Club 80-90 Forums

I have just bought a 1983 T25 high top and knew that it was originally a 1600 air cooled but that 2 years ago someone had put in 2000 air cooled.
As I am not a mechanic and it had 2 MOTs and lots of invoices it wasn't until I had it looked at by a VW garage yesterday ( the day it was delivered to me by the seller) that I have been told it is a Type 2 engine which is completely wrong for my van.
The garage man says he is going to try and source all the 'tin parts' and ancillary parts to try and rectify the problem but that parts are scarce and expensive so I don't have an idea of the potential cost yet.
Does anyone know how much a whole engine would cost new / recon ? Just so I have an idea.
At this moment in time I am feeling a bit confused !!
Many thanks, Helen in Somerset.

Engine letters should be CU.....what do you have?

Have a look at this thread.




HELP! French Mechanic Needed


If I can help......

Cordialement,

California Dreamin wrote:Engine letters should be CU.....what do you have?

It's at the garage right now, will find out and let you know. Thanks for reply.

My T25 is looked after by a guy in Yeovil - he's awesome and not expensive. If you want his details please let me know... I'm sure he can sort it out for you.

Phil

tally9040 wrote:I have just bought a 1983 T25 high top and knew that it was originally a 1600 air cooled but that 2 years ago someone had put in 2000 air cooled.
As I am not a mechanic and it had 2 MOTs and lots of invoices it wasn't until I had it looked at by a VW garage yesterday ( the day it was delivered to me by the seller) that I have been told it is a Type 2 engine which is completely wrong for my van.
Helen in Somerset.

Are you sure it is a T2 engine, I am no air-cooled expert but I have read that a T2 engine will not go into a T25 without a lot of modification, mainly due to the vertical fan arrangement the T2 has.

Plus you say it was done 2 years ago so has presumably been running OK for that time

Lastly, even if it is, there is no big worry about it being "completely wrong" if it works,(unless you want to preserve your van as 100% original for showing etc.). I mean a Subaru engine is not "right" but many folks fit them and love them.

Are you sure it's not just ignorance from your mechanic...as in, not knowing which type is correct.

As I said earlier....check engine letters on the casing, if it's a 2litre then it should be a CU which is all fine and dandy.
But as Ghost123uk days....if it works it doesn't really matter.

Engine options include. Peugoet diesel, 1.9 VW Diesel turbo and normally aspirated, 2litre 8 valve VW, 16v 2 litre VW, Audi 1.8, 5 cyl Audi 2.2/2.5 Kjetronic, Ford , Porche flat 6 and of course Subaru 2.2/2.5 etc etc

Martin

The garage is a VW camper specialist called Moores in Clevedon so I assume they know what they are talking about. He explained that because the way the air is designed to cool the T2 by passing cold air over the engine and pulling away the warm air - it can't do this in the T25 and in any sort of traffic hold up / warm weather it will completely overheat. He tells me that there has been a dreadful effort at fitting it and the mountings are all wrong, the fuel pipes are connected to the return of the fuel tank, the throttle linkage is dreadful, it is so badly tuned it hardly splutters along etc.
He is hoping that the core of the engine is ok, and that by fitting the right ancillary 'tin parts' he will be able to resurrect it all. I had a quick look on justkampers and see that a new 2litre engine will be over 2000 quid, so I am hoping he can work miracles.
I honestly don't think that the guy who sold it to me knew about all this as he has genuine invoices showing that he has just spent a lot of money on serious welding and engine bits and bobs, but that was at an ordinary garage and I don't think they knew what they were doing and just patched it up - I have just been naive and inexperienced and got caught out.
Thanks for your help so far, I will find out engine number and have another chat with him and see where we go from here.

I am not familiar with the air cooled engine but I cannot see how it works in a T2 and not a T3 as the early T3's had air cooled engines anyway?

I bet it turns out to be a 2L CU engine

I think the mechanic is saying that the cooling tin around a T2 engine is different - without a complete seal, the hot air is recirculated past the seals and the engine can heat up. I think the Bays have a smaller "cutout" for the engine to fit in.

The engine itself is basically the same.

You can certainly fit T2 engines to the T25 but as stated, 1600 and 2000 engines were fitted to early T25s so definately not entirely wrong for the vehicle. VW fitted them with these engines whilst they were testing the market with the T25 as it was cheaper to do that than retool initially. Many have lost their tinware over time and I agree, its like hens teeth now. If the engine is generally tired, and a compression check would help verify that, then an engine swap may be best bet but without rad etc (which could be fitted with some effort) you're very limited in what will go in.

Have found out that it is a GD or GE engine from an old Type 2 Bay Window - which is why it doesn't fit and the 'tinware' is all wrong.
My garage have tried to source a replacement (T25 air cooled CU type) but are having no luck so propose 1) service the engine to make sure it's worth trying to salvage 2) Create a safe mounting bracket for the engine 3) Modify the cooling system as best they can to try and keep engine cool.
I will not have harldy any heating in the cab, but I can worry about that when I have saved up money for the next project which would be additional heat exchangers and stuff.

So in essesnce, I am desperately in need of a T25 air cooled CU engine if anyone has any ideas ?

Many thanks for all your help so far.

Hi,

Its a gamble buying an engine off ebay, but if you're feeling lucky you could try this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VW-T2-T25-Aircool ... 1c1b0f60ff

At least it gives you an engine to get reconditioned!

If you don't likel gambling stick an ad in the wanted section, one of the traders may have a good one.

Good luck getting it sorted.

Cheers,

Alex

Thank you so much for this info. I have already posted the seller a question and hopefully my mechanic will be able to do something with it.
Perhaps I am really naive, but I am basically an honest person who would never dream of selling something to someone without telling them the whole truth about it - karma and all that. I was well and truly had over by someone so I'm trying to make the best of it. Helen.