engine question

Let's get real for a minute.

First, how will you use the car? How many miles per year? What kind of driving? City, country, interstate?

Most guys put 3000-5000 miles a year. A lot of people are much less, but just say it's 3000. 94mm cylinders last 40,000 miles or so, so 12 years or so for that. At that point, you'll want a valve job.

As to maintenance, adjust the valves and change the oil every 3000. That's about it.

Subarus need less, just change the oil once in a while. But they do carry extra weight and complexity that aircooled cars just don't have.

Periodic maintenance doesn't bother me one bit, in fact it's part of the charm of these cars, old-school retro vibe.

It really depends on your needs and desires, and only you can define them.

Aircooled motors are not difficult to take care of, they are rather simple actually (once you understand them), but they require that you do take care of them.  Carburetors don't like to sit for a long time unused, especially if you have to use modern fuel with ethanol blended.  To properly care for an aircooled motor you need to do a valve adjustment with your oil changes, check carb sync, and make sure your engine builder avoids junk/cheap parts.  There is a reason Pat's motors are North of $10k these days, mainly expensive parts that go into the build.  To make it worse, there aren't many shops that have the know-how to work on these motors, and some won't tell you that, evident by all the crap we fix after someone else has "fixed" it. So if you aren't wanting to learn to be an aircooled "tinkerer" and don't have a trusted shop, then I can see how they may scare you off.

As for drivability, it probably goes without saying that well maintained carbs can be a treat to live with BUT it's hard to compare to modern fuel injection.  Carbs can also be sensitive to the elements, altitude, humidity, ambient temps, etc...  Chokes are a thing of the past on most VW based carbs these days, so they can be cold start temperamental.  They often times have their own idiosyncrasies for hot start too.  Some like a little short of fuel, some don't want any extra fuel, etc... these are things that many owners learn as they go through ownership.

My Subaru comments are based on the way we do them here, which is different than most.

For a Subaru, overall, they are generally a "jump in and drive" ordeal.  Regular oil changes and an occasional air filter cleaning is about the only maintenance.  Should you have an engine problem, you scan it with an OBD-II scanner and get a DTC just like it was an Impreza.  In my case, most of the issues we see have a very specific symptom that leads me to the exact issue before they are even scanned.  Won't rev past 3500, lost speed sensor, won't rev past 4500, bad VVT solenoid.  Scan, confirm, change part.  Done.  They do have their temperamental moments as well.  They DO NOT like to ruin out of fuel.  In fact their fuel system acts like a diesel if they do and you get air lock that can be hard to bleed and often times requires cracking a fuel line and manually bleeding off air.  They are very sensitive to fuel pressure, but carbs are too.  Coolant systems are NOT easy to bleed, but you don't have to do that often (or ever).

They cold start every time, they warm themselves up and idle down as they see coolant temp, they recover smoothly when you come off hard throttle and don't stall, if you have AC they kick up idle to compensate from the draw, etc, etc...

I grew up on aircooled, and the vast majority of my personal toys are aircooled.  I wouldn't hesitate to jump in any of my air-cooled cars and drive across country.  I'd have a small bag of tools and spares and there isn't much I couldn't fix on the side of the road. BUT chances are there would be something that needed addressed in that trip!  We caravan a lot of aircooleds to shows (or did in the past) and I;d bet there was always one that needed rescue.   I'd be just as confident doing the same in a Subaru powered car, and less likely to need a roadside repair/adjustment, but also less likely to be able to do a roadside repair should it be needed.

Other considerations I tell clients to make are mostly geared around your intended usage.  If this car will sit at your summer home for 10 months and then you want to enjoy it for a few months, consider Subaru.  If you have a long winter where it will be stored followed by a short driving season (and you don't want to tinker) consider Subaru.  If you don't have the patience to adjust carbs (and follow directions) consider Subaru.  If you don't have the patience to tinker at all, go elsewhere (these cars really are not for everyone).

OK, that's enough for now... I have work to do.  :-)

Thank you for your advice.

I have a Subaru-powered MGTD and also built and ran a 1915-powered Spyder from 2020 until it sold a few months ago.

The 1915—made by Jake Raby originally for Carey Hines/Beck/Special Edition—was a joy to drive and to maintain. It was 10 years old when I got it (the customer traded it in for a Subaru swap, as I recall), and had 1200 miles on it. Carey & Co. tuned it up before bringing it to me. So: equivalent to a Pat Downs 1915 engine.

It required oil changes yearly and I also checked the tappet clearances then. The engine had steel pushrods so those gaps were very small, "loose zero," meaning I didn't need a feeler gauge to check them. The job took a half hour in each case.

The big Weber carbs needed to be synched about once a year to keep the off-idle cruise throttle response ideally smooth. This required me to drive the car for a half hour first to get it warmed up to operating temperature, then remove the air cleaner lids and do a procedure involving a device called a "snail" and a screwdriver. Very easy on a Spyder—trickier on a Speedster because of where the adjustment screws are. Took another half hour, at most. Fun and satisfying. Highly recommend.

