Volkswagen air cooled engine family ( 1100, 1200, 1300, 1500, 1600cc )
Вставка
- Опубліковано 30 сер 2023
- Today on what it’s like engine episode Wednesday I mean Thursday haha.
We take a closer look at the air cooled Volkswagen engine. This engine includes 1100 1200 1300 and 1500 and 1600 cc engines we talk about the difference between dual port in single port just a cool overview of a really cool engine
Enjoy
If you’d like to get in touch with me shoot me a comment in the comment section below or check out our Facebook group that correlates with this UA-cam channel by clicking the link below
 groups/70769... - Авто та транспорт
Amusement Parks U.S.A/Beach Boys
Yeah buddy I knew you’d get it =)
Good Job !
I would have guessed "Long Way to the Top", as in "It's a long way, to the top, if you don't get a running start in your Karman Ghia ." I guess they sound similar.
Awesome engine. One of it's good qualities is with no water, these cars make great collector's pieces, able to sit years and not corrode from the inside. Power was easy enough to get with dual carbs and more open exhaust with noise being the limiting factor. Surely one of the best engineered platforms of all time. Thanks Jay
I loved my Karman Ghia when I had it for that very reason I never had to worry about it it never ran high but there was some days where I did have to open up the baffles and got some heat into the cabin they are very much machines you can tell when they’re running good and when they’re not all based on sound and feel.. but mine was good it only left me on the side of the road once and that was because of user error I ran out of gas when that said E it was empty there wasn’t any lee way
Couple of years ago I had a 71' super bettle with a 1600 engine that has been sitting for 10 years. I bougth it for 180 bucks. The car was partially buried on the back and the engine was covered with dirt. After a deep cleaning and a tune up, that little engine start and run like a champion.
Awesome story.. I wonder how many cars from now that would be possible doing because once the computers are toast the whole car needs a new cpu and A lot of times I could be a colossal headache
Most of those old legendary engines has been build to run forever not matter what
I totally agree I’ve seen countless classic vehicles be dragged out a Barns or what have you change the oil put some more gas down inside there starts right up
I'd go for the type 2 bus without hesitation.
The Karmen Ghia for sure.
I drove VW autos for decades. Bugs type 1 but mainly type 2 aka VW bus. 1600 single and dual Port are great engines.
Had a nice 66 double door cargo bus that I put a 1600 single port in to replace the stock motor which I believe was a 40 horse that was in the back in pieces in a box when I got the bus. The 66 was worth quite a bit due to the fact that it was a double door cargo model. The California surfers love those.
I also owned a really nice 67 Westphalia pop up camper bus.
That one I put a 1600 dual port in it. That engine has the larger oil cooler That sets on the back of the block covered by the shroud and it would blow the air through the cooler and it would exit out the vent on the bottom of the fan shroud. That in combination with a power pulley, .009 distributor , keeping points set properly and the engine timed correctly and with the fan belt set to the right tension along with frequent oil changes, kept that four banger purring like a kitten.
I lived in Yuma Arizona at the time and all my friends laughed at me when I bought the pop-up telling me that your nuts because that thing is going to overheat on you and leave you stranded by the side of the road.
I knew better because I understood how a VW engine works and how it cools. If they didn't overheat on Rommel and burn up in the desert they weren't going to overheat and burn up on me.
My family kept that van loaded up with everything we needed for a quick weekend trip. We would jump in after work on a Friday head through the desert up the mountains towards San Diego camp up there in the Laguna mountains and have a nice little vacation with day trips down into San Diego to hang out at the beach or visit the zoo. That thing never ever broke down.
I also took it on a trip up through Bryce ,Zion, and cedar breaks and all over that area. It chugged right through those mountains without any issues at all. You didn't go fast but that was great for sightseeing. Coming back down with a little scary because the brakes weren't the greatest thing on those buses but you learn to drive where you downshift it a lot and took it easy on your brakes.
I could pull that engine by myself to work on it if I needed to. It was not that difficult. I'd just pull the rear bumper and the rear body panel slide my jack underneath there and raise it up to support the engine. Then disconnect the cables, a couple of wires, the fuel line,remove the four bolts and then I could just push the bus forward leaving the engine sitting right on the stand where I could work on it.
Easy peazy. In fact I always said that the reason Volkswagen made it so easy to remove the motor was because they knew ahead of time you were going to have to be removing it a lot. LOL
In fact, I always carried a spare 009 distributor with me with the points in there and already preset with a new condenser as well. Since pulling the distributor was easy, one bolt and bracket and out it came. So, instead of screwing around with points if they went bad when I was driving, I would just swap out the distributor and be on my way.
Another advantage or disadvantage depending on how you want to look at it is that sitting right over the front wheels like that meant if you ever get into an accident you are the first one on the scene.....😂
Sweet choices thank you so much for sharing that insight and information as well as the story I really dig reading that.
Just curious did you ever have a Volkswagen overheat on you the Karman Ghia never overheated on me but there was a couple times where you could tell that it was starting to get hot and I had to open up the baffles and let the heat come in to the cab.. it gets hot here in western Pennsylvania but it’s nothing like it is in Arizona I saw pictures from this year of actual car is melting because they don’t really make them at a quality materials anymore..
@@What.its.like. I never had any issues with overheating I did have one time where I thought the engine in my bus was smelling like it was hot and also the fan noise sounded different, so I pulled over and the fan belt was a little bit loose so I snugged it up and it was fine after that. I mean when you think about it the only thing that keeps a VW engine cool is air flow and clean oil so if it's running hot those are the two things to check first.
