Air Cooled VW Diesel

[pietenpol2002]

Perhaps known to others, but what a surprise to learn that VW built a prototype diesel boxer way back in 1952. Imagine if had reached production. What a sweet bike engine that would have made mated to a BMW/Dnepr/Ural/Guzzi box (OK, maybe noisy, smoky, slow etc. etc.). From picture #12 it would appear the engine fairly resembles the petrol version.

http://www.autobild.de/artikel/ein-kaef ... 65608.html

[bhtooefr]

Ooh, thanks for the link.

(I was expecting the article from the March 1982 issue of VW & Porsche Magazine. This one's new to me.)

Interestingly, as mentioned in that article, and better explained in the VW & Porsche article, the crankcase in the engine photographed is actually production - the engine shown is a replica made in 1981, using a 3-piece crankcase from a 1.3L Porsche 356. (The crankcase in question was designed for the diesel, and Porsche decided to use it as-is in the later 1.3L gas engine, used from 1955 to 1958. So, that particular engine was actually a gasserized diesel. (And, that story happened again - VAG designed the EA827 engine family, as used in the Golf and Passat families until the A4 and B5.5 platforms, to be a diesel from the start. They did have to strengthen the block, though, after the fact, when they found out that it wasn't strong enough to actually work as a diesel.))

[pietenpol2002]

Although I scanned over the article, I missed the fact that it was a replica engine. They went to a great deal of work to create a running engine. And although reportedly rather "slow", it couldn't have been much slower than the petrol engine I had in in the 1955 Bug I had in high school. Was it 1100 or 1200 CC's?. With a tail wind and a VERY steep hill, my brothers and I got it up to 80 mph one morning. And I wish I still had it.

[LocomotiveBreath]

Here's another link I had saved,

http://www.ltv-vwc.org.uk/wheelspin/ws_ ... eetle.html

[andrewaust]

Agree, the engine would have made a good large bike power plant, would certainly turn heads, to bad it didn't make it to production as improvements and refinements would have ended in a great little engine.

I've always liked air cooled engines for simplicity and if maintenance is carried out well - reliability.


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