Crewcab Beetle Thing

[CovKid]

I moved this post from another in the tech forum as it really belongs here.

For those with crewcabs (and I'm certain I was the very first person to do this in around 1987), a bored up Beetle engine will bolt straight into a t25 Aircooled crewcab - probably any T25 crewcab except a Syncro (you have more upper clearance in a crew for the fan housing you see).

Frank Grote (Frank's Bus Parts - Walton) and John Austin (Marks Tey) will recall that red 1980 crewcab of mine well. I remember John saying it couldn't be done because of the fan housing but as I pointed out, the crewcab has more height in the engine bay. I was so fed up of trying to nurse the original engine along and at the time MOST replacement parts were strictly main dealer only making it an expensive engine. I liked the simplicity of the Beetle engine (as one does) but also had to factor the extra vehicle weight in from the start. I had a hunch that I could squeeze a beefed-up one in and Frank and I compared bell housings (lots of chin scratching) on a bench down at Walton-On-Sea to see if they would mate - exact match. I think John Austin was a bit bemused as to WHY I would want to do it but it proved its worth over and over afterwards and it was great taking it back up to Marks Tey to show them all. Lots of head scratching. Sounded nice with a quiet pack on it:)

In the Beetle, the engine just hangs off the gearbox without support but clearly vans use engine carriers. Basically you need a type2 engine carrier to finish it as it then matches the engine being installed. Frank may remember more about the exact carrier needed - I forget now. Great advantage by being powered by a Bug engine as you can imagine - certainly in terms of parts. Mine used to almost pull wheelies (honest!) so it wasn't short of power either. Sometimes the engine casing needs an adaptor if there are no lower bolt holes in the casing under the pulley (freely available from most VW custom places) to mate up to the type2 carrier using the oil pump bolts. This is really the only difference between beetle and type2 engines and often, Beetle engine replacements have the extra bolt holes anyway but the engine to gearbox mating is straightforward if you swap the flywheel from a large 4 pin dowel type2 engine (from what I remember of it).

You also need to suss out a different throttle cable cos none of the standard ones in the VW range is exactly the right length (as I found) - find the longest. I chose a cam purely for pulling power but theres a range to choose from depending on what you want from it. Just bear in mind that once you start playing with the power curve you have to beef up everything in the case to deal with it as well as calculating 'lift' and the right length pushrods. The fun bit is in doing the calculations and deciding what you want to build - something the beetle engine had the capacity for after the American custom market expanded. Indeed many of the custom parts are better than stock in some cases (like gearshift couplings for instance). The Beetle ofcourse was a little limited for room in the engine bay but with a crewcab you don't have the same restrictions and way way easier to mount an extra oil cooler if needed.

Bear in mind that VW 'tested' the market when the Type25 was first introduced to see if it would sell and therefore initially fitted an Aircooled engine not that far removed from the type1/2 engine. After that they developed the watercooled version and the rest is history but you'll always find traces of the beetle in both Type 2's and Type25's. Its ancestry is clear. Yes you can go the Subaru (and others) route too, making the T25 a truly adaptable vehicle but you do get hit hard when it comes to spares and repair - depending what you choose. Modern engines are more efficient but anyone who has ever owned a Beetle holds fond memories due in part to its simplicity. The more gadgets you add, the more there is to go wrong. "Sorry mate the computers gone - that'll be £400" - how many times do we hear that one?

If I ever had a crewcab again I think I'd still go the BUG lump route as long as it was over 1600cc that is. The availability of parts for BUG lumps is that much greater (and cheaper) than the later flatter engines, significantly easier to get repaired, and opens up a plethora of aftermarket goodies at reasonable cost, not least of which is camshafts, big bore kits etc etc. What you end up with is the last (and in my opinion the best if you don't want to be welding full time) of the old-school vans that VW made really, and an engine that has some pedigree with masses more potential than the T25 engine in terms of tuned and aftermarket items. Not for everyone sure, but you suddenly find you can do far more things with the power curve without having to absorb the horrendous prices attached to a lot of T25 parts like heat exchangers etc.

Worth considering if your crewcab engine is up for renewal and you want a VW engine you can play with and afford to maintain. Mine had a mildly tuned cam, uprated oil pump, swivel tappets, chomoly pushrods and was I think a 1769cc big bore base. The best part was virtually any mechanic could work on it and there was ample room to work around it as it took up less space in the engine bay - tinware between engine and surround took some thinking about - cutting up sheet aluminium to fit. It always caused jaws to drop whenever I opened the engine lid.

At least once a month I used to go to Jewsons wood yard and clear their offcuts bin as I had an open fire then. My lads loved that - standing in the woodbin and filling up the crewcab with wood. Even fully loaded that thing really DID pull. The only minor change I made was to increase the size of the main jet but it was a great combination. The crewcab had to go in the end but the engine lives on in my VW Beetle to this day.

In theory you could do the same with most T25's but then you have the height problem and somehow accommodate the fan housing inside - not really viable I'd say, but the crewcab - yup. And no reason why it couldn't run on LPG either - lots of Beetles do.

Frank's Bus Parts (Walton) can be found at http://www.vwbusparts.freeserve.co.uk/ Frank regularly attends all the big VW Bus meets and is often in and out of Germany so he carries quite a bit of Type2 and Type25 spares. Worth trying him. Frank had (briefly) a SIX wheeled Type2 - longest camper van I've ever seen. Nice bloke with the right kind of attitude to life and a passion for VW's.

JOHN AUSTIN. Unit 4, Prince of Wales Industrial Estate. Marks Tey, Colchester. Telephone: 01206 211483 - repairs & services ALL VWs