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I own a 1980 VW Westfalia with a dying engine. It has a tic in #4 and #3 has oil blow-by, so its toast as far as I can tell. It still runs and drives O.K but its a matter of time b4 I need to let her go. Its a CV designation engine which is a T4 engine I believe.

I've researched and gone as far as contacting Vanaru in Pennsylvania about a Subaru conversion but they wrote back telling me cost would be too much of a factor in a 1980 model because of the lack of a radiator. (what the heck did they expect??) Anyway I'm confused on what I should do. I've been told the original boxer is unreliable and underpowered and parts are getting expensive.(for a rebuild anyway)

I just want to drive the thing fairly often and I just put around, I don't go anywhere fast or to the drag strip....so the old air cooler was fine for me but I would like to consider a trip or two to Wyoming and South Dakota and perhaps to Washington. Should I be worrying about the air cooled engines reliability?

What would you folks suggest? A rebuild of the original or a conversion to diesel or water cooled?? I'm willing to spend up to $3500 Is that a reasonable amount?

Thanks for any advice!!

Neal

Rebuild the engine you have, that is a pretty clean Vanagon, for a box. Take it out, tear it down, get whatever machining work as required done, have a quality rebuild on the heads which means new seats & valves, new Pistons & Cylinders, posiibly an upgraded cam and you will be good for another 100K miles. All that within your budget.

Just a couple things to add to what busman78 said;

-Use a Web #73 cam and Scat lube-a-lobe lifter set (that's what Webcam uses)
-Build the motor to have a minimum CR of 8.0:1
-Be sure you do NOT have a California type heater box arrangement. If you do, upgrade to a federal type and use n EMPI 4 into 1 header w/ single muffler.
-Install a cylinder head temp gauge and drive by it; your motor's longevity depends on it.

I've built several motors just like this for clients with good results. Dead reliable with almost adequate power It is a Vanagon after all

If you build it yourself, your budget will be enough to get it done.

Just playing Devil's advocate here.

I have seen several vanagons similar to yours that were successfully converted to watercooled. They all used a homemade radiator mount that looked like a front mounted spare tire.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/ ... ?id=776293

for a TIICO conversion using a rabbit/golf motor


Rob

when does the intake close on the 76? that just sounds a tad high on the CR to push around such a heavy loaf.
Doing up your own engine wouldn't be too bad and a decent price.

helowrench wrote:Just playing Devil's advocate here.

I have seen several vanagons similar to yours that were successfully converted to water-cooled. They all used a homemade radiator mount that looked like a front mounted spare tire.

The now defunct Tiico conversions were the best bolt-in alternative available for Vanagons IMHO. However, converting an air-cooled Vanagon to water cooling is a lot of added work. Then you have to mod the Vanagon again for heat since it's ONLY set-up for air heat etc, etc. . .

Yeah anything is possible when you throw enough money, time or both at a project, but those are two things that most of us have in short supply.

As I said, the Tiico or Small Car conversions are the PERFECT solution for water-cooled Vanagons, but for an air cooled Vanagon, it's only the beginning to a deep can of worms.

aircooledtechguy wrote:Just a couple things to add to what busman78 said;

-Use a Web #73 cam and Scat lube-a-lobe lifter set (that's what Webcam uses)
-Build the motor to have a minimum CR of 8.0:1
-Be sure you do NOT have a California type heater box arrangement. If you do, upgrade to a federal type and use n EMPI 4 into 1 header w/ single muffler.
-Install a cylinder head temp gauge and drive by it; your motor's longevity depends on it.

I've built several motors just like this for clients with good results. Dead reliable with almost adequate power It is a Vanagon after all

If you build it yourself, your budget will be enough to get it done.

Great tips, Thanks.

One question...What do you mean by "Build the motor to have a minimum CR of 8.0:1"?


I finally found a fairly local VW engine builder who will rebuild a type 4 so I'm leaning to go with the original mill. The conversions sound like way too much hassle for this particular vehicle. If I had a water cooled VW I would be leaning that way though...

Thanks for the responses everyone!

aircooledtechguy wrote:Just a couple things to add to what busman78 said;

-Use a Web #73 cam and Scat lube-a-lobe lifter set (that's what Webcam uses)
-Build the motor to have a minimum CR of 8.0:1
-Be sure you do NOT have a California type heater box arrangement. If you do, upgrade to a federal type and use n EMPI 4 into 1 header w/ single muffler.
-Install a cylinder head temp gauge and drive by it; your motor's longevity depends on it.

I've built several motors just like this for clients with good results. Dead reliable with almost adequate power It is a Vanagon after all

If you build it yourself, your budget will be enough to get it done.

Do you have pictures of the EMPI 4 into 1 header w/muff? I doubt mine is Cali type since its originally a Colorado van. But I want to be sure.

I'll do the temp gauge for sure. Thanks for the tip.

Go to CIP1.com and plug-in "C13-3439" into the search o the top of the page. The 4 into 1 system will come up.

I recommend getting the CR or Compression Ratio up to around 8.0:1 with the Web #73 cam because that's where it works efficiently. The motor runs great and not at all hot with that cam @ 8.0:1.

In a Vanagon you should always run a head temp gauge because you have a 4500# vehicle powered by a 2.0L motor. It's working at it's max all the time so it's being abused by motor standards just by driving to the store.