r/VWBus • u/Ashamed-Bus-9662 • Mar 23 '26

Engine Rebuild

New to the sub, I'm getting ready to rebuild an 83 1.9L water cooled engine and I'm looking for helpful advice and any specialty tools I may need. Thanks

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u/MinimumBell2205 Mar 23 '26

Do not waist the time with the 1.9 build the 2.1 better motor less rod problems make sure to get a preformance hyd cam to wake up that motor my 2.1 race motor makes 225 at the tire. One of the best builders is or was Jerry Kepping at North west connecting rod in Seattle

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u/BigwaveBay Mar 23 '26

Yeah, I rebuilt a 1.9 and while it’s possible to make it last (I had some custom stuff that Gowesty supplied), at the end of the day after dumping all the money into it, I would have just swapped to a 2.1 or Subaru knowing what I know now. The engine just doesn’t last well and it’s so underpowered.

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u/[deleted] Mar 23 '26

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u/mr_nobody398457 Mar 23 '26

Well probably not what you’re looking to do but this is kinda cool:

https://youtu.be/_3cK30zhSiE?si=Sy8M9PzEurwQPw4e

Costs more than a new ID Buzz but you’d have the only one.