My first thought was 'good grief, I bet that's thirsty!' And then it got me thinking... My Golf has half the displacement (and half the number of cylinders!) but makes only a little less power. But as all the power in the engine comes from fuel burnt (unless it’s a hybrid I suppose) power in equals power out. So the monster W8 might not, comparatively, be all that bad. If the engine swap goes ahead, let us have an update with how it turns out. Thanks for sharing 👍 🇬🇧
Hi Matt, when the time comes I'll post some video of the engine change. It's a monster. Performance figures are not exceptional but it has grunt. 270HP, 370 NM torque (273ft/lb). Full Torsen 4WD. 50/50 front and rear. (Not VW Haldex which is more like 90/10 in normal operation). It sounds just phenomenal. It does 30mpg on a run, 21 combined, 16 around town. Bodywork is good. Only 246 W8s were sold in the UK, and about 50 were manual (this one is manual). Cheers
I have 2 of them. they get get better gas mileage than my v6 wagen. Butter smooth, lots of power, limited to 250 kph. Had it at 230 and damn, was that fast enough. there's something about driving a super rare car that gives pleasure.
Always nice to see father & sons working together. Our oldest son is teaming up with Dad this year to get some long over due projects wrapped up. Hopefully he will be the one to continue to keep ole Bears Rod Shop on RUclips in the future (@@)! Thx for sharing guy's, and enjoy the years while you can, Bear
Hi Bear, we've very lucky we get on with all our kids, and they are all local now. From what you said recently, perhaps you will get more time than you thought. It does happen. You sounded positive. Cheers
Oh my, “kaputski” indeed. I feel your son’s pain. Modern engine bays look so cluttered and unwelcoming today. 45 years ago, with Haynes manual in hand it seemed everything was visible and doable. How things change. 😔 At least your son was still smiling 😀
Hi Andrew, my son was fully expecting a shot big end but I still believe in miracles so I said we should just do the simple confirmation test as it only took half an hour. Anyway it was not our day for miracles, as it turned out. Cheers
Hi Paul, Seems a shame that your son cant get the parts to do the rebuild himself. Lucky for him its a project car and he can take his time. I once had what I thought was engine failure on my old Triumph Spitfire, lucky for me I started it from cold and switched off as soon as I saw the oil light hadnt extinguished. It turned out that the shaft fm the oil pump wasnt quite engaging in the spur gear off the camshaft and it eventually lost drive. It was an easy fix all I needed to do was press the shaft out a few mms. It had been like that for quite some time, a couple of years or so. Great cars to maintain lift the bonnet (and wings) and you sit on the wheels!! I wore my Haynes manual out on that car!! Happy New Year!!
Hi David, we have nostalgic thoughts for such cars but I saw a video recently and the separate chassis frame and king pins, and live rear axle and such, omg they were primitive. Cheers
@@HaxbyShed Haha yes primitive is the word!! I have a fractured stubshaft on the shelf above my computer. The car gently lurched to one side, it had just broke in two after turning out from a petrol station. I shudder to think what might have happened at speed. I re-live my times as an amateur Spitfire mechanic following the Rusty Beauties channel, Elin, like you, is a great presenter!!
I was surprised when you said that the access was good, you would have thought that pulling the spark plugs could be done without having to remove anything other than the plug caps. Having said that the only petrol engine we work on is on our 40 year old Land Rover 90 where you can climb in the engine bay to keep out of the rain while you are working on it. I expect an engine change on the VW will not be a quick job
My goodness, yes that was easy. On the W8s big brother W12s there is so little space you have to take the engine out for just about anything (but maybe not spark plugs). Cheers
Hi qwiklok, yeh we have no idea how that one came to fail. From new to 2015 it had one owner and she spent a fortune on regular main dealer servicing and repairs (we have all the records). It was laid up for two years until my son bought it. Anyhow a fail is a fail so it needs to be done. Cheers
@@HaxbyShed My silver car overheated from a small broken hose, warped the heads, low compression on 6 of them. Found a good motor at a wrecker for $500 with minor oil pan damage. Cheaper than resurfacing the heads, gaskets, headbolts, and work. Now the trick is the big complicated install. I love these motors. Rolex watch of the industry. Kinda, well, sorta. . . . .maybe.
