Hi, I am a student who just moved up in Dallas and I just found out that my dad in San Antonio was driving my lovely orange high-roofed camper bus around and didn't notice the oil leak had gotten worse and blew up the engine. He had it towed to a mechanic who said he would charge $2900 to replace the engine. Unfortunately I don't have anywhere near that much money. I don't really know much about doing any serious mechanical work on my car, but I am hoping that there must be some way to get the engine replaced for cheaper than that. I'm not really in a rush to have it done and I just really don't want to have to get rid of my bus (his name is Arlo). So, if any one has any information about a good type 4 engine and knows a good place (or person) to install an engine an engine in San Antonio (or I could get it towed up to Austin), please help me out! Please! I really don't want to have to say goodbye to my bus!
Rare 73 bus in need of help!
Oct 13, 2004
5 Replies
Hey if dad ran it with out oil he's negligent! Get him to foot the bill or at least split it with you. $1450. is a lot easier than $2900.
I feel for ya. If you don't know about it already then check out the website aircoolers.org. Aircoolers is a gang of friendly folks who love VWs, beer, talking about VWs, and beer. There are chapters all over the place including San Antone, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, etc. Post something on the message boards and one of these helping friendly folks will point you in the right direction. They have helped me and Phred ('71 Type II) with a number of tricky problems.
Good Luck
Jeffrey
Sounds like a resonable price to replace it with a rebuilt engine. The TIV is much more costly to rebuild than the T1 (of which a gazillion were made up unitl recently). Ya might try a local votech school where you pay for parts only and student do the work. They may not en\ven want to know how to repair an air cooled engine though. You could almost have a Subaru engine installed for about a $1000 more.
One last possibility: The '73 will run quite nicely with a 1600cc Beetle engine. The tranny is geared the same as '71 when that was the only engine available.
There is *some* "rigging" required, but if cost is the determinant this could be a way to salvage the situation.
Speedy Jim
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