It's never happened to me before but I do know of a friend of mine who also drove VW's and he had a piece of road debris which flew up and got sucked against the air intake on the back of the fan shroud he heard the sudden change in the engine noise and immediately pulled over to check it and it's a good thing too cuz it would have probably fried his engine from lack of cooling air if he hadn't have.
I never owned a Karman Ghia so I can't say about there cooling or lack of cooling issues.
This is a lovely post.
@@ownthenight01 thank you
When i was a kid back in the 70's VW's were everywhere! Especially bugs and buses. Cheap to repair because parts were easily available. A popular repair manual back in the day was a large paper back titled, "How to keep your Volkswagen alive for the complete idiot" ( very popular among hippies, possibly the predecessor to all the other, complete idiot or for dummies books) I don't remember the authors name. Basically anyone who owned a VW (whatever model, engine size) with this manual could work on their own car. The language in that book was to say the least "down to earth" to whereas anyone could understand it. Even today those old bugs, beetles and buses bring a good price. I remember my late brother-in-law used to say, " if taking a road trip with VW bus there were four things you always took with you besides a complete metric tool set and at least 4 quarts of oil (a case if you had room), 1 was a throttle cable, 2- clutch cable, 3- fan belt, 4 most important a spare engine." If you brought along a decent floor jack you could swap an engine out in a couple of hours if that on the side of the road. Allot of mechanics who started in the 60's and 70's all have experienced VW's in one-way or the other.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience all of those memories I never had any issues with mine I regularly drove it for almost a year we bought that car to flip it and it took almost a year to sell it after it was done so it was supposed to take a year took three years.. or 2.5 years
Frankly as a European i grew up with the last VW aircooled Transporter van known as the Brick in the early 1980's.
They were just everywere and used by all professions and companies at that time.
So my bias goes to a first generation VW T3-transporter (the Brick) with the 1.6 aircooled engine and 2 simple round headlights.
I was born in 1951. During my years of growing up my father owned two Volkswagen Beetles. The first was a 1965 Volkswagen Beetle with about 40 horsepower. The fastest indicated speed on level ground was 75mph. This car would slow down on hills to about 45mph in third gear. The next Beetle was a 1972 Volkswagen Beetle with the 1600cc engine. This car was better accelerating than the 1965 Beetle and could climb hills at a higher speed. Also the 1972 Beetle got slightly better fuel mileage than the 1965 Beetle. My father attributed this to the 1972 Beetle having a better carburetor.
The carb on the '67 Beetle I had needed a rebuild, as the fuel mileage got down as low as 18 mpg. After the carb rebuild: 27 ~ 35 mpg.
I always loved the low-slung design of the Karmann-Ghia.
The one issue I had with it was with the body panels, namely the front fenders. A damaged right-side front fender meant replacement of the entire front end body panel, as the left-front and right-front fenders were a single unit; unlike a Beetle, where if a front body panel was damaged, just that single fender could be replaced.
But, from my experience with the '67 Beetle, the high quality sheet metal with the fenders were such that a body hammer and dolly could straighten out the dent in the fender.
Very cool video!!
I currently own a 1968 vw bug with a 1641cc.
Daily driver,100 miles a day for the past 17 years.
Sweet =) the beetle is a car you can use all of and not get in trouble
The engine cases are magnesium, not aluminum- the latter is used for modern stronger cases, but weighs around 20lb more. The change in how power was rated from SAE net (optimized, without accessories) to SAE gross (as installed in vehicle including full exhaust system) in the early ‘70s affected all manufacturers, not just VW. The German DIN figures can be referenced, as that standard remained constant. I’ve seen from 60-46 hp listed for a dual port 1600, but the DIN figure of 48hp seems about right….
It’s a mixture of both magnesium and aluminum alloy..
You really go into every car you do a video on. Wonderful video. I see network tv sure could use many UA-camrs to show the networks how to produce interesting videos. I have not watched network tv since about 2009 or 10.
Thank you so much I try and present these with the information I’d like to know there’s a fine line between too much information in just enough, i’m totally with you I haven’t watch network TV since around that time either mostly just watch Netflix UA-cam and that’s about it there’s a Lotta good documentaries on UA-cam I’m a huge history buff if you haven’t figured out I watch a lot of World War II documentaries I’m into true crime stuff too
In the early years of our marriage, we had a 69 Beetle. I think in had the 1600 cc engine, could be wrong. I remember it had no oil filter, you cleaned the oil screen with gasoline (you briefly showed a photo of the VW oil screen assembly). It held 3.6 qts of oil and an oil change cost less than $4.00. A tune up was four spark plugs and a set of ignition points and cost less than $10.00. Had to be very careful not to strip the threads in the aluminum heads when removing spark plugs. One of the best engines ever made, in my opinion.
I will have to check on the supposed stroking I remember them all as 69mm stroke.
Another great vid!!!
=)
As an owner of a 56 VW convertible, I noted that Volkswagen proudly boasted that the engine was rated at 36 horsepower (when it was more like 28). However, the test for horsepower was done on a dynamometer with the fan and generator disconnected, which in Europe was a legal and acceptable practice at the time. It was not until 1972 that the Federal Trade Commission crackdown on this practice requiring VW to use a more realistic testing method which overnight reduced the advertised HP from 60 to 44, for the 73 model. So, that’s why horsepower ratings for early VWs often conflicted between sources - all were right depending on the method used.