Nice, a home grown interesting video. The English language of American sites is so variable, ranging from excellent with local quirks (solder is called sodder) to unintelligible, but always given at hyper-speed. Many are not gifted orators and are unwatchable. Apologies to Canadians who are usually very clear.
@@howardosborne8647 That is propaganda. Central America is part of a continent and there is plenty of language evidence available. This comment is not what is expected on RUclips, better posted to Quora, so it can be ignored.
@@carlwilson1772 Thats a question for Americans and best not dwelt on. One excellent youtuber has been forced to say ‘Clough’ is pronounced ‘cloud’. Its all rather weird and best ignored if possible. His videos are first class though.
I don't think he was forced to say that. It's simply how he pronounces it. Which follows no laws of English language pronunciation that I'm aware of. Still, as you say, it's immaterial in the grand scheme of things.
👍I used to repair my own cars but these days I let the garage do it. My son still enjoys the work though it can be very frustrating these days with the complexity and then all the 'fake' parts which are just rubbish. Seems like even the big name parts manufacturers we used to trust have sold out to cost pressures (to survive I guess). We have crossed a lot off our list and often buy original VW spares despite the high cost. At least two non-OEM replacement clutch packs were faulty (different cars) and it's a lot of work to find out it's junk when it's back together. Cheers
I had one of these cars, and this sort of thing was what I always dreaded happening. Fortunately it didn't have anything worse than those vvt solenoids sticking once in a while, at least until i sold it on.
They certainly are rare and unsual, especially in some configurations. And a lot of fun. Mechanically, they are a bit of a pain to work on because there's so much engine packed into a small space.. I always heard that you just have to get comfortable with pulling the front off ("service position") and/or dropping the engine/subframe out for most major repairs. Apparently neither is really as time consuming as you think, and once you do it, you can access things. pretty easily.
If the piston you put the screwdriver on isn't moving up and down as the engine is turned over then that piston is not connected to the crankshaft or the crankshaft itself is broken...that is a lot worse than just a big end bearing being shot.
Hi Howard, the piston does move when the crank is turned but there is a big lag. Looked worse there because the piston was at the bottom so less up/down movement as the crank goes over BTC but we also checked mid stroke and we estimate 1 to 2 mm of free movement on the big end. He bought the car when it had been laid up a couple of years and he could only test it on a driveway with the engine still cold. But it was cheap enough and it is a project car so he can take his time. Cheers
Nasty result, nice cars those so it's a shame it's eaten a big end. Were you to do a post mortem on the engine I suspect you'd find that the sparkly bits in the oil are the remains of a pulverised big end bearing, you'd likely also find that the crank journal will be toast, con rod likely damaged too so a replacement engine is the easiest way to go, at least it looks as if you have decent access to everything there. Good luck!
Hi Jason it's a heck of a lump that engine. Weighs about 500lb with the ancillaries (about 230Kg). About the same as the Herbert surface grinder but handle to handle. It will probably come out with the gearbox on too. Hopefully get the front off the car for access. Cheers
Sadly most of the auto manufactures have one or several models with major issues. One really needs to do there homework these days. Toyota and Honda are still getting it done. My cousin loves the VW diesels "Jetta wagon" he uses them as delivery vehicles and gets 500K miles with few problems. I'm not sure if we can even get them here in the US anymore after the EPA scandal. Hopefully the engine swap goes smoothly. Cheers....
Hopefully the day will come when engine designers have reliable computer driven simulators to highlight any potential weaknesses with a particular engine design🤣🤣
Dean, we are all heading to 'EV land' where cars have far fewer parts but, to paraphrase you, most traditional manufacturers need to do there homework and will be consigned to History if not careful. Think old Nokia, Blackberry, Kodak etc. The VW scandal did not pay out much here, we are not as litigious as the US. We just smile and carry on. He'll put the order in for the replacement engine soon - he knows a guy who will recover a good one and then do the prep on filters and chains etc. No warranty of course. He could make the best of two and take a chance on reusing the stretch bolts 😮, assuming he can get gaskets. Chance you take. Cheers.
