Volkszone Forum banner

Tell me about T25 WBX engines?

Engine 
10K views 13 replies 4 participants last post by  al_kaholik 
#1 ·
ok thinking of using one of the water boxers for one of my cars and wondered how good they are?

Am I right in thinking the 1.9 is the most common one?

is the waterboxer essentially a type 4 type bottom end a type 1 top end but all watercooled instead?

do they all have hydraulic tappets?

I know head studs can be problematic if people havent used anti corrosive coolant, are there any other inherient problems?

what sort of power are they?

Just after some info really :)
 
#2 ·
they are crap engines the 1.9 is most commom power output is 68bhp or 78 bhp and 2.1 is 112 bhp they all have hydraulic tappets , we break t25s and i would not sell a engine complete as most have problems and i dont need the come backs of unsatisfied customers so we just sell the components seperately
 
#3 ·
Hmmm, ok well how do you find out which of the 1.9s is the 78bhp one?

Ideally I'm looking to get a T25 engine to rebuild and just want something cheapish to mess about with as a steep learning curve.

if you were to sell an engine complete on the proviso that its known to have problems, what sort of prices do they go for?

as far as problems go, what problems do arrise with the engines?
 
#4 ·
you can tell what bhp it is of the engine code, or what type of back exhaust box is fitted , higher powered 1.9 wbx have an exhaust with with 1 inlet 1 outlet , lower powered wbx has 2 inlet to 1 outlet on exhaust, all the 2.1 use the later style exhaust and are fuel injection, the main problem is the head studs corroding due to wrong antifreeze being used, what can shear off when undoing or tightening cylinder head, and head gaskets leaking what is not a problem to do if engine has been serviced regurlarly, we do have a 1.9 wbx but i think it is early type this would be cheap think only thing missing is carb,
 
#6 ·
well carb wouldnt be to much of a problem i dont think as its only a pierreberg, i was thinking of looking at singlepoint FI for one anyway.

I wonder what makes the extra bhp? higher compression? PM me a price as I maybe interested, If the price is right, my g/f needs to come see her folks who are in the manchester area so I could make a good trip out of it :)

do the heads tend to crack at all? i know with type 1 design heads they tend to crack between the valves and plug hole, in an aircooled its a mild problem but with a watercooled I can see it being a greater problem pressurising the system?

do they do upgraded headstuds at all?
 
#5 · (Edited)
I'm told after around 150 thou miles they start to snap the head bolts... check they have had coolant in the water as they rust in if not... and then snap when you try to remove the heads

Have a look around on the club80-90.co.uk site - loads of folk on there that have em and a ton of knowledge too ;)
 
#8 ·
funny enough iain was one of the first people that sprung to mind with the T25 engine as I know he was gonna go subaru and had all manner of problems then with the T25 he had a fair few too including heads and that. maybe when i get 5 mins I'll have a read of his thread again.
 
#9 ·
on of the other questions on my mind about these engines is, if one was rebuilt with new head studs and gaskets etc so its checked to be a good engine, how strong would it be?

What im getting it at is tuning wise how much BHP can be tuned out of a 1.9? if you were to stick a turbo/supercharger on one would it handle 200 or even 300 bhp or is it just plainly not strong enough?
 
#13 ·
well strength would be my main concern with the parts, stock type one based motors can be quite reasonabley tuned to 100bhp without to many headaches from something like a 1776, so apply that to a 1.9WBX that starts life as a 68bhp, 100bhp doesnt seem to hard.

However 100bhp isnt my goal, I'm sure its plenty, 90bhp in my mk3 golf is ok but I want more, lots more! The new golf GTi is 197bhp off the starting blocks as a 2litre turbo so I would hope that a wbx is capable of something like that fairly easily with a turbo/supercharger. my original goal was a 120bhp turbocharged 1600 A/C motor, I then upped the gain to a 300bhp golf 16v motor, I would like about 200bhp out of a WBX, but if I cant get that I'm gonna want to have some pretty dam good fuel economey as this will be a daily driver!

So now I guess its a question of what can be done to the WBX, what improvements need to be made over the stock design or are they inherintly reasonably good motors up to a certain point?

Any Type 1 parts useful to fit?
 
#14 ·
The 2.1 DJ pokes out 112bhp stock, so I doubt 200 would be too difficult with some tuning. The beauty of the power is the delivery, it should just tug all the way through each gear without too much worry

Rocker assemblies are similar if not the same if you are willing to forego the hydraulic tappets, past that you need to chat to some other people cause I'm just relaying what I've read :)

I am however of the understanding that if you are after all out power then a Subaru block would be a better and cheaper option
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top