I have a 2L '77 microbus and I'm thinking of buying a '74 with a 2L type four with upright conversion and swapping them. Are they interchangeable? Is it as simple as dropping them both out, swapping them over and reinstalling them? The gear box has also been reco'd so would like to swap that over too.

Also, I have no garage atm so will need a pro to do it. Any idea how much they'd charge? Or if anyone on the Gold Coast or nearby would find this a "fun" (?!) project and would like to do it for a small payment, that'd also be cool. I'm pretty inexperienced when it comes to mechanics but I'd love to start getting an idea of how to do a few things and would be very interested to watch/help someone do the job.

Any advice/help/info much appreciated!!

are you sure its a 2ltr with an upright conversion not a 1600?
it will fit bit the tinware wont match the body so you wont have an engine bay seal and your kombi will overheat
you could convert the 2 lt back to a flat motor and sell the upright kit for a very good price as theyre about $700 + new to buy
marcel

Hey cheers Marcel!! I can't tell the difference just from looking and I'm told it's a 2L. Can you not upright a 2L?

Re: tinware and engine seal, is that something that can be transferred across? Or do you have to modify the body? In any case I'm happy to lay it back down if it's a cheap/easy job...

1600, 1800, 2L?? And apart from revving it and checking the colour of the oil and overall cleanliness, how can I determine how good the motor is?

is that the motor?nice bit of gear!from 72 on the 1600 kombi has a type IV engine bay anyway, therefore slightly different tinware.so they are interchangable,but THAT one in the pic is an upright conversion.as far as telling how good the motor is, can you do a compression test on it?or better still a leak down test or just pay someone else to do it.a $50 or $60 report is nothing to know where youre at. good luck!

Yeah dude ile second a leakdown test,only way to go.:thumb

yep it's definitely a type 4 engine with an upright kit. That means it could be anything from a 1700, 1800 or 2000.

Swap the motors and tinware and then sell the upright kit.

Um, there's a bit of cutting and hacking done to a type 4 motor to fit an upright kit, including a few options on how to do it. So depending on how it has been done it's not straight forward to reverse the conversion.

If you are fitting that motor into your bus, why not do a straight swap? Don't try to convert back to a flat/pancake motor.
:thumb

Oh, there's also quite a bit of info floating about for this kombi (assuming it's the same motor). The seller is also happy to tell you all you need to know.
http://www.aussieveedubbers.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=14796 
:thumb

what cutting and hacking ? I put an 1800 in my 67 beetle with a Sharpbuilt kit and didnt have to cut anything on the engine...... What kits have you used ?

That looks like it should be a straight swap, just be sure to use the tinware from the engine with the upright conversion, so you are able to seal the engine bay.

Thanks Doug,
The ones I have seen done have removed the case breather to mount the fan/generator. Having another look at that pic, does it mount above the stock type 4 breather??
Cheers,
Andy :thumb

The ones that simply remove the breather should be fine, it should go straight back on. It's the ones that cut down the case under the breather to make a weird saddle that are slightly trickier to reverse. The pic is small but I didn't think it looked like one of those...

whats the advatages and disadvantages of an upright conversion??

The owner said it was a two litre... how can you tell just from looking what size an engine is?

Anyone on the pros/cons of upright v flat?

Also, can anyone give me a rough estimate of what a mechanic would charge to swap a motor/gearbox, ie is it a big job? I always thought they were relatively easy to drop out...

Thanks everyone for your input!!

Originally you can go on the number stamped in the case for the size. There were a number of different engines brought into Oz, but the most common are AP**** (1.8L) and CJ**** (2.0L). The number is just below the generator in the pic above.
BUT, as many parts are interchangeable between 1.7L, 1.8L and 2.0L you can never be sure unless you pull it down.
For your application though, don't know if it would really make that much difference anyway.

The engine number will give you a good indication what size engine it is....CJ, GD are 2L, AP is 1800, CA is 1700.
One question.....why are you removing the engine from the Baja Kombi?

Why not?

The baja kombi is cool......what are your plans for it then?

The baja kombi is cool but I'm not into offroad driving. Even if I was I would not want to take something I had spent so much money on offroad as it's value and condition would depreciate rapidly.

It's been on the market for months and no one's bought so I'm just considering buying it and scaling it back and scaling my deluxe up.

I see you're a baja man! It's still there and she's taking offers if you're interested!!

Nah I've already got a baja kombi, and then theres the manx..........