One day I’m going to do an episode on that why they made the switch it’s very confusing to a guy like me who does this sort of thing.. they also change the way they sell oil by weight because back in the day it was just straight 30 weight straight 40 weight straight 50 weight and now they have all kinds of different weights
@@What.its.like. Speaking of oil viscosity, earlier automobiles had to use different viscosities depending upon the time of year, the climate and even how the vehicle was driven (highway vs city). My VW owner’s manual was very specific on this. Multiple viscosity oils like 10-40 either did not exist or in the earlier versions were not trusted. But using a single viscosity grade presented a problem: If one didn’t do an oil change as the winter approached, you literally could not turn over the engine to start it. Early Model T owners struggling with thick crankcase oil besides removing the radiator water nightly, had to either heat their garage or literally build a fire underneath the crankcase to warm the oil-probably dangerous! In my 1920s house with a detached garage there was a chimney that had a pot belly stove for warming the old car through the long high-altitude winters. I hung a 150 watt lightbulb in my VW’s engine compartment with a sleeping bag over it and I removed the battery and placed it on top of my gas hot water heater every night when I was in nursing school- it was 23 below zero but I always was able to start the car despite 30 weight oil.
Yeah I’ve hear the same thing, also was wondering when the gold standard 3000 mile intervals came into play because I’ve seen different things say different things like I don’t remember the brand but they were advertising 5 to 6000 mile oil changes in the 50s.. and we have up to 10,000 miles now with the synthetic stuff and special filter done by special auto makers and dealers..
The craziest thing of all is after doing this for two years you come to find out that nothing is new and it’s all just recycled technology.. advertised as new..
Vw bus t1.
Vw type 34 ghia.
❤
I own a 1971 vw Dormobile camper. It has a 1600 twin port. It pulls OK. Hills are certainly naff 😂 hahha....
I live in the UK, the heating is also sh!t... so I put on a diesel night heater and plummed it into the original heating system. I can defrost the screen, keep warm and camp in it all warm! 🔥
Thanks Jay for another interesting engine episode! Actually have a LITTLE experience with some of these motors. Had a 1966 Beetle for a SHORT time. My buddy had one of those interesting Karmann Ghia's the type 34. Drove that quite a few times, it had the 1200 cc as it was an EARLY one. Had pretty good power really, for what horsepower it had. WYR#1 Karmann for sure! #2 That Puma looks GREAT!! It would for sure be between that one and the Type 34! Wish I had bought that one from my buddy!!
Sweet choices =)
Very complete history of the VW engine. I am of German heritage and didn’t know my last name is associated with the Bauscher water craft Co. Thanks Ed Bauscher
There was one mistake that I picked up these engines aren’t bored they just get bigger jugs. But glad you dig this video =)
Having been the owner of a '66 Beetle (sometimes referred to as the Bug), my first WYR choice would be the '55 Beetle. The second choice would be the '55 Karman Ghia.
My '66 had the 1300 emblem on the back hood, but for most of the time I drove it, it had a 1200 engine since the original froze up. I can say I did do a lot of downshifting when climbing hills. Still, it was a fun car to drive during my early college years.
It had radio delete but it also had a sunroof. White, with a red interior.
I still miss that car. It was my first one.
Awesome story thank you for sharing those memories =)
Great choices
I'll bet they didn't call it "radio delete" back then, since radios were not standard on most cars.
Repairing and rebuilding air cooled VWs helped put me through school in the early Seventies. The 1300 was notorious for dropping the #3 exhaust valve due to the oil cooler interrupting too much of the air flow from the fan. The trick was to set that one .002 looser than spec.
Really nice video, thanks!
Glad you dig this episode I love engine episode Wednesdays it’s one of my favorite Segments =)
I love VW, in particular the Bug. My mom had a 74 Bug and my dad had a 79.
I had a 71 1600 cc 4 speed. That little car was a lot of fun, our oldest sons first car !
I’ve always wanted a 411 or 413 4dr and a Karmann Ghia convertible as my two primary cars and give up on modern luxuries but then I remember that my concept of camping is when I fall asleep on a terrace overlooking a pool at a hotel.
Karman Ghia was a great car mine only left me on the side of the road once and I ran out of gas when it said E it was empty
Love it!!! In the mid 70s in college I had a 62 bug. During one winter it dropped a valve and I rebuilt the motor in the living room, but left all the bolts and nuts in a coffee can outside. It rained and froze and I had to heat up the can to finish the rebuild...cold, numb fingers! In the rebuild I replaced one of the jugs with one from a junkyard that didn't match the fins of the others, but worked great anyway. It had a hardtop sunroof, was a light blue color. I wish I'd kept that car. 😢
Great story thank you so much for sharing those memories I’ve heard stories of people taking the engines out I never had to take the engine out of mine it ran good
I’ve always wanted to put Harley V twin the rear of a Volkswagen Beetle
@@What.its.like. Have a '99 Harley now. Put an S&S V twin motor in it. So if you do such a plan, I highly recommend to go with an S&S eco motor instead of Harley. My S&S is sooooo fast!
I would want it just for the sound powered doesn’t really mean anything to me considering most Harley v twin can make 54 hp which is about the same amount of power a four-cylinder VW air cooled made
Had a 71 super beetle with the 1600cc. Yes you needed to gear down on hills. Currently we have a 1900cc 100hp dune buggy. Even this engine with 2 barrel Webber carb slows down on hill climbs.
1 & 2: All of them. I can't get enough of classic Volkswagens.
Tune: I Get Around by The Beach Boys? I'm not sure, but that's my guess.
Great guess not that song.. I know where my Karman Ghia is I would love to review it it’s the only car that I’ve owned out of the 34 cars that I know where it’s at.. I knew where the 67 mustang was up until a couple years ago when they moved..
I definitely need to review at least one Volkswagen product before the year is over
@@What.its.like. Now, you're talking.
