WBX replacement engine suppliers

[weimarbus]

or to put it another way, rebuilt top end 1.9Dg (head gasket failure when bought) lasted 12 years, Rebuilt again with bottom end and new barrels pistons etc, failed after 4 years at the very spot where i thought yay that will be ok ( it wasn,t) 1.9 modified DG 12,000 miles on and it does get a severe high rpm hammering pinkies crossed it's ok and performing well. 2.1MV 4000 miles in and running really well again pinkies crossed, its all down to who builds it and what they think will be ok and possibly what you spend, if they are replacing everything ( but then what is the quality of the parts used) this is where the scales go awol, good parts, bad fit, bad parts, good fit, it's enough to give anyone a sleepless night and a fit of the hebbie jebbies

[uniB]

To be honest, I'm wondering if I've got the balls to actually go about changing the engine myself let alone rebuild the engine - if I were to embark on that I don't think I'd be back on the road before 2018!

[tencentlife]

...and Waterboxer.com , who do top-class rebuilt and re-enginered WBX engines....

Lest anyone be tempted by the attractive pricing, you all need to know that waterboxer.com does not do top-class anything, rather it is one of many names pasted onto an ongoing criminal enterprise (and I don't exaggerate) perpetrated by the moving target known as Ken Morgan, Jake Lake, and other aliases. Take a look at the buyer/seller feedback forum on the Samba for some entertaining and edifying reading:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=255728" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=188375" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=543652" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tinium]

Hi Trundler,

For what it's worth, the previous owner of my van had a recon 2.1 WBX fitted by these guys:

http://www.thevwenginecompany.com/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The engine's great, though there is a small weep from the head gasket at the moment (after 8k miles/18 months) which we've come to a good agreement on, even though it's now just outside of their 12 month warranty - will be going back to them to get it fixed as soon as I can fit it in. The chap I spoke to on the phone even remembered the van and the previous owner!

HTH,
Cheers,
Ben.

[Trundler]

Thanks for all the input, some of which is

After much careful analysis (sounds good but just means a lot of thinking about it and umming and ahhing) I’ve plumped for the Elite option. I’ve ordered a slightly uprated 2.1DJ with a balanced crank and rods and a cam with 272 degree duration. Hopefully, this will be a bit more lively in the mid-range without spoiling the bottom end significantly. A new engine ought to have better bottom end power anyway, simply because it’s new.

The price was £1550 and I’m getting Steve at Gasure to fit it (in August). I’ll let you know how the job goes and my impressions of the new engine once it’s up and running.

[uniB]

Ott of interest Trundler... I assume they want your old engine in exchange - are they happy to wait until it's out (if it's coming out in August) or is Steve getting it out and sending it back when the new one is delivered to him (if you see what I mean!).

Good luck - it sounds good

[Trundler]

They said they want the old engine ready for collection before delivering the new one but Steve seems to think they don't insist on that when he's fitting their engines. I will confirm that though..

[waltraud]

Sounds good, just bear in mind it will not be a new engine but yours with bits replaced as needed.

[weimarbus]

Hi Trundler, I look forward to hearing how your replacement engine performs, hope all goes well

[Simon Baxter]

If it helps (but I doubt it)
We will no longer supply an engine for a customer.
If a customer comes to the garage now and wants an engine we send them off with a list of people who "rebuild" engines and ask them to make their own choice, buy it and get it delivered.
We've had far too many problems with "rebuilt" engines.
We charge 10-15 hours depending how nasty a engine is, we usually loose out on the labour, then once it's running and you have to take it back out for free and send it back to where it came for them to have another go at putting it right while the customer is patiently waiting.
Makes us look stupid and annoys the customer.
Then, when we fit a engine that's duff [happens far too often] and we have to take it back out we're now working for free.
Sounds harsh but we are a business not a charity, almost all the last half a dozen engines we've done there has been a problem or another.

My next advise it to check the flywheel end float once it's bolted on, that caught me out a few years ago, keep a record of what the end float is set to.

One of my customers has a engine that is 12 months old that has been back in several times with "issues" and has now been rebuilt again to stop it rattling.

Saying that, we've never had a problem with a Diesel, they just work [in our experience]

I want some of these parts we can quadruple the cost price of and still sell them!

