Well I've started another project. It's a 1975 1.8 that had an engine fire. It got so hot that the cooling shroud actually melted. Top end F/I is baked, and EEC appears to be in good condition, but I'm thinking baked also. My plan was to dissasemble and take to a machine shop to rebuild. All sheet metal is good, I'm sand blasting and shooting with etch primer now to repaint.

My question is this; will a 2.0 bus motor bolt in in place of the 1.8? I'm thinking I may need to do some work on the exhaust side, but other than that what should I expect?

Any thoughts?

P.S. I plan to go to carbs.

welcome aboard, mikey!

i don't have much to offer except that you may want to reconsider the bus engine if it's stock. low-compression bus engines don't offer the most thrilling experience. get that 1.8 built up again, bore it to 96, hot cam, dual carbs, and you'll be cookin'.

glad to hear there's another one being resurrected from the flames...

QUOTE (Mikey914 @ Jan 5 2005, 08:10 PM)

P.S. I plan to go to carbs.

bus motor = low end torque but *no* power after 3000 rpm ...
trust me, you will hate driving the 914 with a bus motor.

carbs? with a stock (bus) cam?
well, now you got a guttless piece of sh$t motor that get's only half the gas mileage of a stock FI piece of sh$t bus motor ...

your call but i'd rather buy a used 1.7/1.8 (with a good running FI system) ...
Andy

PS: oh, and welcome to the club!

ive done bus to 914 swaps.bus motor has to pack around that big body,so it has alot of low end.zero top end
the only time its worth it,(putting a bus motor in )is when its youre only transpo and you need it running like yesterday.or you just want to drive it untill you porsche motor is done.put the porsche motor back in it. ;)thats what i did i drove mine around for two years with a 1.8 bus motor in it.it got me to work and it was ok to drive.but when i got my porsche motor put back in it.what a diffrence.
james

If the Bus motor is late enough, the exhaust ports will be the wrong shape to bolt up to a 914 exhaust. The "square-port Vanagon" heads came on the 79+ 2.0 Bus, I think. (Could have the year wrong.) The difference in port shape should be obvious if you look at them.

--DD

Sounds like the bus motor is out. This is a father son project, we've got 6 months before he's 16, so we'll probably just rebuild. I didn't realize that the bus 2.0 was so doggy. Thanks

'79 - '83 were the square port heads...........p/n 071 101 371 A or B on heads.....case will be GD or GE

If you want a cheap good runner then find a early 1.7l 914 motor (80hp). They pop up on the classifieds all the time from guys installing 2.0l's. Way better motor than a 2.0l bus engine as not mod's to drop it in. plus they are cheap!
Oh, I see you are in Oregon so ask Craig from CAMP 914 if he has any laying around or jump on that FREE 914 engine that was just posted!

Geoff

I have a motor that started as a bus block, engine was rebuilt about 20k miles ago using original p/n cam and 2.0 Euro P/Cs, 2.0 914 heads & dual 40 Webers...the owner couldn't get it to pass CA smog at all, they did all sorts of crap to it and just couldn't figure it out. When I got it we started playing with it, but I couldn't do any better, Bradholio drove to LA and picked me and and the car up. While at his shop we went through the rebuild paperwork and he noticed the cam's p/n looked wrong for a 914...well it was a damn single carb bus cam...replaced it with a Webcam designed for dual carbs and voila...heaven.


If you want to use the bus motor...you can do it, but you'll need to change out stuff like pistons, cam, heads, etc...so, the price of a real 914 motor may make more sense, especially if you can find a deal on a 1.7 motor and build a nice 2165 or 2270 out of it.

I'm thinking just stick with the 1.8 if the other head isn't melted. E-mailed on the free engine, we'll see. The budget is pretty thin. Thanks for th eheads up guys.
-Mark

Mark,
It was nice to meet you and Mike. The parts car is pretty light now. Hope the 1.7 works for you and post pics of your progress! Sorry we didn't have time for or .