• From: Ontario, Canada
  • Registered: 2005-06-11
  • Posts: 266

Topic: Pics of my latest engine rebuild - 1641cc Type 1

Just wanted to post a few pics of my latest engine.  It's show and tell time, class!

Its a (mostly) stock Type 1 - 1641cc displacement.  New heads, cylinders/pistons, heads, pushrods/tubes, carb, bearings/bushings, coil, wires, plugs, and complete 4-tip exhaust system.  Rocker arms are (factory?) rebuilt and seem to be in fine shape.

Originally I wanted to see how affordable it would be to do a "budget" rebuild on a stock engine, reusing as many parts as possible.  Unfortunately, I found out that both heads had cracks in the exhaust ports so I opted for new ones instead of throwing money into potentially poor heads.  Since I was getting new heads, I decided to get new rocker arms too... and then the snowball effect began wink

So I scrapped the idea of "budget" rebuild and decided I would rather just have a quality build, without as much focus on doing it cheaply.  So I decided to get a new carb, distributor, coil, and wires rather than re-use the questionable old stuff.  Since a lot of the tin was missing from the donor engine, I bought a few pieces new also.

I cleaned everything and painted the parts I was going to reuse.  In retrospect, I'd like to have painted the fuel pump and the alternator also, but I'm going to wait until I do my first run to make sure that they both work correctly in the first place.  No sense cleaning up a fuel pump or alternator that's broken.

This rebuild went much (muuuch!) more smoothly than my last one (which is documented here somewhere, in greater detail than this post) and it restored my love for the art of working on a VW.  I only had two problems, both somewhat minor.  The cylinder tin is a bit tight in spots (especially around the exhaust manifolds) and had to be bent out in order to allow the exhaust to sit correctly against the head.  The exhaust heat risers (or the intake manifold) were also quite poorly aligned and no manner of adjustments or repositioning could bring both of them into alignment.  I ended up simply cutting the heat risers from the intake manifold, and capping the exhaust ports.  Since I'll never run this in cold weather, I don't expect to notice any negative side effects.  If I do, I can always put on another manifold, though I highly suspect the exhaust (EMPI) is to blame for the misalignment rather than the 30+ year old manifold I was using.

All in all, a very fun build and a great hobby that's kept me busy for several months.

Next up, 2020cc stroker motor (although its a type 3 case and apparently not what I want to use, but we'll get to that some other time...)


http://www.thebignic.com/vw/1641/the-case.JPG

Painted Case with high-temp matte black. (Oily spots were hard to see until painted - doh!)



http://www.thebignic.com/vw/1641/S3000018.JPG

All new bushings and bearings.  Crank and cam were in good shape.



http://www.thebignic.com/vw/1641/S3000021.JPG

All sealed up.



http://www.thebignic.com/vw/1641/painted-alt-stand.JPG

Rust painted and cleaned up alternator stand, cap, etc...



http://www.thebignic.com/vw/1641/S3000001.JPG

Cylinders and pistons installed.



http://www.thebignic.com/vw/1641/S3000006.JPG

New cylinder heads, pushrods/tubes.



http://www.thebignic.com/vw/1641/need-exhaust.JPG

Cleaned and painted intake manifold.



http://www.thebignic.com/vw/1641/1641-ready-for-first-run.JPG

Ready for first run.


I've learned quite a bit in five years - thanks guys!

-biggie

thebignic's Website

  • From: Cincinnati, Ohio
  • Registered: 2005-09-10
  • Posts: 2,318

Re: Pics of my latest engine rebuild - 1641cc Type 1

Interesting color for the engine case...and nice shiny cylinder heads & rocker arms! smile

It will be interesting to see how durable the Hi-Temp case paint will be.  How did you prep the case for painting (solvent wash?, steam clean?, sand or media blast?)??

Did you have any problems reusing the old case?

Since you "cancelled" the "budget build" idea...can you tell us a ballpark cost for the rebuild...just wondering?

The last picture of the completed engine looks great! smile

Thanks for sharing...great pics,

- Nick

1979 Super Beetle Convertible
  • From: somewhere over the rainbow USA
  • Registered: 2006-07-26
  • Posts: 1,882

Re: Pics of my latest engine rebuild - 1641cc Type 1

Looks good. Now you know why to use as many original pieces as possible, they fit!
I hope you don't have trouble with carb condensation and icing even in warm weather by cutting off heat risers.

burrhead

A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows public opinion.
  • From: Ontario, Canada
  • Registered: 2005-06-11
  • Posts: 266

Re: Pics of my latest engine rebuild - 1641cc Type 1

burrhead: Only way to find out is to drive it and see.  I don't expect any issues, but I also don't expect that I'm more clever than a VW engineer.  We'll see how it goes.

bug in my nose: I used a combination of de-greasers and brake cleaner to get most of the gunk out, and then pressure washed all the nooks and crannies.  I wasn't as diligent as I probably should have been, as the oil plugs still had some residue left (the matte paint is still shiny on those spots!)

Only problem I had with the case were a few studs backing out (not stripped though, luckily)

Total cost is just shy of $1900.00 Canadian (not including shipping.)  That includes the original purchase of the donor case, having it align bored (John's Bug Shop: $130CAD), and all the new parts.  (Might want to add the cost of a new intake manifold to that, depending on how well my cut-up one works!)  Most expensive parts are the heads and the carb.  I could have probably rebuilt the stock carb that came with it, but it was gummed up badly with old gas and I already had a brand new one sitting around for the past 4 years, so I thought I'd just use it.  Had I rebuilt the carb and the cylinder heads weren't cracked, the total cost in parts would have been around the $1100.00 mark.   

Provided that it doesn't overheat (dangerous with a thin walled cylinder) and I don't have major carb issues cause of the heat risers being cut, I think it'll be a decent little motor for the money I've invested.

Last edited by thebignic (2010-02-11 18:38:34)

-biggie

thebignic's Website

  • Registered: 2010-06-06
  • Posts: 1

Re: Pics of my latest engine rebuild - 1641cc Type 1

Thanks for sharing the pictures.

http://www.starlitt.com

Karachi123's Website

  • Registered: 2009-06-25
  • Posts: 554

Re: Pics of my latest engine rebuild - 1641cc Type 1

burrhead wrote:

Looks good. Now you know why to use as many original pieces as possible, they fit!
I hope you don't have trouble with carb condensation and icing even in warm weather by cutting off heat risers.

I did the same thing because of a hole in the tubes. I did get condensation, but it did not ice up, at least not badly. My solution was to use the factory air cleaner and wire the preheater so it was slightly open, which warmed up the air cleaner, carb, and intake tract nicely. Now that I have replaced the heat risers, I'm finding that preheating the air coming into the carb worked much better than the heat riser tubes.

Problem for me is that the factory air cleaner cannot keep up with a 1776 (or whatever it is back there), and I don't want to modify the original air cleaner. Anyone have a 71 or later Ghia air cleaner they want to get rid of so I can experiment? I know I could change it to an element filter from oil bath, and take care of the flow problems without changing the outward appearance wink

Paul

  • From: Ontario, Canada
  • Registered: 2005-06-11
  • Posts: 266

Re: Pics of my latest engine rebuild - 1641cc Type 1

Just a quick note, this engine is listed for sale in the Classifieds section.  Since these pics were taken, I've put on a different muffler and collector, as well as upgraded it to a SVDA distributor, aluminum flywheel pulley, and dual 40mm Kadrons.  The cost for parts is about 2500$ now, so thats what I'm asking for it.

-biggie

thebignic's Website