Cool video 😎 When I was a kid our neighbors had what I think was a late 60s model VW beetle, it was nice, I rode in it a couple of times. I had different family members who had mid 70s Super Beetles and the VW buses that I rode in quite a bit during that time period, other than that I rode in a VW Golf or Rabbit a couple of times in the 80s. I agree, there is something very cool about the hum of the engines. I've always thought the Karmin Ghias looked very cool. In the first scenario I'd take the VW Bus, the second, probably the Puma, although that Ghia is tempting.
I want to review a puma and Bradley GT.. The puma I think would’ve been a kick ass car if volts wagon would’ve put their air cooled six as the engine..
I always thought that car would be cool with a Chevy 292 in-line six as well or a Porsche engine
"something very cool about the hum of the engines" ... Our dog agreed; she used to pop open the screen to and chase after every VW that drove by. We were lucky that she always came home in one piece. I don't know why my parents didn't put a better lock on that door.
I had a '72 Bus as a teenager. It was a lead sled- I put one of those, 'I can't drive 55' stickers that were popular at the time, but it took a downhill and a tail wind to get it to that speed.
Haha I always wondered that with a van how many people could you put in it and still go 60 miles an hour if that
I have never driven one of those but I could imagine it being very brisk.. lol
I have two buses, a 1969 T2a (single port engine) and a 1973 T2b (dual port engine). Initially I bought them for rentals but I don't feel very confortable with that as some renters are not very careful so I use them for events.
I know some early engine cases or blocks were magnesium instead of aluminum. They were a popular addition to bonfires back in the day. 😳
Hold on tight --- ELO
Great guess but not that song or band
I had a '67 Beetle.
Can attest of getting it up to 85 mph.
But, it ran at its best when the US had the 55 mph highway mandate in 1974.
In its prime, driving up a 6 percent grade on the interstate, have to downshift to third gear with running at 40 ~ 45 mph.
The engine was probably the most forgivable design ever, as it could be subjected to a lot of neglect when it came to maintenance, and it would keep running, albeit sluggishly.
The driver/passenger compartment heater was hazardous, as carbon monoxide was an issue with my car. Without using the heater in winter, windshield could ice-up, and dressing warmly to drive was a must.
While a selling point of the Beetle was not having coolant, which made radiator boil-over a non-issue, that did not mean the engine would not overheat. In hot weather, it was wise to keep the engine rpms up for the engine's air fan to run fast for cooling the engine. Low-rpm running of the engine in hot weather could result with the engine _dieseling_ when the ignition was turned-off.
If engine _dieseling_ was an on-going issue in hot weather, using premium gasoline could resolve that issue.
Since the engine did not have an oil filter, oil changes every 1K to 1.5K miles a must, where in 100K miles the engine did not burn oil.
The one weakness in the Beetle's design was the sheet-metal floor pan being the chassis. Sheet metal corrosion created problems with the integrity of the chassis. That corrosion created the most debilitating issue with that Beetle: The clutch/brake/gas pedal assembly collapsed, as the mounting bolt for that assembly was on that sheet metal floor pan chassis.
Great video. The VW, Porchse, and Corvair air cooled engines are so fascinating, and simple. First choice the 67 Ghia, Second choice the 66 Type 34. Hope the Franklin engine family is coming down the line even though you previously featured the car earlier.
Great choices it’s funny you mention Franklin I was just thinking of what engine family should we do next week Franklin‘s going to be a little bit harder to tackle because do you talk about just one particular engine or group them all together I was almost thinking about doing Continental engines next week because I got to review a really rare car with a continental engine in it I was actually thinking about switching episode line up… but going to keep it the way it is because might do Continental engines next week I’m not entirely sure though
@@What.its.like. I was thinking all Franklin engines from 1902-34, just finished watching your 1930 Franklin episode. Just thinking of Continental engines too, so many automotive, truck and industrial applications, particularly Checker and Kaiser.
Both of those engine companies are gonna be really hard to tackle unless doing an overview episode of the company in general.. Doing this I’m finding out that not everything is on the Internet there is tons of information that’s been recorded throughout the history of man that isn’t on the Internet and it’s really hard to believe that especially when you’re my age because a lot of people think that Google knows everything and it’s the farthest thing from the truth.. maybe do an episode one day of what Google gets wrong.. because it’s eye opening
@@What.its.like.Understanding where you coming from on getting info on google. What helped me to learn about different vehicles including the obsolete ones is over the years that I accumulated a big book collection on almost every brand of cars and trucks otherwise I wouldn"t have learned about the obsolete brands of vehicles that was built. I just found my copy of the book by Sinclair Powell The Franklin motor car co. I read 10 years ago that was my only education on the Franklin, also I have the Tad Burness car % truck spotter's guides that helped me to learn all of the car and truck models especially pre 1942.
I would take the Ghia with the 1600 motor !
I am surprised that nobody here has mentioned that in tune ups you have to adjust the Valves ! I think nobody mentions it because it is so much fun to do it !
Tell me folks what happens if you Never adjust them ?
The original Kuble Wagon is Cool but the Swim Wagon was even better !
The engine is used almost exclusively in “Dune Buggies “ too !
VW power is magical
They sound totally different =)
Best sounding 4 cylinder
Specially on a sweep to 9k
21 window bus & the Type 34. I suppose the VW flat 4 is the record holder for most engines produced.
Nope--Chevy small-block V8 holds the record.
I love all of them , The first VW engine I rebuilt I forgot to put the thin gasket between the jugs and the case. 🤣 It leaked like a sieve.