Take the oil pan off to see what really happened and what the actual damage is. Also check the inside using a boroscope to see if the valves are looking oke and are properly moving: may be the head is salvageable? Good luck: you need it because changing an engine the first time is a very big job I can now tell you after changing a lupo 1.4 engine (tiny) twice: second time it is much easier.
Hi Spixy we watched a teardown on these. There is a pan and then there is like a 2nd pan (a large baffle plate just as big as the pan bolted all round), and then if I remember all the crank bearings are built into the lower casting like Japanese motorbikes with webbing across. And I don't think any of these come off with the engine in. It's a big job. Cheers
@HaxbyShed I watched ruclips.net/video/jEyEmmJcb7M/видео.htmlsi=RFke-GiODmfzrJwx and indeed this is a monster of an engine! 2 V4 bolted together which is very impressive.
Yep, that's the one we watched. They only made the W8 for the Passat - no other car. They are the same as the W12s in the Bentley, Phaeton, Touareg and Audi A8 but with a shorter block (4 in a bank not 6 in a bank). And apparently you can't get the bits for that generation of the W12 either. Cheers
Nope, it was a nasty surprise. These engines are quite rare and apparently you can make a coffee table out of the cylinder block and a glass top, and sell them for quite a bit. Well we'll see if that's true or just an urban myth. Cheers
My first thought was 'good grief, I bet that's thirsty!'
And then it got me thinking...
My Golf has half the displacement (and half the number of cylinders!) but makes only a little less power. But as all the power in the engine comes from fuel burnt (unless it’s a hybrid I suppose) power in equals power out. So the monster W8 might not, comparatively, be all that bad.
If the engine swap goes ahead, let us have an update with how it turns out.
Thanks for sharing 👍 🇬🇧
Hi Matt, when the time comes I'll post some video of the engine change. It's a monster. Performance figures are not exceptional but it has grunt. 270HP, 370 NM torque (273ft/lb). Full Torsen 4WD. 50/50 front and rear. (Not VW Haldex which is more like 90/10 in normal operation). It sounds just phenomenal. It does 30mpg on a run, 21 combined, 16 around town. Bodywork is good. Only 246 W8s were sold in the UK, and about 50 were manual (this one is manual). Cheers
I have 2 of them. they get get better gas mileage than my v6 wagen. Butter smooth, lots of power, limited to 250 kph. Had it at 230 and damn, was that fast enough.
there's something about driving a super rare car that gives pleasure.
Always nice to see father & sons working together. Our oldest son is teaming up with Dad this year to get some long over due projects wrapped up. Hopefully he will be the one to continue to keep ole Bears Rod Shop on RUclips in the future (@@)! Thx for sharing guy's, and enjoy the years while you can, Bear
Hi Bear, we've very lucky we get on with all our kids, and they are all local now. From what you said recently, perhaps you will get more time than you thought. It does happen. You sounded positive. Cheers
Oh my, “kaputski” indeed. I feel your son’s pain.
Modern engine bays look so cluttered and unwelcoming today. 45 years ago, with Haynes manual in hand it seemed everything was visible and doable. How things change. 😔
At least your son was still smiling 😀
Hi Andrew, my son was fully expecting a shot big end but I still believe in miracles so I said we should just do the simple confirmation test as it only took half an hour. Anyway it was not our day for miracles, as it turned out. Cheers
Hi Paul, Seems a shame that your son cant get the parts to do the rebuild himself. Lucky for him its a project car and he can take his time.
I once had what I thought was engine failure on my old Triumph Spitfire, lucky for me I started it from cold and switched off as soon as I saw the oil light hadnt extinguished. It turned out that the shaft fm the oil pump wasnt quite engaging in the spur gear off the camshaft and it eventually lost drive. It was an easy fix all I needed to do was press the shaft out a few mms. It had been like that for quite some time, a couple of years or so. Great cars to maintain lift the bonnet (and wings) and you sit on the wheels!! I wore my Haynes manual out on that car!!
Happy New Year!!
