Recommendations on building a mild 1776 cc engine for my 1303.

Everything Beetle related has been on halt for a while, but now I am back on the track again...



The guy who have line bored my engine case is a dedicated air cooled mechanic with several hundred rebuilt air cooled engines below his belt, and beside that he is a machine engineer with his own workshop.

He has developed his own system and tools where the engine block is fixed to a lathe.

A lot of people have, with great success, bought rebuilt engines from him and have also used him for just line boring.

I have no doubt that the work he has done for me is top class!



But said that, if money were no concern I would just have bought a new engine block.



Question

Planing the last things in the configuration of the engine, and have been thinking a little about the oil cooling system.

I am going to use an external oil filter using the fancy ”EasyFlow with Pressure Valve” oil pump

from CSP.

Considering a larger external oil cooler instead of the original one.

If I do that, the question I have been thinking about is, if I remove the original oil cooler, remove the doghouse and block off the exit to it, will the extra air giver a better cooling of the engine, especially to the left side of the engine?

leec said:

Scrap? Why?

Click to expand...

Further, magnesium has a fatigue life, just as does aluminium (think exploding aluminium crank pulleys - ever wondered why VW didn't do that in their weight-savings quest?), and case cracks are common; how many folk out there crack-detect their cases before stuffing in and bolting on all those expensive performance goodies? I've said it before and I'll drone on like an old curmudgeon and say it again:
Don't build a block of flats on bungalow foundations.
The general lack of understanding of even basic metrology is all too evident in the VW engine building scene, and the days of bolt-together quality engine parts was gone three decades' ago. Yes, there are line bored engines happily chugging away, but for those of us who consider a 50 000 mile engine life to be a minimum, they are unworthy. A weekend toy with little mileage? Often no problem. A reliable engine doing 20 000 miles a year, year after year for business as I used to? Probably not, but don't be surprised to see the oil light come on at idle after a long motorway run with a few thousand miles on a line bored case!

Thanks all for your considerations and advises.

I appreciate it all, and have taken it all into consideration and weighted it up into a cost benefit analyze.

Regarding the engine case.
With a new case at 1.600 to 1.800 Eur, and a toughly examination of my old case.
I have no hesitation in using it.

Further more I have actually worked on old cars and engines for the last 35 – 40 years, and have always been able to produce a usable result.
Even though I have a long mechanical experience I don’t consider myself to know everything and have the only right solution to everything, therefor I in most cases try to get some second opinions and talk to people who have been handling the same kind of task I am about to perform.
And there are always someone else out there who has an even better solution, than you can come up with.

Line bore.
Just to clarify.
The person who line bored my case is not just some-random-backyard-mechanic, but he has a excellent reputation, and my reason for letting him do the job were not because he said he could do it, but because I know of, and have talked to different people, in person, who have used him, who, among others, have been driving around most of Europe on holidays in there Bus for several years, and their engines runs still just fine.

Besides that I don’t buy that, that all old cases are scrap. Many are, but some are also reusable.

Not saying a new case not could have been the best premium outset, but at around 1700 Eur. and all the examination there have been done on my old case.
I am ready to take the risk.
After all.
It is not rocket science , but only an engine, and if something goes wrong, I will just take it apart and rectify it.

Parts have already been bought:

Thick wall 1835 cc PC.

Engle W90 cam and Engle lifters.

New cam gear.

Harder valve springs.

New valves.

Bolted rocker shafts.

Swivel feet adjusters.

200 mm. flywheel and clutch to go with it.

CSP full flow oil pump with build in pressure regulation.

Used 34 pict 3 carburetor. The venturi is going to be bored up to 28 mm. and the manifold centerpiece is going to be fabricated with an internal diameter of 34 mm.

Plus a heap of other small items.

Still need to decide / get the exhaust, but leaning against the stock style CSP one.

Flywheel, pressure plate, crank and pulley are going out to be balanced individual and together.

Pistons will be matched and conrods end to end balanced.

Heads have already been machined to 101 mm. and also for bushings for 12 mm. long reach spark-plugs.
Still have to install new valve guides and cc them to 53 cc to get around 8.7:1 compression, with a deck height of 1 mm. or 0,04 in your parts.

Still waiting for a vacant milling machine to mill out the engine casting for the 1835 cylinders.
If it takes to long I will pay for the job elsewhere.