I never had to rebuild one I’ve only owned one I was thinking the other day it would be really cool to own a beetle at one point in time I always wanted to put a Harley V twin in the rear because you’d be making more horsepower and only have two cylinders and I thought that would be awesome.. Oil filter of a Volkswagen beetle is essentially a strainer most interesting thing I’ve ever seen.. definitely different thank you so much for sharing the memories in that story =)
Great video! Love air cooled boxer engines!! What brochure or booklet is shown at 9min 37sec? I need to find that one, it’s so cool!
Thank you so much I’m glad you dig this episode I went back and looked at that slide I have no idea where I found that most of the advertisements either come from old car brochure.com but they do not do foreign cars so it was probably in a Google search.. If I still had it I would send it to you but I deleted all of that
I’m laughing my behind off with your running start comment. Nothing is truer than that. I owned a 1964 VW and with 4 teenage guys in it….well, sometimes it was a challenge to get up a hill. BUT…wasn’t the engine sound something. God I loved that tin can car.
I couldn’t imagine what that was like with four people I’ve done it with two people but I’ve never done it in a vehicle with four and if you had a fully loaded bus that would be very interesting..
When I first drove one the guy told me you wanna floor it before you get to a hill and usually it when you hear that mindset you think that you’re giving it all it’s got and you are but it’s a different giving it all it’s got because it doesn’t have that much to begin with and I’ve always wondered if the driving experience to the Volkswagen is the same as driving a model a.. that’s a car that I really want to drive
Boxer, not Boxster!!!
Thoroughly enjoying your engine series Jay. Seems I remember a couple other models, a slant back and a little station wagon looking model I believe was called the Kammback. Take care.
Glad you dig the engine episodes I totally dig the engine episodes as well.. i’m on the fence about what engine episode to do for tomorrow I was really thinking about doing continental engine but it would probably be an overview of the company because it would be almost impossible to do engines from them because they made different engines every three years or sooner than that it seems and they offer different versions of different engines during the same time period
@@What.its.like. I'm sure you will come up with something Jay. A couple of interesting thoughts for the future might be the exquisite DOHC Duesenberg engines and perhaps the T-valve configuration like used by Mercer. J. Leno has a Runabout and briefly described the engine recently.
I would go for the Van and the Puma--the van for practicality and the Puma for mid-life crisis.
I found out about the puma a couple years ago and I couldn’t believe that I lived almost 30 years well 30 years at that point without knowing that that car exist.. it would’ve been absolutely epic with vw air cooled six
Tuff choice jay I love the vans with the whole surfer vibe and then I guess I’d take a puma as I’ve never seen one before, what about the 1600 cc fuel injected bugs of the mid to late 70’s what was their horse power rating
I’m not 100% sure I didn’t get into any of that because the information is very conflicting evidently they made 2000cc engine as well i’m not sure if we got that here doing foreign cars is a lot harder than doing the cars that were made here because information was really hard to get on some of those engines.. and they made millions of them so you would think that that information would be out there but it’s a lot harder to get then some really hard cars here it’s weird
Good video, my preference would be a karman Gia never had one of those but thought they look pretty sporty. Back in the late 70s early 80s I got a couple of friends together and we built some 1600 vw bugs to lift the front wheels and pass the quarter mile in high 9s
Awesome memories =) thank you so much for sharing those
I had a Karman Ghia they’re pretty cool I wouldn’t say it’s not a fast car by any stretch of the imagination especially after owning a Mustang and then going to that.. lol
Oh, Beetles could be made to run, but Jay was talking about pure stock engines here. The engines were surprisingly tough, and they could definitely run well if they were modified for the drag strip. In later years, people started putting Subaru engines in Beetles, and they could really run too. The biggest thing to do with original Beetles to make them last was to change the oil every 1,500 miles. Beetles had no external oil filters. They had metal screens that had to be cleaned regularly. Heat also degraded the old types of oil fairly rapidly.
hey brother awesome video, just a note the Puma was not a Volkswagen, was (and still is) a Brazilian brand, it did used the Volkswagen Fusca engine BUT it was not sold or endorsed by Volkswagen, the car to compete with that was the SP2 and the VW TL (Brasilia variant TL)
Awesome information =)
Puma is a kit car sort of like the Bradly GT
Over the years I have owned several old VW'S . The one that I love the most is my 1959 beetle that my grandpa bought brand new in February 1959. Right herein Texarkana Texas. It's by no means an all numbers matching show car, it does have a stock 36 hp. engine that will cruise comfortably all day long at a whopping 65 mph, it will go a little faster but I Don't like to push it. Hopefully I can keep it forever. A few years ago I had a super rare 61 Karmann Ghia. This young man made me an offer I just couldn't refuse. I already knew most of the things you talked about, but It was very interesting.
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with these cars =)
@@What.its.like. Your welcome my friend.
ARGH! NIGHTMARES! I have worked on so many air-cooled VW's in my life that I think(or hope) that I have developed an allergy to them.
I bought my '68 VW Beetle in 1978 for my mother the drive back and forth to work. That she was able to keep her gas hog parked. She loved the Beetle so much that she drove it most of the time. I had started working at a Porsche /VW specialty shop and felt that I could do no wrong. I had rebuilt the original 1500 into a 1650.
The problems came when I would take it to the mountains to go snow skiing. Ofcourse I drove it floored going uphill in the fast areas at 50mph(the stock bugs were lucky to be able to go 35-40). On flat ground, I almost had the needle on the 80 mph speedometer back to zero again. On one trip down the mountain, with 2 friends in the car, I was chasing a Corvette down the hill, and keeping up. Problem was, The brake pedal was as hard as a rock and I was barely able to stop the car where the road leveled out. So, before the next trip the car got front disc brakes. The calipers were the 2-pin kind you would find on a Type III VW. Never had a stopping problem again and never wore out the brake pads.
