How to Rebuild Your Volkswagen Air-Cooled Engine: How to Troubleshoot, Remove, Tear Down, Inspect, Assemble & Install Your Bug, Bus, Karmann Ghia, Thi

by Tom Wilson

Book Overview

Learn how to rebuild a Volkswagen air-cooled engine This guide will teach the reader how to troubleshoot, remove, tear down, inspect, assemble, and install Bug, Bus, Karmann Ghia, Thing, Type-3, Type-4, and Porsche 914 engines. All models from 1961 on up are included.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0895862255
• ISBN13: 9780895862259
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 178 Pages
• Weight: 0.99 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.0" x 10.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Must-Read for any VW owner!

As an FAA-certified Airframe and Powerplant mechanic, I can say with some authority that this is one of the best tech books ever published. No fluff, incredibly informative and very "user friendly", this one needs to be on every VW and Formula Vee owner's bookshelf.

An excellent choice for your first or tenth VW rebuild

I've read and have most VW repair books and this one is on the top bracket of quality and easy understanding for the guy (or gal) who is working in an aircooled VW motor rebuild or even simple adjustment of valves. It has all the information you may need for a standard motor rebuild, however if you are planning on supping up or hotroding your motor you will find information on that part to me minimal or nonexistent. All motor work is covered with special sections added to each part in order to cover the type 4 engines, which are not even mentioned in most other handbooks. Step by step procedures and alerts that will make you avoid time consuming mistakes in the assembly of the engine are very well detailed in the important parts where they are needed. An excellent choice for engine repair, it does not cover tune-up procedures that are out from the basic set-up of the engine. A worthy addition to any ones library on VW repair.

Professional Grade Advice

Tom Wilson's book brings the mystique of engine rebuilding down to a level that your average backyard mechanic can understand. It is as easy to use as John Muir's book when is comes to rebuilding a VW engine. It does not take hundreds of hours to do nor does it take thousand of dollars. Rebuild kits with cylinders, pistons, etc are relatively cheap and, if these parts are servicable, a gasket kit and rings will be well under a hundred dollars. I rebuilt my engine for about three hundred dollars and it runs like a charm. It took one week to do part time; about twenty hours. Little in the way of specialized equipment is needed. Machining, if needed, is usually minimal and not costly. I only have the usual range of socket wrenches and stuff and no specialized equipment. Muir's book even tells you how to make inexpensive substitutes that work excedingly well. Wilson's book cuts to the chase and tells you what you need to know. If you have an average level of mechanical ability you can do this.

Great Engine Rebuilding Book

If you are planning on rebuilding your VW or Porsche 914 engine, or are even just curious about what's involved, then this is the book for you. The book is broken down into several excellent sections: engine removal, teardown, parts interchange, reconditioning, assembly, and burnin. Detailed B & W photos document every step involved. This is by far one of the best how-to books out there, and is almost all you need to rebuild your engine (factory manuals would help to supplement the book too).... it's a great buy, and definitely worth purchasing even if you're not going to rebuild your motor, but want to know what's involved, or why your mechanic is charging you so much. I'm currently writing a similar book on rebuilding the Porsche 911 engine, and I'm modeling it after this one.

The definitive guide to rebuilding your air-cooled VW engine.

Unlike the other two canonical manuals for air-cooled VWs (The official Bentley Shop Manual and the John Muir Compleat Idiot Guide), this one focuses on removing, rebuilding, and reinstalling the engine. It describes rebuilding procedures more clearly and in more detail, and feels more "current" than the other manuals. If you are contemplating a rebuild of your bug, bus, early vanagon, porsche 914, squareback or other air-cooled VW engine, this inexpensive manual will easily pay for itself by reducing the amount of time you spend puzzling over procedures and improving your chances for a successful, high-quality rebuild. The only complaint I have is that color pictures would be nice, but would undoubtedly raise the price