1960 VW Beetle - Bagged

Jason hope that doesn't hold in the heat (paint)

Has that been a problem?

I clearanced the case for my crank. I have just the crank and rods installed in the case with one cylinder and piston mounted in preparation to check the deck height measurement. I ordered the tool and it should be at the house when I get home today.

I installed the tool and measured the deck height this morning. The current measurement is .9mm.
Bore: 90.5mm
Stroke: 69mm
Deck Height: .9mm
Combustion Chamber: 55cc
That makes the compression ratio 8.3 unmodified. If I put a 1mm spacer it brings the compression ratio down to 7.6. If I as a 2mm spacer it will bring the compression down to 7. Not sure what I am going to do until I understand the implications.


Here everything is set ready to put the case halves together.


After I got the case halves together and torqued down I found the crank would not turn all the way around. I pulled it back apart and found the oil slinger bent which was binding on the inside of the case. I must have done that while moving the assembled crank around and did not notice. I'll fix it sometime later this week and put the case back together.

EngineerTEN wrote:Here everything is set ready to put the case halves together.

Man this picture makes me want to give engine building a try. Looks great!

From Gene Berg:


Engine Recommendations » Engine Recommendations - Technical Information


We originally intended to provide a chart of engine combinations to guide you in achieving the performance you'd like, within your budget. This sounds as though it would be very easy to suggest engine part combinations. However, on reviewing our research data, it became obvious that it was beyond practicality to combine that much (hundreds of combinations) information into the limited number of pages in this catalog.
One thing was very apparent; everything changes from day to day and year to year. Yesterday's combinations do not work with today's gas and so on!

Street engines, which must be depended on, for daily transportation have to be built conservatively. We specialize in this area as 99% of our R&D goes toward daily driven cars. We have more information and reliable combinations than all other companies put together.

We know how to provide more all around power and what will live longer. The developments of our cranks together with good quality pistons and cylinders have created extremely reliable lower ends.

Strokes of 69 to 78mm with VW rods, 82 to 86mm Porsche journals with up to 5.550" long Carrillo (or our modified Bugpack rods) provide far better than the stock VW life. Sedans can use our 88 or 90.5mm cylinders with stock 69mm or all of our longer strokes through 86mm. Type III engines or busses achieve the best life with 88mm cylinders. Using the 90.5's will work, however will shorten the life slightly and run a couple degrees hotter than normal.

Our engine combinations, with all of the correct components and up to 86mm stroke, provide well over 100,000 miles without looking at the lower end. Some existing engines now have as many as 260,000 total miles on the same case, bearings and rings. If you are unclear you can look at the engine kits in the back section of the catalog as a guide to what you may wish to do.

The more we tested, the more apparent it became that too high of a CR is the major source of the heat in the heads that causes failures. We found the volumetric efficiency of the engine is also another large factor to life and power. When all parts and CR are correctly matched to the engine, so the volume of proper octane fuel and air is what the engine requires, the engine runs cooler, makes more power and lasts longer than the stock engine did.

For long life, we recommend conservative compression ratios, especially since pump gasoline quality has deteriorated so badly. GB 801-CR is mandatory reading.

We lowered the compression of our own 78 x 88-bus engine from 8.5:1 to 6.9:1. We leaned the Berg 42 special carbs two jet sizes, advanced the timing 4 extra degrees and got better performance. The engine ran over 50 degrees cooler, with 3-MPG improvement in economy. This engine had over 187,000 miles on it when sold and is still running years later.
Be clear that head/guide maintenance must be carried out at regular intervals as prescribed in our copyrighted instructions that come with our heads to prevent a valve from breaking.

Watch these vids, the guy(Brandon) that is putting the engine together has some tips that you may want to use.....

EngineerTEN wrote:I installed the tool and measured the deck height this morning. The current measurement is .9mm.
Bore: 90.5mm
Stroke: 69mm
Deck Height: .9mm
Combustion Chamber: 55cc
That makes the compression ratio 8.3 unmodified. If I put a 1mm spacer it brings the compression ratio down to 7.6. If I as a 2mm spacer it will bring the compression down to 7. Not sure what I am going to do until I understand the implications.

I decided to put in the .090" spacers. Totaled together with my .035" deck height it makes .125" deck height for a compression ratio of 6.9.

Been awhile so here is an update...

When putting the case halves together I pinched the small bearing that goes by the oil slinger. Got that replaced today and found that once I bolted the case together and torqued the 12mm studs to spec and the crank would not rotate the full duration. I pulled the cam out and torqued it down again and tried it and the crank turned freely. Then I reinstalled the cam without the lifters and everything turned free there as well. I put the lifters back in and inspected the cam as the lobe at peak cam in contact with the lifter. The lifter was seated fully. I'll be ordering the thinner footed lifters to resolve this issue.

Also - some goodies came in the mail this week.

isn't hot rodding fun

What size carbs did you go with? Are they Webers or Empis? Looks good man, can't wait to start on mine later this summer!

EMPI HPMX 44mm's

I received the performance lifters today. The stock lifter is on the left and the performance lifter is on the right. You can see that the foot on the performance lifter is about 1/2 as thick as the stock lifter. Since some performance cams have a higher lobe at peak, using a stock lifter can cause the cam not to turn. That is the issue that I had that was causing me so much frustration.


Stock lifter on the left, performance lifter on the right.


Stock lifter on the left, performance lifter on the right.


New lifters installed on the left half of the case.


This picture shows how close the cam lobe comes to the lifter. This is the performance lifter. I didn't get a picture of the stock lifter. However, with the stock lifter installed, the cam lobe came into contact with the lifter resulting in the cam as well as the crank not turning.


Everything installed ready to put the right half of the case on.


The short block is assembled, sealed and torqued to specification. I went ahead and installed oil plate for the universal hole, the dip stick and the oil filter. Everything is turning smoothly. I hope to find time tomorrow night to install the pistons, cylinders and heads.

Looking good and doing everything yourself gives peace of mind knowing it's done right. Not to mention how satisfying it is to be able to say you did it yourself.

Looks good. I know your glad to be back on track.

maybe you'll be done by bug-a-palooza looks awesome, cant wait till i can dig into my engine like that :Rockit:

aircooledaddicts wrote:Looks good. I know your glad to be back on track.

Yes - everything is going smooth now. I will say it requires a lot of patience and a commitment to doing it correct no matter how log it takes to do so.

59suicide wrote:maybe you'll be done by bug-a-palooza looks awesome, cant wait till i can dig into my engine like that :Rockit:

I'll probably have the engine done. However, I don't think I'll have my driver side door done. I haven't touched it in over 2 months.

March 21, 2009 - Got my long block mostly done this evening.

Looking good!

March 29, 2009 - I spent some time yesterday putting together the rocker assemblies and installing the oil plate. I went with the solid rocker shafts for the strength with the performance cam and high-rev valve springs. I also went with the chromolly push rods for the added strength with the high-rev valve springs.

March 31, 2008 - installed the cooling tin yesterday. The chrome aftermarket tin does not fit as well as OEM Volkswagen tin which is what I expected. Had to make small modifications to make the tin fit. I still need to fit the alternator and the oil cooler exhaust tin. Then I'll move on to fitting the carbs.

Looking great...also nice pictures to document the build.

lookin good

Man whats taking so long i wanna see the finished product jk Looks friggin awesome... makes me just want to pull my engine out and clean it up a bit