Well, after having to repair the engine several time and breaking the transmission a couple of times, I pretty much stopped driving the Beetle. For the next engine, I was tired of working on it, so I pulled the engine and took it to a VW specialty shop. I went to 1600 cc's at that time. Down the road, an out of town mechanic messed up the engine, so I went and got the car and towed it home. Still tired of working on VW's, I bought an engine which was built with all-new parts and came with a warranty, 1600cc's, ofcourse. Never had another problem and I was grateful when my mom sold it years later.
Now, Karman Ghia's. I can't wait till you do a video of one. I am especially anxious to see you try, and I mean try, to get into the back seat. I'm definitely not as tall as you are, with about the same girth, and I don't fit. I tried it once when I was in middle school and, never again! lol I don't fit into the backseat of a Porsche 911/912 either! I'm sure you probably outgrew your '73 Ghia. That was a great year model to have, still is. I've worked on those and others with the 2180cc engine. Talkin' about fun to drive!
Hahaha yeah
Thank you so much for taking the time to share some of the memories with us I really enjoyed reading this =)
My Karman Ghia did not have a backseat but I’ve been back in the backseat of one it’s very tight I think Metropolitan has more space I’m not sure if I could fit back there now because I was smaller back then
@@What.its.like. Weren't we all? But, still it would be funny watching you do a Karman Ghia feature an trying to get in the back seat. A cheapskate buddy I grew up with took the back seat out of his VW Beetle so that only one other person could ever ride with him. Another friend of mine worked at a Mercedes dealership and one day he saw Shaquille O'Neal's Mercedes coupe in the shop. He had no front driver's seat and sat in the back seat to drive! lol
My dad also had Ghia❤ dad and grandpa was having sevrral beetles and singl cab bus, and furgon bus
Awesome =)
That picture of the 1500 cc car is : OF THE '67 model...... because of the headlights.......notice~
Ahead of it's time in resilience but, so so simple...
I'll take the bus with 21 windows, sell it and buy two nice Ghias. You didn't do any of the "suitcase" variants; another video? Out of the second lot, the Puma- I have lusted for one of those since the '70s.
I thought that very early Volkswagens brought into USA as early as 1950 only had 998 cc. engines
Reminds me of Palisades Park by Freddy Can Can Cannon.
It’s very similar to that song but it’s not that song or band very good guess though it’s all along those lines
I'm sure this engine would've made more power if it had a higher compression ratio but, reliability and cooling would likely have been a problem.
My '68 beetle with 1500 engine was so prone to failures that I became very accomplished at pulling the engine out of the car for major repair or rebuild. Could do it by myself in about 45 minutes with just common tools and a floor jack.
The magnesium/aluminum alloy block wasn't capable of much horsepower improvement without self destructing. Increase compression ratio and/or install a performance camshaft and carb/intake arrangement, and you could end up pulling the head bolts right out of the block. I know this from personal experience, in my case on the 2nd day of my honeymoon. The large thermal range that these engines had to tolerate was also a bit tough on them. Oh, and the placement of the oil cooler deprived the #3 cylinder of cooling airflow compared to the other cylinders. Mine dropped a valve in #3 one time when I went straight into a long grade from a cold engine start, the thermal stresses on the valve were just more than it could take.
I don't miss that car at all. It was inherently unsafe, especially if you had the misfortune of being in a frontal collision. Given its small displacement and marginal power, its fuel economy was very poor. Its cabin couldn't be adequately heated or ventilated in cold weather. Its design should have been retired by the mid 1960s, by then it had already exceeded its "sell by" date. Only a short time later, cars like the Datsun 240Z were becoming available.
Thank you so much for sharing this information and insight =)
Can we use 1200 cc body into 1300 cc
I am reasonably familiar with air-cooled VW engines. I worked at a Volkswagen/Volvo dealership for 7 years in the mid 1970's to the early 1980's. The V.W. Bug was a very well designed, entry-level car from the 1930's. That sums it up. I had no love for them as automobiles. Beetles were hard-riding, slow and very noisy. They made a metallic, clattering noise when they accelerated that could be quite obnoxious. In the later years of V.W. air-cooled cars, V.W. tried to update them with fuel injection, but they made a big error when they did so. V.W. used rubber fuel lines on those hot running engines. As time went by, the rubber lines hardened and cracked. Gas would leak out and fall on the hot exhaust manifolds where it would catch fire. The cars were usually total losses when this happened.
Thank you so much for sharing all of that information and insight really appreciate it.
@@What.its.like. The Karmann Ghias were nice looking cars, but they were not much good in a demolition derby. Those little bumpers were mostly for looks. :>)
0:36 Weren't the cylinders themselves and the cooling fins that surrounded them, magnesium? I've heard that each could be replaced individually.
The crankcase cases were magnesium--the cylinders were iron--the heads were aluminum (or aluminium, if you prefer). Yes, the cylinders could be replaced individually. (Later, the cases were a magnesium/aluminum alloy called Electron.)
My first car was a 1958 Bug that had the 1200 cc/36 BHP engine...
Sweet what did you like the most about it
As a guy, we always hold our first car near to the heart. I liked that it was the same age as me and it was easy to work on...the perfect 1st car. Just wish the headlights were better designed - that the springs didn't pop out so easy. Had a '69 1500 in it when I sold it to a coworker. Now they are BIG bucks!@@What.its.like.
