1500S Engine Restoration

[jadney@vwtype3.org (Melissa & Jim)]

 My question to you 
>all is what is wise and possible ??
>1) Clean the cylinders and head (possible? if so how), buy a new piston and 
valve and put it back together.
>2) Use the cylinders and pistons of the 1500 single carb engine for the 1500S
>3) also use the head from the 1500 single carb engine.
>4) Take the whole 1500S engine apart because of metal parts at odd 
locations like oil pump, cooler etc, scrap 
>the other 1500 engine and use as many parts from that one as possible.
>I worked on type 3 1600 engines before, but I can't quite figure out which 
parts from which engine are 
>interchangeble.

I applaud the effort to restore the car to its original engine, although you 
might want to consider doing a proper 12V conversion.

I have a set of 1500 P/Cs that has very little mileage on them.  I would not 
hesitate to clean them up, put new rings on them and re-use them.  They are 
not original 1500S units but would probably work if the piston pins are the 
same size.  I think the very early 1500 engines used what was essentially a 
40 HP (1200) engine which would have had smaller piston pins, but I believe 
you are past that point.

Don't be tempted to cut corners.  If you really want to do the car justice, 
do the job right, and do it once.  To paraphrase Gene Berg, do it right and 
cry once.
I would not recommend that you go the quick and dirty route on the rebuild.  
Take it all apart, clean it all up, replace the damaged parts, and send 
parts out for any necessary machine shop work.  I'm afraid that if you do 
less you will just be setting yourself up for a very big disapointment.

Buy three books:  The Official VW Type 3 Service Manual (Robert Bentley), 
How to Hot Rod the VW Engine (Bill Fisher, HP Books), and the Gene Berg 
Catalog.  

Study, study, study!

Does this mean I need to write a faq on type III engine rebuilding, too?

Jim
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       Melissa Kepner                                    Jim Adney
       jadney@vwtype3.org              jadney@vwtype3.org
                             Laura Kepner-Adney
                             Madison, Wisconsin
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