1776 split bus motor (and redux boxes)

[Erik G]

A friend of mine is getting out of VW's and is parting/selling his bug with a 1776. He will trade me my 1500 S/p, and some car stereo gear for his 1776 with Dual Kads, big valve heads. and a cam (unknown)

I have driven his bug and it is balls out. the thing I don't know about is my stock tranny and redux boxes. My tranny is good, so I'm not ready to do the T3 tranny swap yet, I guess I am just curious as to what this is going to do to my bus and it's drivability. am I going to even need to use 1st gear?

[aircooledtechguy]

It will not feel as peppy in your bus since your bus is about 800# heavier. My 1776 scoots along just fine in my bus. The stock tranny and redux boxes will be just fine. Good Luck!!

[rimspoke]

( NOT MINE ) WHAT A RIDE ! SEAN HAS A TYPE 4 WITH AN UPRIGHT
FANSHROUD IN IT . 2.2 LITERS & DUAL WEBER 40's . I AM NOT SURE
ABOUT THE COMPRESSION OR CAM . STOCK TRANNY .
BELIEVE ME - FIRST GEAR IS NOT NEEDED IN THAT BUS . IT WILL CLIMB A STEEP GRADE IN 4th GEAR & IT FEELS LIKE THERE IS
ANOTHER VEHICLE PUSHING YOU FROM BEHIND !
MY CREWCAB HAS A 1776 WITH KADRONS . IT DOES NEED FIRST .
NEITHER BUS HAS REDUCTION BOXES .

[Eaallred]

I think the way that 1776 is set up, the low end wont be as good, seeing as it would be installed into a bus. For everyday driveability, I would stick with the motor you have (if it is in good shape)

[Erik G]

that's exactly what I was thinking eric. But I am not a newbie, and am now thinking about it along with adding a 74mm crankshaft. the motor now has about 10k miles on it, so It's probably better than my unknown T3 style 1500 with no seriel #'s. I even have an extra set of SP heads laying around if I need to de-tune it a bit.

Thanks for the advice guys

[Guest]

...I'd pull the 1776 apart and drop in a web 119....it makes a pretty nice pulling engine for a splitty.

..Gary

[Busguy71]

Hello- I'm new to this board, this is my first post. Got a question about running a 1776 in a bus- I've got about 10,000 miles on a GEX 1776 in my 71 westie, got a dipstick style oil temp sender with gauge and 1.5 quart sump. When the outside air temp is around 70, the bus will run around 220 degrees or less on the oil temp. If its 80+ the oil gets around 230+ which is nearing the high side of the gauge. A friend told me this could be because the motor has a Engle 110 cam in it, and its too much for the bus. Has anyone else had this experience with a punched out motor in a bus? I do a lot of highway driving with it (55-60mph) and I feel bad toasting that motor on nice summer days

[Eaallred]

There's someone around town here running a 110 cam in thier bus (1600DP) and is doing fine with it. But, it is a panel van, which weighs considerably less than a regular bus. Last I weighed my 64 delux, it tipped the scales at 3450lbs.(full interior). I heard someone with an empty panel weighed thiers in at a little over 2000lbs. HUGE difference.

With a regular full weight bus, I would stick with combo's that maintained the low end grunt. SP heads, either a webcam 86, or 111 cam, and run a single carb. If you are running dual kads, or other dual carbs, the 119 would work well.

You need torque to move these puppies, not HP.

[Guest]

Thanks for the info! I took my bus to the Litchfield Bug In in CT today, the oil temp gauge topped out at 245 I think its time to run a stock motor again.

[Pillow]

>GEX 1776 <

GEX for the most part builds low quality motors. Could be the issue.

Also a 1776 can run fine if properly setup. It is all in the details, timing, and compression.

What is the timing set at? And how did you measure it? Also what speed/RPM do you run to get it that hot?

My advice: slow down

[mez]

Last I weighed my 64 delux, it tipped the scales at 3450lbs.(full interior). I heard someone with an empty panel weighed thiers in at a little over 2000lbs. HUGE difference.

That leaves me a little confused. According to the 65 owner's manual, a panel is ~2350 with driver and a Kombi 2514 with seats and driver. A Microbus is listed as 2535 and that's presumably with seats and driver since the interior is very similar to the Kombi. What interior do you have adding an extra 1000 pounds over stock weight? Your 64 weighs more than a Bay (more than a Bay Westfalia, in fact - although I don't have that weight in front of me to check).

[Eaallred]

Same here mez,

All my bently manuals tell a different weight than what the state inspection weighed it as. It's bizzar, as I have nothing extra in the bus. My bus is a pig, and it has nothing extra in it. Sometimes I daydream about how much peppier my bus would be if it weighed a half ton less........

[type2guy (f the login)]

Yeah Eric, that did seem really heavy when you mentioned it in another post. At least compared to what I've seen elsewhere. Makes you wonder why they printed the weights like that....or what is going on with the scales you were at!!!!!

Maybe we should hit up vintagebus and see what they have to say about actual weight.

[mez]

well, I hope to be able to check on the weight (without all seats, though ) of a 64 and/or 65 bus in a couple of months for comparison
I just hope mine is closer to the weight listed in the manual

[Busguy71]

The motor will get "too" hot when its like 80 degrees or more. When it gets hot out I dont go over 55mph, which is 3100RPM. In the winter I can run 60mph/3400 with no problem. On Sunday it was 82 degrees out, I was going 50-55 mph, and I said the hell with it, lets see how hot it will get. 245.... Why exactly are GEX motors low quality? Would you recommend another company or would you recommend I build my own motor? I gotta give them credit, the thing has been running reeeeeeally hot for 5 years now, 10,000 miles, and it hasnt burned up yet! I also read on the Gene Berg website that oil temp sending units that fit in the dipstick hole are inaccurate, but I dont know what to make of that......Gene Berg tends to frown upon anthing that they dont sell I think I'm gonna look into getting a stock 1600 by the end of the summer. Who needs to hop up a bus anyway?