How long did you keep it I wish I still had my first car I wish I still had my second car was second car was better than my first car but my first car had a lot of sentimental value because my best friend gave it to me and he died three days before I got my drivers license..
which was all I ever thought about.. grandpa is my best friend there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think I am even though I’ve lived a whole Other lifetime without him..
One day I wanna buy that car and do a nostalgia episode with it.. not sure when that will be
These engines were cheap and reliable, but gutless wonders. Had a 1969 Fiat 124 Sports Coupe with a 1438cc engine, budy had a 72 Beetle. If we wanted to go somewhere where we needed to get there in the same decade we used the Fiat. Sorry, the Fiat had much more power and didn't have issues. Ran the Fiat till the car rusted out to the point of not being road-safe.
Great story thank you so much for sharing those memories one day I wanna have a drag race versus all of the really slow cars yugo vw puma vw beetle fiat 124 amount other slow cars
@@What.its.like. You were thinking of the 124 sedan, they had a 1438cc overhead valve engine that was rated somewhere around 75hp, which I think was somewhat overrated. Now the 124 Coupe and Spyder had a DOHC 1438cc engine which was rated at 96hp, they would hit the TON without complaint. About the only thing in common with the 124 sedan and the Coupe was bore and stroke. Worked with a guy that had a Yugo that would shit and get it, had an ABARTH kitted X-19, as the Yugo was a Fiat 127 with a 128 engine and transmission. The X-19 was a bored out 128 engine to 1500cc. The Abarth kit, had a modified crank with a 70 or 80mm stroker kit, Fiat was cool in they kept the same bearing sizes and basic crankshaft spacing on their engines, the SOHC 1100 thru 1500 and then the DOHC 1438 thru the 1998cc engines. The larger DOHC engines you would have to really modify the block for clearances and the stroke just was not happy to turn those high speeds. That Yugo ran like a scalded dog, but it was far from stock also.
The bus with all the windows of course. Sell it and get rich 😃
Sweet choice
I think your engine sizing is a little off. You don't increase displacement and go down in liters.
The other big user of aircooled engines was the french carmaker Citroen.Their last aircooled engine the 1300cc GS was an OHC design producing 65 bhp,more than VW,when production ended in 1988.
Awesome information =)
I owned a Citroen GSA, fantastic car with the legendary suspension from the DS. The flat four engine was placed in the front of the car.
You don't "bore" these engines. You change cyls and piston. WYR 1? Bus WWR? 2 55 Ghia. The air cooled industrial engine continued through 2006 - early 2007. I worked in a VW dealership -68-69, then went into army. Had my own shop when I got out. Early 70's? You could buy a complete factory direct engine for about 400, dollars, included everything, carb, distributor, clutch and pressure plate, generator all the tin - everything. Just add oil. I used to charge 3 hours labor - in-out take core to VW dealer. #hours and I was the most expensive on the block at a rousing 12.50 an hour. And - - those engines came with a 1 year warranty. That said I rebuilt a lot also. Worse problem? #3 cylinder vale would burn. When I did valve work, Stellite seats, sodium filled exhaust valves. Lower ends if oil was changed regularly? 75,00 to 100,000 miles. The cases were magnesium later they used 4% aluminum added for machineability. later "aluminium" (actually 4%) cases (with AS21 or AS41 cast into the sides) make a much better case for rebuilding.
I saw it presented different ways I only said Bore once and then changed that term to increased piston size that was term used and conflicted between sources used
Thank you fir the clarification great choices
I have a 1.6 vw engine with upgraded parts its been awhile since ive looked at it but ik it makes 90hp
They changed the way horsepower is rated in the 70s.. which is weird
Only after giving them canister oil filtration and larger oil coolers did I have more confidence in them. I couldn't stand to see all that junk on the bottom plate at oil changes! You could then use synthetic extended drain oils and know you were helping things run cooler and for longer.
1963 VW Bus. 67 Karman Ghia
Sweet choices =)
Now we drive around in 2.4 L 😅
I was a VW enthusiast in the 70’s my first two cars were VW’s , with as many modifications as my gas jockey budget could allow , but I have never heard of the Volkswagen Puma ????. I have to find out more about this car , ….Siri …..tell me about ……😀
Puma was a kit car much like the Bradley GT..
The stock VW engine block is cast magnesium, not cast aluminum. Many aftermarket engine blocks are cast aluminum and are larger with more room to incorporate larger piston barrels (jugs) up to 94 mm, and longer stroke cranks (up to 86 mm with clearancing and without interfering with the camshaft).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_air-cooled_engine
@@What.its.like. The article states exactly what I said, the stock VW engine block is a cast magnesium alloy, not aluminum, which you stated in the video. If you ever owned a VW which had a fire in the engine compartment, like I have, you'd understand the difference. Magnesium is highly combustible and difficult to extinguish. However it's lighter than aluminum, which is why it was used in VWs.
The aluminum aftermarket cases which are stronger, heavier and slightly larger allow for a tremendous increase in power over any stock VW including the 914, which used a Type 4 engine that was developed together with Porsche. These aftermarket cases can be built to over 2.3 liters of displacement vs the stock Type 1 1600, and can achieve over 300 HP with forced induction.
Thank you for the correction i’m dyslexic sometimes I have to slow down and read what’s actually there cast aluminum pistons..
I'd rather have a KG on both sides. I've had Beetles and busses before. Now something a bit sportier will do for me.
Karman Ghia was the only Volkswagen product I’ve ever owned.. I have a friend who is a diehard Volkswagen fan he’s had Passats he’s had GTI‘s.. karman Ghia is cool, The only thing is people that don’t know that car and they see a Volkswagen badge on it they have no idea what it is..
