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Hello everyone,

I've been into Beetles for some time now. I love the way they drive, extremely easy to work on, very simple. They're just all around a great car to work on. I had a 74 super beetle that I was working on, but due to my work relocating me, I had to sell it. After getting settle into my new home, I went on craigslist to find another beetle to sink my time into. I came across this beauty. So after purchasing it, (test drove it around for 15 mins and was looking over it to see if there was anything majorly wrong with the vehicle) I started to drive it home. The guy I purchased it from lived about an hour and 15 mins away so to get back home, I had to drive on the highway. I told the owner this and he had told me that he has never driven it on the highway after the engine was rebuilt. (He bored it to 1835cc) This kind of made me a little uncomfortable, but I had just bought it and needed to get it home so I started on my way. I stopped at the nearest gas station and filled her up and off I went. Roughly 20 mins into the drive, the engine starts to sputter. I let my foot off the gas and that seemed to stop the engine from sputtering. So I didn't think anything of it at the time. So 5 mins after that, I notice when I give it throttle, it's not responding. I look in my rear view mirror, and its just spewing out white smoke. I'm coasting down the freeway and I get on the side of the road and park it. I open the trunk and all kinds of oil got spewed into engine compartment. I take the dipstick out to see if it still had oil, and boy did it have some in there. I burned my hand on the dipstick just trying to get it out. So after i've blabbed on about this story, my engine doesn't work. I took the engine out and when I get more time, I'm going to take the engine apart and see what needs to be replaced to get it up and going again. I plan on putting a EJ25 in it in the near future. I don't plan on putting this engine back into the car.

I created this forum for the fact that I'm going to have tons of questions about this build. I have done all the research that I think I possibly can. I believe that I can tackle this build with a little bit of help along the way.

Looking forward to talking to everyone and being part of this community.

Swapping in a Suby is a BIG project - don't underestimate the work involved! For sure, it'll be worth it in the end but you'll be minimum of months, likely years before you're enjoying driving tour Bug again! Why not correct the Bug engine problems and run it while you collect all the odds and ends for the Suby swap? For starters, getting rid of that external "hot-rod" oil cooler and re-installing an original in-shroud cooler would be a real good idea. Add the cooling flaps and thermostat control while you're at it. If compression is good, do the standard maintenance and get it running properly. Unless the compression is too high, it should run great with the added displacement - even without all the usual additional performance modifications done with a big-bore VW build (big valve heads, CW crank, 120 cam, etc). That said, if it's a poor quality rebuild it may not be worth wasting time and money on? You'd only know that if the compression is low, oil pressure is weak, if it hasn't bee rebuilt at all? Any receipts come with the engine work?

When I get time, the goal is to take the engine apart and find what's wrong with it. My fear is there is a crack on the head/case. The engine turns over. But i hear a loud pop and smoke coming from the left side of the engine (smoke not coming from the exhaust). So if there is something expensive wrong with it, I would rather put the money towards a subie swap than replace the engine. Unfortunately, I didn't receive any receipts with the engine work. All he told me that he had it bored. And by judging by the color of that oil cooler, it got pretty dang hot lol

Well you'll find out what's what when you tear into it. You don't "bore" VW cylinders for larger pistons - especially 92mm's. That's remove and replace with the big-bore P&C's. That requires boring the case and heads to match the bigger cylinder OD for 92's, for 1835cc. Might try to do some more "exploratory" checking first, checking spark plugs, valve lash - all the standard stuff first? Might just need some seals replaced and be good to go?