[Trundler]

Simon, thanks for the benefit of your experience but no, it doesn't help.

Yes, Diesels might "just work" but if we were that bothered about things that "just work" (regardless of how nice they are - or arent - to use) we wouldn't be persevering with ancient rear-engine VW vans, would we?

[dbz864]

Hi, Just read my post/s and after reading again they don't read like they were meant to, for which I apoligise to Mr baxter.I do buy and will contine to buy from brickwerks(if im still welcome) and have recomened customers to do so (3 this week).Tho im sure I saw the said pipe on heritage approx. 3 weeks ago for £39 approx.(which is nearly a third of the price not 4 times that seems to be mentioned a lot).The said part seemed to vanish from there heritages web site approx. 2 weeks ago. Yes it was unavailable 3 weeks ago and poss unavailable a good time prior to this, so the price,what ever it was is not important as it wasn't available. I checked everwhere in the uk,the only place it was stocked was brickwerks and would have been at my door in the next day or so with the faultless service they offer.
I have obtained the pipe now second hand now £14 inc post which was a good deal I know.
The other post which mentioned "4 times" was against a euro car parts part(who is now a massive business with huge buying power,and no longer just sells crap.(a bit like Tesco),as I said in the post I wasn't willing to name the more expensive supplier, for some reason, someone seems to have presumed it was brickwerks, tho my wording wasn't great I know so I can understand the misunderstanding. Hope this puts the record straight.

[Cruz]

My only reservation with 2nd hand in this instance is will the 2nd hand part last, or even be leak free? Then the job needs doing again

[Trundler]

Well, after much musing I decided to order a slightly uprated 2.1 DJ engine from Elite. The upgrades consist of a balanced crank and rods and a slightly ‘hotter’ cam (272 deg duration instead of the standard 238 deg). This ought to give it a bit more mid-range urge, without being too ‘peaky’. The upgrade cost an extra £150, taking the overall price to £1550 (plus £70 for delivery). I purchased the engine through eBay (where Elite are called ‘thevwsparesshop’) and arranged to have it delivered to, and fitted by, Gasure in Chester.

Elite have a policy of only delivering the new engine when the old one is ready for collection, so careful timing was required. I paid for the engine up front (apart from the £150 extra for the upgrade) - 5 weeks prior to the date I’d arranged with Steve at Gasure for fitting - and dropped the van off with Steve a week before to give him time to remove the old engine.

Two days (August 27th/28th) were scheduled for the engine installation (along with an upgrade of my LPG system to closed loop) and it was all looking good. Elite had 5 weeks to build and deliver the engine and Steve had enough time to do the pre-installation work so you’d think nothing could go wrong… but, of course, it could.

Despite the careful scheduling and preparation, and a number of phone-calls by both Steve and myself to check on progress with the engine, Elite were almost two full days late delivering, completely missing Gasure’s two day slot and badly disrupting Steve’s subsequent work schedules (as if he didn’t have enough of a headache doing a workshop move at the same time!).

The upshot of all this was that the van was languishing at Gasure for over three weeks – good job I have another vehicle to fall back on.

Anyway, I collected the van on the inauspicious date of Friday 13th of September (!) and have currently covered just over 300 miles of running in (on petrol). The first fuel fill up showed 36 mpg (!!) but I can only assume I didn’t get it properly full as that seems a ridiculously high figure. I will fill it again shortly and average the two figures.

The van goes back to Steve for an oil service this weekend (the 28th), by which time it should have 500 miles on and I will then be able to run it on LPG again.

Despite Elite’s poor delivery performance (and the ‘neutral’ feedback that it earned them on eBay), my first impressions of the engine are good; it is smooth and lively (as much as you can expect in a campervan!) and definitely has a stronger surge in the mid-range, despite the fairly gentle running in up to now. Steve reckons it feels almost as powerful as a 2.2 litre Subaru…

I will post updates as the engine beds in but it does seem to get better almost daily. I just returned from a 180 mile round trip to the Lake District and I’m impressed with how much more easily it climbs hills and how much less throttle is needed for a 60mph motorway cruise.

[Ralf85]

Vege use to be reliable engines before they were taken over 10-15 years ago. My local garage refuses to use them any more after engine failures on 'new' recons. Remtec are expensive but may well be the best option. Finding decent replacement engines continues to be problematic.