And we all referred to the cylinder piston sets as "Jugs"
I thought so..
karman Ghia or vw fastback as very few around
I should have included the fast back instead of a puma
40 HP is the best one
.....so many nice stories in the comment section. . . .
I know, I don’t understand why some channels hate the comment section. I love reading the stories =)
Bus all day!!
Sweet =)
I'll take the '67 Ghia (the model I had in cabriolet form) with the 1500 cc engine and 53 HP WITHOUT antipollution devices that appeared with the '68 model (at least in the USA).
NOTE: 1100 cc = 1.1 L; 1200 cc = 1.2 L; 13cc = 1.3 L, not 1.5L as indicated in the specifications graphic.
Yeah that was a typo thank you for catching that =)
0:29 Pistons will go "up and down" no matter how they happen to be arranged. That's why they're called pistons.
.
the buss
Block is Magnesium.
The later blocks used magnesium
I will take the VW bus. The second on is the puma. Have you done a video on VW PUMA
I haven’t done a Volkswagen puma I haven’t done any Volkswagen for the channel so far that I can remember..
It’s ironic you asked that because I did have a clip where I was asking people if they had one in the comment section but I took it out of the final I’ve been looking for a decent one to do I think that car would’ve done better with Volkswagen made an air cooled six
Puma was it's own company, they used some VW components but the car was not a VW brand...@@What.its.like.
I didn’t think they were part of volts wagon but it was listed as volts wagon puma which I thought was weird because I thought it was a cat car personally similar to like the Bradley GT
'66 VW Karmin Ghia
Sweet =)
I've owned 2 Beetles, the 1st one back in '83, till 85, the 2nd one , from '86-'87. Made the 1st one into a Baja Bug, had the old single carb 1500cc, it was a '67 Bug, the 2nd one was a '74 Super Beetle, with a 1600cc dual carbs..... my opinion> THEY BOTH SUCKED! Whenever you had to remove something, something else had to come off, to get to that 1st item off. I also bought a '78 VW Rabbit, with a 1.6? I think,, water cooled inline 4,,,,,, much BETTER!~
Oh. I thought you'd carry on with 1679,1785 and 1970cc.
I have a 1968 bug
Sweet how do you like it
I love it I've had it for 18 years
2:42: Where on earth are you getting 4 main bearings from? In the cutout, you can clearly see there are THREE main bearings, as there are in most flat-4 engines. Do you even know what a main bearing is? (Hint: They are #11 on the graphic, called "Aravores de manivelas"). And could you explain how you space out 4 of them out on a flat-4?
www.conceptcarz.com/s22427/volkswagen-beetle-1200.aspx
www.carfolio.com/volkswagen-1600-l-78320
Hint I’ve read a lot of people miss the fourth one
@@What.its.like. So, you are calling the 'rear crankshaft bearing' a "MAIN" bearing? Since it does not support the compression and power output of the pistons, it is NOT a "main" bearing. Just by size alone, you should know this. In essentially EVERY engine built since the Model T (and probably even before..) all MAIN bearings are of similar size, spaced at regular intervals to equally support the compression/power load. Since the 1950's, ALL flat and V- 4's have 3, inline 4's have 5, flat and V-6's have 4, inline 6's have 7, v-8's have 5. Flat 8's are obsolete, but come from a time when fewer main bearings were used, when inline 8's often had 5, and inline 6's had 4...
@@alexclement7221 those two sources say four mains it’s conflicting information. Everybody tells you something different…
This shows for main bearings when buying Volkswagen main bearing kit… the reason the fourth one isn’t as big as the rest of them as because of German engineering..
vwparts.aircooled.net/1200-1600cc-Main-Bearings-Set-Standard-Case-KS-p/t1-main-bearings-std-case-ks.htm
Ps not all V8 have 5 ford flathead V8 had 3.. not all in-line sixes have seven some have four.. Cadillac v16 used 5… some in-line 8s had nine mains
beetle hands down
Sweet choice
Porsche 914/4 (1700cc)
It's not a boxster layout engine. It's boxer. This is the same layout as the most of the BMW and Zundapp motorcycles.
.
Beach Boys -- Help Me Rhonda ?
Great yes but no it’s on the same lines as the last two songs and it might be from The Beach Boys..
Rather have a 53 Corvette Blue Flame Six.
=)
'55 VW Beetle
Sweet =)
WYR. Neither. I would take a mid 1950 Nash American. A cousin was a EMT and had too many sad stories with air cooled VW’s in crashes
I too would take a Nash over anything Volkswagen made and I never owned a Nash product but they’re very intriguing
1:40 I'm pretty sure 1131cc do not amount to 1.5 liters!
Typo 1.1 liters
The case is magnesium, not aluminum
Thank you for that correction
Boxer not ‘Boxster’.
That was a stutter I should’ve fixed it
0:80: Umm.....the 'block' casing is cast MAGNESIUM, not aluminum...
Both were used
www.enginebuildermag.com/2021/09/building-air-cooled-vw-engines/#:~:text=The%20Volkswagen%20air%2Dcooled%20engine,steel%20crankshaft%20and%20connecting%20rods.
Wait what…1.5 L is smaller than 1.2? Hmmm. Vee et Schtootgart het nawzing to do mit ziss.
.
Please pronounce Porsche correctly, the e on the end is pronounced.
I don’t say Porsch-A because everybody that says it that way sounds like a douche.. different ways of saying things
I say it just like Leno says it
It never ceases to amaze me how wrapped up people get with pronunciations.. just saying
@@What.its.like. - Alan “the douche” Harper insists that it be pronounced correctly !! Porsch-ah
There was too a 1700cc ;)