Club 80-90 Forums

I have just bought my first T25 with a 2 litre Aircooled engine, all was going well until I got close to Bristol when clouds of grey smoke came out and the oil warning light came. Looked at the back and it was covered in a black oily mist.

So might need a new engine, what is the easiest / cheapest to drop in that is more reliable, should I go down the water cooled route. I have next to no mechanic skill so will be relying on outside help, so jobs that are not to time intensive and if there are any jobs i can do to reduce the time bearing in mind my inexperience.

Cheers

I've heard a Porsche engine fits straight in........

Seriously though...find out what's wrong with the engine you've got before planning engine changes.

Changing to watercooled is very very expensive.....and pointless because of the expense.

Have a read of the forum(and Google) to gain some knowledge of Aircooled engines....it can only help you.

g60steve wrote:I've heard a Porsche engine fits straight in........

Yeah I heard that one too.

Seriously the best engine is the one designed to go in the van in the first place. Sounds to me from your other thread that there is nothing much wrong with your current engine. I would get that looked at first. If it's terminal then look at replacing with a recon unit as suggested by guru Hulley.

If you can get the current engine sorted then your money would be much better spent on an lpg conversion and get the running costs down.

Brilliant cheers guys, I have got a guy looking at it tomorrow, hopefully it's all ok and I have been worrying about nothing

and excepting the obvious, if your mate isnt fully conversant with a/c's then take it to the guy reccomended before spending on swopping stuff as we see that all too often
mm

Hi

I had the same thoughts when my Aircooled CU engine died.

Basically unless you have a lot of money and time to spend on another conversion don't change a thing.

I bought a 'turnkey' engine from an advert on eBay.(£650).I saw it running, removed it with the seller ( which took all of 45mins) got it home and fitted it. (With some help...) It then ran in my van for a year perfectly. During this year I had my broken CU rebuilt bigger and stronger and when that was ready I swapped again.

I sold the 'turnkey' engine on eBay for about the same it cost me. (Still running perfectly)

Now my van is running really lovely, new engine is super sweet, powerful and very reliable.

Good luck.

aruntaylor wrote:Hi

I had the same thoughts when my Aircooled CU engine died.

Basically unless you have a lot of money and time to spend on another conversion don't change a thing.

I bought a 'turnkey' engine from an advert on eBay.(£650).I saw it running, removed it with the seller ( which took all of 45mins) got it home and fitted it. (With some help...) It then ran in my van for a year perfectly. During this year I had my broken CU rebuilt bigger and stronger and when that was ready I swapped again.

I sold the 'turnkey' engine on eBay for about the same it cost me. (Still running perfectly)

Now my van is running really lovely, new engine is super sweet, powerful and very reliable.

Good luck.

Words of a very wise man.

Thanks guys, it is getting picked up next week by an Aircooled specialist, I decided to bite the bullet and get someone who knows what they are doing to look at it, keep your fingers crossed for me

Indeed we will and keep us very updated with progress as not enough threads on a/c's
mm

aruntaylor wrote:Hi

I had the same thoughts when my Aircooled CU engine died.

Basically unless you have a lot of money and time to spend on another conversion don't change a thing.

I bought a 'turnkey' engine from an advert on eBay.(£650).I saw it running, removed it with the seller ( which took all of 45mins) got it home and fitted it. (With some help...) It then ran in my van for a year perfectly. During this year I had my broken CU rebuilt bigger and stronger and when that was ready I swapped again.

I sold the 'turnkey' engine on eBay for about the same it cost me. (Still running perfectly)

Now my van is running really lovely, new engine is super sweet, powerful and very reliable.

Good luck.

dont mind me asking but what work did you have done on it?

The engine went to Richard Morena who stripped and rebuilt it to 2.1 litres. It had one new head, new gaskets etc, everything was inspected, new oil pump, both heads were worked on and slightly modified and the valves properly seated. A set of low mileage carbs were sourced, all the tinware powder coated, and put back together properly, new heat exchangers and a CSP Python exhaust. New plugs, coil, leads, k&n air filter, all wiring checked and tidied, fuel lines checked and renewed, a new electric pump fitted. Remote oil cooler with electric fan and pipe work fitted, oil temperature gauge and sump sensor. New engine mounts, fan belt, all cooling checked, new oil and a proper old school tune up....

All in all a proper job, I also had Cogbox rebuild my Autobox and I had a Peloquin torque biased diff fitted sourced from GoWesty. This is because the new engine Broke my Diff!

Now I could of stuck with the 'turnkey' engine I bought from eBay serviced it and still been trundling around with it, but it's my van and I've rebuilt the lot and I expect to keep it and travel in it for many years.

It's a pleasure to drive and to camp in.

Do you remember how much that cost you to sort the engine?

In terms of costs the engine was the original from the van so...approx

Professional labour costs £500
Engine rebuild £1100 ( inc gaskets/new cylinders/oil pump/mounts/bolts etc
New cylinder head £200
Service parts £200
Oil cooler £200
Exhaust from eBay £350
Powder coating £150
Fuel £100?

Gearbox rebuild £1000
New diff £900
Diff rebuild £250
Fitting £200
(This was expensive because it is an Automatic and parts and expertise are rare)

Not a cheap habit this Classic VW lark is it!
But the van is 30years old and had done over a 100k.

This was done and gradually paid for over a period of one year.

Richard did a great job but to keep costs down we agreed that he would do the work in his spare time.
I wasn't expecting to wreck my diff but would advise anybody putting more power down to potentially budget a box rebuild from Aidan or Cogbox too...

Hi aruntaylor

Just wondering where your based and what sort of MPG your now getting on the rebuilt engine?

cheers
irishkeet