Club 80-90 Forums

WBX were made with hydraulic tappets.

Solid can be fitted and rumour has it one remanufactuer was fitting them.

So what is involved?

Anybody got part numbers for tappets and pushrods that are suitable?

Cams profiles for solid are different to hydraulic so does anybody change cams or is this just a bodge?

If you were to fit an Aircooled cam like this to a DG what tappets and push rods would you need?

https://vwheritage.mobi/GB/productDetai ... =190762124" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

cheers folks

Not much of a help but i saw a couple of posts a while back where Laurie Pettitt had used solid tappets in some of his WBX rebuilds.

itchyfeet wrote: Solid can be fitted and rumour has it one remanufacturer was fitting them.

It's no rumour. Volkspares were infamous for it as a matter of policy on all their WBXs. I had a DJ of theirs in not so long ago that rattled like a "very rattly thing" (expletive removed). I replaced it with a good used engine, and I have the old thing here. When I get a minute I'll have a look at the pushrods for you, if you like. Although, of course, there's no guarantee it was right to start with!

E D I T: My memory fails me - the customer took it away to have a go at rebuilding it himself as a spare engine.

yes please Andrew keen to learn
I'm guessing they are from a Aircooled bay engine.
I was told the push rods were solid also?
not sure how oil get to rockers I guess by vapour and splash

See above, Paul. It's not here. Soz.

Lots of talk on shoptalkforum about fitting solids. They seem to like it over the pond.

Ok no worries.

Hydraulic dims:
Tappet 24mm dia
push rod 9 dia x 272/3mm long
over all tappet and rod 316/7mm

Hi Paul,

I have used solid cam followers in my buggy engine they are from an Aircooled type 4 engine and were used to allow the use of an Aircooled type 1 aftermarket cam, they oil the rocker shaft in the same way as wbx ( solid followers have the same lubricating holes in the side and through to the centre cup) the push rod are cro moly taken from my old 1835 cc type 1 as was the cam, conveniently the standard beetle length was ok. The buggy engine gets alot of thrashing but has only done around ten thousand miles all be it unsimpatheticaly driven (google youtube 'Tipley 42' clip) no adjustment has been needed yet since 500 miles reset, the tappet gap is set at 4thou and it is still too tappetty I think. The next engine will either have an SB cam or the Hertige modified hydraulic wbx cam to make it sound better, I will have to ask questions at the time to see which will give the best lower torque but still allow it to rev. what happens to a hydraulic grind cam with solid followers I have no idea but sounds from Andrew's experience that one eats the other.
Maybe worth asking Nigel H at Heritage he is quite knowledgable on engine 'lego'

Thanks weimarbus

don't suppose you have and lying around you could take some pictures/ measurements?

I assume you mean the cam in the link above is what you used?

Sorry none around that I have access to without striping the engine, the cam is a 'Scat C25' from my old Type 1 Aircooled and I just bought the Type 4 followers new from Heritage, the pushrods also came from the Type 1 and although co-moly cut to length ones I do remember that they were standard beetle type 1 length when I built the 1835cc engine in 1983, how I remember such trivia I don't know, some things just stick in your mind The ball ends of the pushrods are compatible with both the type 4 followers and the wbx rockers HTH.

Sorry didn't understand this bit

although co-moly cut to length ones

do you cut air cooled push rods to length?

often wondered what people do with Aircooled pushrods when they mess around with deck heights

itchyfeet wrote:Sorry didn't understand this bit

although co-moly cut to length ones

do you cut air cooled push rods to length?

often wondered what people do with Aircooled pushrods when they mess around with deck heights

If you look at aftermarket tuning parts for Aircooled most of the uprated pushrods require cutting to length to suit deck height/stroke and rocker geometry

All I know about this is that when I specified my rebuilt engine from Elite (now now, no engine snobbery please) I requested an uprated camshaft (272 degree duration instead of the standard 238). When the engine was built they realised that the cam they had been sent by their American supplier was for solid lifters and thus not compatible with the standard hydraulic lifters. They asked me if I was OK with the engine being supplied with solid lifters, rather than sending the cam back for replacement. I agreed to this and have had the uprated cam and solid lifters ever since.

As a matter of interest, the engine does seem a little less ‘grunty’ at low revs with this cam but comes on strong as 3000rpm is approached, pulling much more strongly up to the high 4000s. This helps with overcoming that big gap between 2nd and 3rd gear that most Type 25s are blighted with.

It does sound a bit 'tappety' though

Interesting thanks for the info.

Nobody wants to cut pushrods if they don't need to so we just need to know what pushrods fit thd type 4 solid lifters, perhaps standard WBX? or perhaps type 4, seems same length as WBX

https://www.vwheritage.com/shop/bay-bus ... StartRow=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.vwheritage.com/shop/type25- ... StartRow=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.vwheritage.com/shop/bay-bus ... StartRow=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They should be standard beetle Type 1 length if you want to use standard pushrods, mine were standard length ( the 1835cc is achieved by over size barrels only and standard stroke/deck height) mine were only cut to length as the cro-moly pushrods come that way and were used to reduce flex at higher rpm (stronger valve springs too)