hi everyone

hope someone can give me some advice

husband tells me that the engine in the kombi is on it's way out. it was going ok until last time he filled up he had to use unleaded petrol and the lead additive as there are very few service stations who are selling LRP near us.

Anyway it's running like crap and he is unsure if it will improve next time when he can find some LRP - or if he has stuffed it, and needs to change the engine.

Currently it has a 1600 in it - it's a 1964 and I don't know what it would have come out with originally - so we want to know if we have to change it over what sort of engine should we be looking for - he wants something with a bit more go in it than the 1600 but he is not too concerned if the 1600 is the best option.

I have heard around that sometimes you can do a subaru conversion - what's involved in that and is it worth it - after all it's a brick on wheels so it's never going to break land speed records.

cheers

i have always run premium unleaded in my stock 1300 beetle motor no troubles and my understanding is that they have been in the states for some time - may however need to be retuned ie: timeing advanced but all the same

nick

Yes run Premium unleaded only, Vortex, Otimax, ect ect and VW's by rule do not need the lead additive ..give it another go with premium and as Bond said check timing ect

are you sure he didnt over dose the fuel with the additive because if he did this it will run badly

I use unleaded and flashlube in my bug - and it's a 36 horse. No problems so far. Your motor may just need a service, as I don't think the fuel would cause a problem overnight.

As for motor tranplants - anything is possible - from increasing your current motor's capacity, to dropping in a 2ltr kombi, through to a full Subi transplant. It just depends on what your budget is. Either way, there's plenty of people on here to ask questions of.

i will tell him to fill up with premium next tank and see if it's running any better

don't know how much of the additive he put in - probably the whole damn bottle knowing him

it was serviced about 1500 kms ago - will the crap fuel put the timing out ? (if it's not obvious I don't know jack about cars.)

Hi Julie-Anne,
Your engine may just need a good tune-up...
it works wonders with VW engines...
and the 1600 has a lot more power than the original 1200 engine had.....

Get it tuned with 98 or premium fuel in it...

LRP hasn't been available locally since last year...
and the octane rating of LRP was much higher than ULP...
so make the change to 98 or Premium unleaded and get the engine tuned....

Its much cheaper than replacing the engine...

and replacing the VW engine is much cheaper than having
it replaced with a Subaru engine...
then You would need disc brakes etc...

cheers

Lee 68AutoBug

if it was the whole bottle it may take more than 1 tank to come back to 100% as those little bottles are enough to do 2.5 -3 tanks worth of fuel ie about 100 litres. where as the bug tanks are all about 35-40 litres. i run the same as squiz in my bugs and never had a problem in the 5 years ive been running it but it comes down to personal choice as to whether you run it or not

and dont bother with LRP its shit your better off with unleaded or premium, the bug was designed to run on about 95 ron petrol and the standard unleaded is 91-2 ron so go figure

I used to run my Bug on unleaded with the additive, and had engine probs.
Now I just use Optimax or OptimaxExtreme and have had no probs.

your supposed to run the additive at 10mls per 10ltrs ,ide say you could of stirred up rubbish in the bottom of the tank if it was nearly empty .how long since the fuel filter was changed ? it could be a plug breaking down as well .hope this helps

I had to have my car retuned and tappets adjusted when I stopped using LRP as it ran terrible and was noisy. I now run it on 98 premium and the additive and it goes great. Its a stock single port 1600.

"One bad batch of fuel does not a dead engine make"

or something like that...

Check plug leads too. In fact, check all the 'easy' stuff before committing to a mechanics inspection.

yep....and another thing... avoid crappy discount supermarket fuels.... they have caused no end of trouble with our cars and the cars of various friends of mine...and that isnt just VW's.

If I recall it was stations that get fuel from certain BP channels that have been prone to problems.

And forget about the additive... the VW's have hardened seats anyway to cope with the high temperatures associated with being aircooled, so the additive is redundant for that purpose, and even normal unleaded generally has the correct octane rating to run a VW engine very nicely.

I've been running unleaded in a stock 1600 kombi for years with no ill effects.

As others have said; change your fuel filter, clean your plugs & forget the additive.

thanks everyone - appreciate all the advice

i'll keep you all posted should it still be running like crap

cheers !