How to Rebuild Your Volkswagen air-Cooled Engine (All models, 1961 and up)

The bee's knees especially if you are rebuilding a t4

Not only does this book tell how to build an engine it also teaches you how to diagnose each part that’s removed. It tells you all of the common issues with these engines and how to fix those. Highly recommend!

Informative full of ideas helpful

This is a well-written book about VW engine rebuilding. It covers the Types 1 through 4 air-cooled engines. The book describes the entire process, from removal of the engine, tear-down, measurement of wear and other problems, identification of interchangeable parts, and reassembly and re-installation of the rebuilt engine into the chassis. This is a true do-it-yourself guide to a quality engine overhaul, with great photographs to help the mechanic to understand some important do's and don'ts. It is even a great guide to the novice who takes the time to study the photographs and understand what is being described. As a constructive critique, it would have been valuable if the author had included just a few more photographs, especially of the Type 4 engine. Generally, the number of photos included are adequate, but there are a few places where more visuals would have helped the reader. I received the book in great condition, in a timely manner, and at a good price.

Excellent book full of useful air cooled VW info. Info on both types 1 and type 4 engines.

I bought a 1977 VW as a hobby to rebuild. Although I have rebuilt other engines, I had never worked on a VW. So I bought this book as well as the official VW service manual by Bently. This book has a lot of illustrations on how to take the car apart and put it back together that the official service manual does not have. Just a lot of good tips and how-to that appeared to come from guys with hands-on experience rather than engineer nerds from the official manual. Although I bought both books, this book was the most helpful in my rebuild. If your vw is fuel injected, however, you will need the Bently manual. As a side note, I am converting this fuel injected bug to a carburetor. Fuel injection parts are just too expensive and I do not need the complications of fuel injection when a carburetor can do the same thing simpler and cheaper.

Most complete rebuild manual I've found. Gives good details on what you are probably getting with rebuilt parts, especially heads, and why that is OK (or not, in certain circumstances). It was written with the cooperation of a big rebuild shop, but does not seem biased and Mr. Wilson encourages the readers to work with the local expert (there's always someone nearby who's been working on air cooled VWs for years) I probably won't have time to rebuild my own engine, even though this book would walk me through 99% of it, but now I'll be able to talk to the repair and machine shop folks with a fairly comprehensive understanding of what they're saying.

I bought this book a month ago, due to acquiring a homemade dune buggy with a VW 1200cc air cooled engine. This book has a lot of insight on how to rebuild one of these, tolerances, how to properly maintain one, its shortcomings and how to overcome them. It is probably the go to book on how to rebuild an Air cooled VW engine or early Porsche air cooled. Would even recommend this to those who want to learn more about one of these more popular engine families ever made and one of the longest made families as well (1936-2006). Still popular today for Baja and Dune buggy, to people that just want to run around in a Bug, Bus, or Thing.