Hi this was in another post and I thought you may have missed it
Wasserboxer in a Beetle.
The Wasserboxer has received some bad press for headstud problems; coolant leaks and
assorted other woes. These problems seem to occur when proper VW servicing
techniques are not used.
The Wasserboxer motor in my VW Beetle has been looked after as far correct coolant is
concerned; I also use distilled water mixed with genuine VW coolant. I fitted an Oettinger
85° thermostat instead of the standard 87°. These don't seem to be available anymore
so I have modified a Mercedes one to fit. The top part of the thermostat is the same as
the VW one, but the lower bypass part has a larger diameter flange. This can easily be
made the correct diameter by first marking out the correct diameter circle with a pair of
dividers and the grind the flange down to the marked circle. I also got rid of water-cooled
oil-cooler as I have heard that they can fail. I'm running an air cooled oil cooler with a
Setrab thermo block at the front of the radiator.
As far as the rest of the motor goes it is extremely reliable, I give my bug heaps. I have
bent one Scat pushrod (I'm now running Berg ones) and had 2 water pumps fail in about
100,000 Ks since 1988 and have had a few coolant hoses fail. My bug is also in constant
state of improvement, so some things are always changing.
The Wasserboxers use 2 styles of cooling systems, basically the 1.9 and 2.1 litre style. I
prefer the 2.1 style.
Fitting the motor is much the same as fitting a type 4 motor, same style of flywheel. The
thermostat housing which sits above # 3 exhaust port needs to have some body
clearancing. The water hose that runs from the water pump to the thermostat housing
needs to be modified at the water pump end. It basically would run straight through the
left-hand rear bumper bracket. Any Beetle exhaust can be used, #1 & # 4 exhaust
flanges need to be rotated 90°. In the engine bay I used basically the whole Wasserboxer
cooling system and condensed it to fit. You will need a steel coolant ring main as the
plastic one cant be shortened easily.
The coolant runs to and from the front of the car via 1.5-inch stainless steel tubes.
These follow the chassis bolts along the bottom of the heater channels. I have just
upgraded my radiator with a modified Ford Transit radiator. After some gentle prompting
from a fellow list user MARTINSR, yesterday I went out and bought an after market
thermo fan from Davies Craig
http://www.daviescraig.com.au/. It's meant to be used for
a 5 litre V8 and pumps 2120 CFM, so far its working really well, we are having 40 ° + days
down here at the moment. I previously used a BMW radiator and Audi 100 thermo fan.
Cool air is brought into the radiator through an A/C louvered front apron. I removed the
deformation plate at the front of the chassis to allow more air in. I had to also remove
the spare wheel well and I just left the rounded edge for a bit of extra strength, I
supplemented the spare wheel wells strength with angle steel. My radiator is around 550
mm across and 450 mm deep on the cooling surface, it's actually a little wider where the
tanks are on the side. The radiator actually sits on a U shaped holder right down on the
chassis and comes very close to the under bonnet. I fabricated a sheetmetal alloy
housing to guide the cooling air in and let the heated air exit over the front end. I
basically used some angle aluminum for the edges and then filled this in with very thin
aluminum sheet. In case you hadn't already realised my bug is a super. I have seen
radiators fitted to standard bugs but I have no experience with this. My spare wheel sits
on top my fuel tank on a bracket attached to the strut brace.
Original heater channels were retained and warm air is directed from a Toyota troop
carrier heater core under the rear seat to the interior via early Audi 100 brake cooling
fans. I have used the rear seat heater cable to operate heater shut off valve.
My Kombi motor was purchased new in 1988 and is 2.1 litre its DJ engine number type
10.5:1 compression, 112 BHP type. I original ran the motor with dual webbers Berg cam.
In preparation for a turbo the motor has just been decompressed to 8.0:1 and the cam
changed back to standard. 1.4 berg rockers are used.
Regards Steve Carter