Aircooled VW South Africa

Last year, I fitted a recon engine from Vee motors Petrus during his tenure with another master.

The car ran fine but developed some incontinence problems. It would leave a puddle everywhere it was parked.

When I bought him back, the mess under my carport became to much of an eyesore and, as the engine was still under warranty, I took it in to have the oil leaks attended to.

They tightened the casing bolts and oil pump cover bolts, but on the trip to Greytown the oil leaks re-appeared. So back to them Petrus went.

This time it was diagnosed that the leak is on the casing halves and these have to be re sealed. Still under warranty, the car went back to them for open heart surgery.

I got the car back with a broken left seat, a broken oil pressure sender unit (R600 replacement cost) and no oil pressure after the trip from JHB to Centurion.

Their advise:" Add some Wynn's Charge to pick up the oil pressure"

And now for the final straw.

Last week Petrus started to run unevenly.

I checked compression. About 800kPa on all cylinders. It misses on no 3 cylinder
I replaced the plugs. It misses on no 3 cylinder.
I replaced the plug leads. It misses on no 3 cylinder.
I replaced the distributor cap. It misses in no 3 cylinder.

Finally I pulled out Volkswagen Service Manual VW 1300 1500 (thanks again Fig) and check the valve clearance (0.1mm on a cold engine). No 3 cylinder has no clearance on neither the inlet nor exhaust valve.

So now I have a burnt valve after 600 km of the last surgery.

The guys at Vee Motors have no problem. "Get the car to us and we will sort it out."

So now I have to hire a trailer (R400 per day), tow the car through, lose half a day out of the shop and hope I have a reliable car when I get him back.

So far the cost of non conformance and not doing it right the first time, has cost me more than R2000 and 8 hours out of the shop.

Enough to get really cheesed off and totally unnecessary.

That money should rather have gone towards a rear disc brake conversion..............

That's a bummer Johann.

I've had similar experiences with Vee Motors rebuilds. However, as mass engine builders go, they're the best of a bad lot. I will never again buy an exchange engine from a mass rebuilder (I think Remtec and Vee are the only ones left); they simply cut too many corners. Nowadays I rather have my engines built for me by a quality engine builder. It costs more, but it's cheaper in the long run.

As a rule of thumb, if you pay less than R8k to rebuild a Type 1 ACVW engine, then you can be certain the job was not done properly.

That is why I like to build my own engines then at least I know what went in and that it was done properly and if there is anything wrong I only have myself to blame

Yes Fig, I agree. As a mass rebuilder, they are definitely the best of the lot.

And I have to state that they have never tried to weasel out of their warranty agreements.

It just sucks when your "stress relief device" turns out to become the source of the stress.

Remtec do their work in S.A. but they only were prepared to supply the now kaput Beetle Buddies.

One day, when I am all grown up and have a real job, I'll build that dream engine.....

jmvv wrote:Y
One day, when I am all grown up and have a real job, I'll build that dream engine.....

You have the best job ever! Playing with cars the whole day! Some of us would love to be in that position

i had a sim prob i had sump compression and the guy wanted to rip me off then i desided to do it myself pay what he have done and then strip the engine my self took itto engineering works, to next size done the head and refit it al my self. it last 50k km until i sold it. So it worthwhile doing it ur self. If u know what to do.

One thing I have learnt, is that there is no one better to work on your ride than YOU, learn as you go (school fees) if something goes wrong (only yourself to blame), you learn from it.
I was forced to go this route because I had no money to pay someone to do it, even now that I may have a little spare to keep the passion alive, I still do it myself, only problem now is I don't have much time but I try and make time.