Hey! cool, another teener owner.

you should come say hi at ClubNarp.com

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Brer
San Diego, Ca.

81' 300D
73' Porsche 914
99' Subaru Outback

Or if you've got worn rings.

These engines have the worst exhaust manifold studs ever. I think they're specified torque is like 9 ft. lbs.

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-justin

1987 300TD, 1987 300TD
2008 R32, 2000 Passat Wagon

9ft. lbs is fine, especially in a 914 where the weight of the exhaust hangs off of the transmission. Some try to install them in bugs and busses without supporting the exhaust system and they become very very sorry.


Intake bolts are 4lbs.

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Brer
San Diego, Ca.

81' 300D
73' Porsche 914
99' Subaru Outback

That is the factory engine in all VW buses from 1972-1979 and the Vanagon from 1980-1982 (or 81?).

With such a low torque rating, these exhaust manifolds seem prone to leaking (rattling air-cooled engine), and when you've got hot exhaust blowing all over the cooling fins of your air-cooled head it can be a problem.

At least I had problems with my 79 bus when I installed a new engine.

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-justin

1987 300TD, 1987 300TD
2008 R32, 2000 Passat Wagon

the problem there goes deeper than the torque on the bolts. While the cold torque is 9lbs. the expansion that occurs in that area as the exhaust system expands tightens it up fine. Now if you decide to make tighter, for good measure you're going to screw it all up, which is what many people do.

When I was talking busses I was referring to busses that did not come with that motor. early ones. But even late bus owners try and get cute with custom exhausts that screw the heads up.

Combine poor engine assembly with someone who likes to drive their bus full speed up hills in 5th gear and you've got the recipe for a bad reputation, which is what the type 4 has.

What the factory never told anyone was that the type 4 needs RPM to stay cool. Lugging the engine and cruising under 3k on the freeway will crack the heads quicker than you can say "what's wrong with my bus?".

I love the type 4.

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Brer
San Diego, Ca.

81' 300D
73' Porsche 914
99' Subaru Outback

"The season had been over for a month, but if you believed the back of his jersey, he was Tony Armas, right fielder for the Oakland A's. "Check it out!" he said to his buddy, who was wearing leggings and a ballcap too. "Porsche!" The two of them, ten or eleven at the oldest, glory-bound without a doubtfor the Big Leagues, had just walked by the show windows of three car dealers in a row ("The 83's Are Here!") without slowing even a step, but they catch one look at a '75 Porsche 914 parked out on the street, a virtual damn Volkswagen with a five-speed gearbox slapped onto it and a body that looks like a Karmann Ghia somebody's worked over with the flat side of an axe, and they're pumped up enough about it to stop and smudge the windows with their noses, checking out the tach and the steering wheel and the leather-covered gearshift knob with the enamel Porsche emblem on top. They get excited. They figure they're going to get one when they get old enough. It means something. to them.

New cars used to mean something. There used to be a big splash, new campaigns every fall, new slogans, new features. Sometimes there were even new models. All New cars represented the latest step in an evolutionary progression, like those anthropological illustrations that show Pithecanthropus Erectus eventually passing through Cro-Magnon Man and Neanderthal Man on his way toward becoming today's briefcase-wielding Business Man."

From DRIVE, THEY SAID
by Bart Bull, East Bay Express, December 1982

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

5th gear? Not on any bus or Vanagon I've seen.

All air-cooled engines (or is it just VW's) like high RPM's, not just the Type 4 engine.

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-justin

1987 300TD, 1987 300TD
2008 R32, 2000 Passat Wagon

I used to drive my beetle on the D.C. beltway, and it was all it could do to go 60 - 65 MPH. What I could hear over the wind noise sounded like a bunch of bolts bouncing around in an empty milk can, but it held together! Once I found out that with air cooled engines Max Speed == Cruising Speed, I quit babying it and it seemed to run a lot better. Oh yeah, the other thing I found out was that all those bits of tin and rubber that VW installed to keep air flowing properly around the cylinders and head were actually really important!

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1984 300TD

I hope you didn't learn that the hard way

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-justin

1987 300TD, 1987 300TD
2008 R32, 2000 Passat Wagon

Just shows you how long its been since i've had a bus! Basically I was talking "top" gear but if you want to pick nits... Cruising in a 5 all the time speed makes it the first thing to come to mind.

My last bus was a 67 Westy, and that was in 1991. My favorite was a 56' research vehicle imported from Africa, 36hp w/ crashbox and more weird stuff than you could shake a stick at. Buses and I have a long history, but that's California for you.

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Brer
San Diego, Ca.

81' 300D
73' Porsche 914
99' Subaru Outback

since we're talking VW's now, here's one thats been in our familyfor awhile.

60' deluxe sedan w/ the original 36hp.
It doesn't care about revs.

Attached Thumbnails

 

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Brer
San Diego, Ca.

81' 300D
73' Porsche 914
99' Subaru Outback

Damn that's a beaut.

Want to sell it??

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-justin

1987 300TD, 1987 300TD
2008 R32, 2000 Passat Wagon

the family would never forgive me. It was gifted to me awhile back but its still my mom's car. Besides, she still cruises it to the garden center.

Better that she drives instead of it sitting in storage somewhere. I have not a minute for it sadly, but the 914 is more my style anyway.

Is that your bus in the pic?



OH! I drove out to Santee tonight over a couple big hills and "Wednesday" the 300D (kelly calls her that) pulled up to nearly 80mph going uphill! I let off the gas and slowed to 55 and got back on it and she picked it back up to 80 after a minute or so. I swear, whatever burned out has definitely opened up some power or something.

I told my friend at the machine shop about it and he laughed and says-

"they always run best right before they blow up. "

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Brer
San Diego, Ca.

81' 300D
73' Porsche 914
99' Subaru Outback

That *was* my bus I too have had a 67 Westy like you, that was way back in 94 though.

I was kidding about selling the bug, something like that needs to stay in the family.

I've been trying to give my 87 the Italian tuneup but haven't had the balls to get it up to 4000rpm and leave it there for any length of time. I also need to find a good time when there aren't cars behind me

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-justin

1987 300TD, 1987 300TD
2008 R32, 2000 Passat Wagon

just wait until someone is tailgating.
good enough excuse as any.

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Brer
San Diego, Ca.

81' 300D
73' Porsche 914
99' Subaru Outback