The best thing about the air-cooled engine was how it sounded and performed. It made good power above 3000 RPM but was a little boggy below that. This meant that I had to drive the car like I meant it—like they were meant to be driven. If I wanted to move out, I usually had to downshift. This is a feature, not a bug.

The Subi, by contrast, is a torque monster. I still shift the MG a lot but the hellofit is, I don't really need to. The modern engine makes driving the MG just slightly less fun than it was when it had the air-cooled 1600.

Of course, it's way faster. And regular maintenance consists of: oil and filter change.

I'm not saying the Subaru engine is boring, exactly. It has more power everywhere, and that's just what a lot of guys lust after. And I have no plans to swap the Subi out in favor of an air-cooled engine!

So, for your consideration, from the man who enjoys both Country And Western.

Thank you for your kind insights

@chines1  thanks for your comment...now i don't have to type a single word...but i will ,,,,i too was a semi-expert at aircooled in my youth.. (whether i wanted to be or not)...which is why i'm now retired from "tinkering"...SUBARU is hop in and go to the beach...and i'll leave it at that!   happy motoring!

So I'll add a little to this being a guy who actually gets a fair amount of questions from many onlookers and folks on the Interwebs weekly about this very question.

My answer between the two is to ask what kind of classic car owner do they want to be in reality. Is your life to busy that the only time you have to drive your classic is to a Cars and Coffee between work and kids on the weekend, where maybe it goes out two to three times a month. Or are you a person who looks forward to getting out on the weekends with the car and like the process of prepping and post prepping your time after the drive.

I find this important because it says much about a classic car owner, and not being judgmental about. Just honest to what will give you the best experience with ownership. If you are just a guy going to the local C&C then the most reliable is what you need for your limited time like the Subie. If you're a person that wants to get out and drive and play with the little nuances of a classic, along with tinker a bit then the Aircooled is your bag. Having the air-cooled adds a level of tune pre and post use, the temp outside, and the fact finding an air-cooled mech now is not so easy. Sure you can hire a vintage Porsche mech but get ready to vintage Porsche prices and waiting in line for a spot. Where I'm at in NorCal it could be two months to be seen.

No I also agree that motors are pretty pricy now for Air Cooled. I have one of Pat's Big Bore 2387cc motors and have put prob 10,000 miles on it. It's been a great motor and I dive my car all over. Its issues are mainly been fuel related and sync. His motors are very stout. But you pay for that..like $20,000 now. So when you compare that to a used or rebuilt Subie at lets say $5,000 all in.

So the above is much to think about on how you will use the car and what type of bragging rights you want when you go above a 1915. The power from both are great and the drive is I feel similar. But its the evolvement you want in you classic car experience.

One last thing thats of consideration also...the look. No Subie looks as cool as a built Aircooled....when you pop that hatch, and watch people gaze with joy. Also the jealously of vintage Porsche owners know you make 4 times the HP and its cool as ****.

"what kind of classic car owner do they want to be in reality. " and there it is.  How authentic do you want to be, knowing of course that what you have is not a 1957, made in Germany Typ 356 Porsche Speedster.  It's a VW . . . But you want to get as close to that '57 Speedster thing as possible, and still have some $$ in your retirement fund.  In that case, mea culpa.  And the reason is ... I owned two 356 coupes (a '57 A and a '61 S90) WAY back in the day.  I had a friend in high school (ca. 1961) who had a Speedster, and that planted the seed. So I was raised on air cooled Porsche four-bangers.  This Speedster I have now ( a JPS, 2332, IRS) is VERY familiar to me, and as I had it built to spec, I wanted it to be "authentic"  And a HUGGE part of that is the whine of the fan, and just the whole total raucous behavior going on back there.  But that's just me. And I'm an old guy and I have tools and I know things.

The very question makes me a bit dizzy. My excellent Wife and I drove from Boise Idaho to Ottawa, Canada with 1600 cc engine around 13 years ago in a nice basic IM bought for $6000 for a pretty clean 1972 IM. Got to see Buffalo Bill's gravesite near Denver too. Drove the same car with a 1915 engine from Sacramento down to LA over and up to Vegas then across RT66 to Carlisle and up to Ottawa. Met some very nice site members in Carlisle. Got that one down to Florida more than once too. Built up a Soob Frankenmotor and did Florida a few times again in that car. Which way do you like to slice your bread ? Sometimes I think I have low standards....other like to wax their cars a lot.....  :-)

rt

911, VW/Audi 1.8, VW Type 4 (1.7L to 2.6L+), Corvair, EV --- different strokes for different folks!  Rich D/PepeSpeed had a twin plug Raby T4 in their Beck Speedster!  There's even a front engine Miata powered Speedster out there.

Thank you

Ed

Appreciate all the advice.

Thank you

ed