A few years ago, the conversion of WBX to air cooling looked promising, and addressed some shortcomings of the original T1 case.

This has died down completely, and I was wondering why.
Was the machining involved too expensive ?
Has the introduction of after market aluminium crankcases improved the T1 case issues ?
Since most WBX owners seem to be going the Subaru path, I figured there would be more use WBX core engines available.

Any one had any experience with converting a WBX to air cooled ?

Im not really looking to attempt this conversion, just understand why it never took off and hear peoples opinions on it, as at the time it did seem like quite the break through.

Wayne.

WBX engines were relatively rare and expensie and the new alloy cases are strong making a WBX case redundant...

check out rocky jennings motor works

lots of info there, but not many people do it in aus.

Ian Swinkels (2443 wbx case with twin turbos) is 'having a go'. his is about the best custom build going on at the moment imho.

check out the vw drag racing forum.

I am not aware of others in Aus but there are bound to be 1 or 2 more.

I "thought" this was an Aust idea??

Then "Joe from the West" or east or whatever took it up and ran with it??

Didnt Jeff Unwin or one of those guys do something with them??

yeah, i know where there are a few.........including one built with BIG heads ready for supercharging/intercooled/efi................

Jeff Unwin and Shimo had a hand in it. I think it came together over some beers with a few like minded VW nuts at Valla one year, 88 or 89 ?

i think it was later than 89, more like early 90's

http://www.clubvw.org.au/oxy.htm 

yeah, i guess the main thing holding them back was the need for "specialist" machine work and parts to adapt them to the type 1 trans.........the tin wear also needed a lot of modding.

also the rise of the AU$ and more reliable off the shelf performance parts and competition expansion in that industry made an impact too......

my next engine will be oxy boxer.

certainly all the claims made are good........we've put wasser boxers through hell in off roading and bearings, cranks, rods etc hold up very well.......Luke is working on one of Jeffs old oxyboxers for his dual cab, and it looks great to me! (got pics somewhere)

I've been collecting parts for this conversion, want to go 4 inch bore with a custom set of heads, only got a 1.9 case and crank at the moment but looking for a 2.1 case/crank. Don't really care how much for any machining would rather spend my money on that than an after market porous sand cast case costing $1100 plus dollars. Want to use this as a drag engine and keep the type 4 for circuit racing.

Good to see there is still some enthusiasm for the conversion. Post up some pics of the progress.

your right about those sand cast alloy cases they are crappy

I did a conversion to one for my drag car in the mid nineties
after reading the story that Jeff Unwin did for VW Power magazine n the April/May 1992 issue.

If you have access to a mill you can do most stuff yourself.

I squeezed a 90mm stroke crank into mine, (90 hour to make!)
but have done a couple of counterweighted 2.1 cranks,(plus a 5-dowel job),
one for a high profile drag racer that also did a conversion to his own case,
and the WBX case showed great reliability with about 360hp.

In my case I "dual drilled" the heads which saved moving the head stud holes,
and I added a deep sump as well...which may not be necessary if you can find a neater way to prevent oil surge.

I also sleeved the lifter bores to type one size.

Mine was as big as 2965, but only ever ran it with the 92 bores (10mm thick cylinders!),...2393cc
and went 10.22@132 with the old Godfrey supercharger.

I eventually went to the Pauter case(due to limited cam room with 90 stroke),
and then finally used th 102.36mm bores and AF heads on that engine.

Yes, I think the affordability of the CB high top cases have moved people in that direction.

The cost to machine even a mag case with the same features as the CB,
makes anything else false economy,
unless you can do a lot your self,

.......or like to be different like me.