the diffrences?

have some motors here 1600 sp needs heads put on i have the heads ready to go on $200 Sydney

ang3lsholocaust wrote:Wouldn't touch a 1640 they are to thin on the barrels and tend to warp.
I would take the next step and build a 1776, 1906, 1915.
or get in touch with Rodney Penrose. Top bloke to deal with and has plenty of performance knowlage and goodies to get you going in the right direction.

have you had a 1640 that had warped barrels?

A lot of people say this. I've had two and the barrells didn't. Cooked the rings in one and the barrells were still fine. I think this is a bit of an urban myth. 1679s with 88mm pistons? I could believe the barrells warping in them, but heaps of peeps build 1640s. Klaacks built mine and gave me a warranty on it. He wouldn't do that if it was gonna stuff up. In fact, I was told that anything bigger than an 1776 didn't get a waranty cos they overheated and didn't last as long.

Anyway, up to you I guess

it looks like a super bug bonnet and it should have a strut front end. and the spare tyre lays flat under he bonnet.

Mmmm...New Mexican Engine hey???

I've been toying with the idea of grabbing one and opening it up to a 1776.

Some say they wouldn't touch them, others suggest they'll be fine for such a mild upgrade. I know they have cast cranks, (not forged), and I've heard of numerous quality issues, no warranty etc.

$3k sounds like good value for a new engine, although it's not a turnkey engine and still needs some other bits.

Tell me what you think please gents.

Nikos.

"If it looks like a duck"....

😉

Yours is a SuperBug, or a Volkswagen S or a 1302S - go with whichever name you're happiest with. Its the shape of the front bonnet that's the biggest giveaway that it's a strut car.

The biggest things that are different about a Super from a "standard" bug are:
- strut front suspension, which changes front bonnet, guards as well as spare & luggage space layout as mentioned above
- diagonal arms and double-joint axles at the rear (aka IRS)
- 1600cc twin port, 34-PICTx carb

I don't know that 1776 would really be considered a mild upgrade... hellbugged went for an excellent quality/spec 1776, and no-way is it "mild". Something else is you basically have to tear the whole engine down to go that way since there's case machining involved, so why buy a complete engine in the first place ???

For me personally, if it's an "only driven on Sunday's" car go with a bog standard 1600 donk... otherwise pick your engine builder and go from there.

ok sweet, i thought superbugs had the terrible elephant foot print tail lights.

yes the car is only driven on Sundays on vintage car club runs. we are pretty sure that we will just pull it apart and do it ourselves. at least i can lean at the same time.

bd-850 wrote:Temora is pretty cool, only been here for a few months. well the VW is still in Cowra (where im from)

well everytime i drove it i had to fill it up with oil, and on theweekend while driving it to Bathurst for some weird reason the Points closed up, so we "fixed" it on the side of the road. but my dad went to move it to have a look at the engine and now it just blows smoke and alot of it.
uses about 500ml of oil everytime i drive it, but does not leak oil, and everytime i change back a gear a puff of smoke comes out from the right hand side head.

you do know you can not just drive your car around every day all the time on club plates?????😂😂 if you put a new 1600 in it.
It would last you 20 years on the amount of club runs you would go on.

we have a club run on just about every weekend, its pretty cool. so i drive it often, and i cant drive it everyday because the car lives 200km away from me. i live in temora and the car lives in cowra so i drive cowra nearly everyweek in my commodore just to drive the bug

now that is real VW commitment. 😏

pete wood wrote:

ang3lsholocaust wrote:Wouldn't touch a 1640 they are to thin on the barrels and tend to warp.
I would take the next step and build a 1776, 1906, 1915.
or get in touch with Rodney Penrose. Top bloke to deal with and has plenty of performance knowlage and goodies to get you going in the right direction.

have you had a 1640 that had warped barrels?

A lot of people say this. I've had two and the barrells didn't. Cooked the rings in one and the barrells were still fine. I think this is a bit of an urban myth. 1679s with 88mm pistons? I could believe the barrells warping in them, but heaps of peeps build 1640s. Klaacks built mine and gave me a warranty on it. He wouldn't do that if it was gonna stuff up. In fact, I was told that anything bigger than an 1776 didn't get a waranty cos they overheated and didn't last as long.

Anyway, up to you I guess

Yes i have pete.
I have had 4 in total myself . All built by professional VW mechanics..which i won't name because it wasn't their work that was faulty. One had NPR PB's, the other had the Mahle PB's. One was in a 63 beetle, the other in a 72 super bug..
a third 1640 i had in a manx had quite a few fins missing off the barrels after about 5 months of every day use. and all had a crap load of oil escaping past the rings
I admit i wasn't very easy on the 63 which had the NPR's, but the other two weren't flogged to the degree that the 63 was.
The 4th i had built for a project which i sold before i completed it. so i have no idea on the outcome of that engine.

ok so i picked up a engine off ebay, some of you may have seen it, it was the motor set up for a Baja. anyway can anyone tell me what motor it actually is Engine number AS31355.

have a baja exhaust for sale if anyone is intrested.

well it was a 1600 dualy from an Lbug or kombi but after 33 years it could be anything

pete wood wrote:In fact, I was told that anything bigger than an 1776 didn't get a waranty cos they overheated and didn't last as long.

dont beleive everything u hear, even if it comes from vw experts
plenty of ppl out there run 1916s and bigger with no over heating problems

just steer clear of the thin barrel cylinders like slip in 87/88 and 1835 92mm and u will have a good engine that shouldnt over heat if its built and setup right

i forgot what my dad said about the motor, a little buggered after 8hours of driving, but he said something about fuel injection on the motor coz it has some senser near the flywheel

we never got FI in type1 in aus only a handfull of type 3s

that plug is just the TDC sensor for the computer diagnosis port

ang3lsholocaust wrote:Yes i have pete.
I have had 4 in total myself . All built by professional VW mechanics..which i won't name because it wasn't their work that was faulty. One had NPR PB's, the other had the Mahle PB's. One was in a 63 beetle, the other in a 72 super bug..
a third 1640 i had in a manx had quite a few fins missing off the barrels after about 5 months of every day use. and all had a crap load of oil escaping past the rings
I admit i wasn't very easy on the 63 which had the NPR's, but the other two weren't flogged to the degree that the 63 was.
The 4th i had built for a project which i sold before i completed it. so i have no idea on the outcome of that engine.

Yeah, fair enough. I just wanted to make sure. You know how it is, there are lots of google mechanics around the place that say bla bla this setup is no good without ever even having owned one.

Re the warranty and overheating, I guess that depends on a whole host of things not in the least the amount of love and mechanical sympathy the owner shows the car. I know stan the man offers warranties on his motors no matter the size.