VW Engines

Though I have owned VW's starting with 1966 when I bought a 1965 Seablue VW bug and in 1969 bought a 1966 seablue bug when my 1968 Camaro though incredibly fast and quick and cornered like a sports car does ate through gas faster than I wanted to at that time.(However, I kept the 1968 Camaro until 1978. I just didn't drive it long distances) So, I bought my second bug which took me about 130,000 miles in the 5 years I owned it. I still consider my 1966 bug the most comfortable car than I have ever traveled long distance in because I'm 6 feet 4 1/2 inches tall. Though nowadays I'm not only tall I'm also wider than I was then now at age 61 so I'm not so sure about that statement if I drove today. Also, I pretty much drive only with my cruise control if I'm on the freeway or hiway now since my Lexus has the easiest cruise control to use effectively that I have ever seen and because my right foot is kind of worn out from millions of miles of driving since I was about 12.

Also, my Dad had a Westfalia 1964 VW camper van and I owned with my second wife a 1971 VW Westfalia Camper van that we called "FIG" because it was part of the license plate.

Anyway, my 20 year old daughter who lives in Oregon now showed up with her 24 year old boyfriend in his 1970 VW Westfalia Van. He couldn't figure out what was wrong with the oil pressure and did every diagnostic that he or I or the local VW mechanics could think of. Finally, after much work he found metal filings in the crankcase which meant the main bearings were gone. It turned out that the 200 dollars he had spent in Colorado to put new main bearings in had been a little too oversize in its tolerance and had made it safely to Oregon and down to where I live on the Northern California coast but that was the end of the engine completely.

So, even though my wife and I enjoyed having them visit the extra time eventually they were going to have to get back up to Oregon to return to their home and work and making a living.

So, we decided to buy them a new engine and at first he thought he would get one from Brazil. After much research on the internet and phone he found two companies in California that manufacture new VW type engines. He's on his way to pick up one of the kits today with my daughter. He could either wait 2 months for one to be totally built for him or he could wait 1 week for all the parts to be machined for him. So he customized what he wanted and this way since it is a new engine and since he intends to keep his 1970 VW Westfalia Van the rest of his life because he is a car guy after all, he will rebuild the new engine 1, 2 or 3 times over the future years as it gets to 70,000 to 90,000 miles on it. (Since VW's run at a very high rpm they usually need looking after starting about 70,000 miles. Also, these engines need the valves adjusted about every 3,000 to 6,000 miles unless that feature has been modified somehow on these new vw replacement clone type engines.

So we will see over the next week or so how well all this has worked out for everyone.