Hi David, we have nostalgic thoughts for such cars but I saw a video recently and the separate chassis frame and king pins, and live rear axle and such, omg they were primitive. Cheers
@@HaxbyShed Haha yes primitive is the word!!
I have a fractured stubshaft on the shelf above my computer. The car gently lurched to one side, it had just broke in two after turning out from a petrol station. I shudder to think what might have happened at speed. I re-live my times as an amateur Spitfire mechanic following the Rusty Beauties channel, Elin, like you, is a great presenter!!
I was surprised when you said that the access was good, you would have thought that pulling the spark plugs could be done without having to remove anything other than the plug caps. Having said that the only petrol engine we work on is on our 40 year old Land Rover 90 where you can climb in the engine bay to keep out of the rain while you are working on it. I expect an engine change on the VW will not be a quick job
My goodness, yes that was easy. On the W8s big brother W12s there is so little space you have to take the engine out for just about anything (but maybe not spark plugs). Cheers
What a nightmare of a job, and the worst time of the year to have to tackle it. You have my sympathy.
Hi Colin, luckily it is a project car so he can take his time fixing it. Cheers
Thx for the vid. Better luck on replacement engine.
He's got one lined up, subject to putting down a deposit. The engine is huge (for a regular family car). Cheers
i have 2 of them. the trick is super clean and good oil. And good coolant system. Then they last for a long time
Hi qwiklok, yeh we have no idea how that one came to fail. From new to 2015 it had one owner and she spent a fortune on regular main dealer servicing and repairs (we have all the records). It was laid up for two years until my son bought it. Anyhow a fail is a fail so it needs to be done. Cheers
@@HaxbyShed My silver car overheated from a small broken hose, warped the heads, low compression on 6 of them. Found a good motor at a wrecker for $500 with minor oil pan damage. Cheaper than resurfacing the heads, gaskets, headbolts, and work. Now the trick is the big complicated install. I love these motors. Rolex watch of the industry. Kinda, well, sorta. . . . .maybe.
Sorry to this happen to your engine. Not a good time of year to fix a blown engine, all the best Aaron
Hi Aaron, nice to hear from you. It's a project car so he will work on sunny days (if we get any). Cheers
Nice, a home grown interesting video. The English language of American sites is so variable, ranging from excellent with local quirks (solder is called sodder) to unintelligible, but always given at hyper-speed. Many are not gifted orators and are unwatchable. Apologies to Canadians who are usually very clear.
The narration on American videos is 'awesome'🤣
@@howardosborne8647 That is propaganda. Central America is part of a continent and there is plenty of language evidence available. This comment is not what is expected on RUclips, better posted to Quora, so it can be ignored.
Sodder. What the hell is that about? It's got an l in it for crying out loud.
@@carlwilson1772 Thats a question for Americans and best not dwelt on. One excellent youtuber has been forced to say ‘Clough’ is pronounced ‘cloud’. Its all rather weird and best ignored if possible. His videos are first class though.
I don't think he was forced to say that. It's simply how he pronounces it. Which follows no laws of English language pronunciation that I'm aware of. Still, as you say, it's immaterial in the grand scheme of things.
have fun with that!!
👍I used to repair my own cars but these days I let the garage do it. My son still enjoys the work though it can be very frustrating these days with the complexity and then all the 'fake' parts which are just rubbish. Seems like even the big name parts manufacturers we used to trust have sold out to cost pressures (to survive I guess). We have crossed a lot off our list and often buy original VW spares despite the high cost. At least two non-OEM replacement clutch packs were faulty (different cars) and it's a lot of work to find out it's junk when it's back together. Cheers
I had one of these cars, and this sort of thing was what I always dreaded happening. Fortunately it didn't have anything worse than those vvt solenoids sticking once in a while, at least until i sold it on.
Hi Josh, my son likes unusual and rare VW cars so this one was a 'must' for him. He's not much bothered what it takes to fix it. Cheers
They certainly are rare and unsual, especially in some configurations. And a lot of fun. Mechanically, they are a bit of a pain to work on because there's so much engine packed into a small space.. I always heard that you just have to get comfortable with pulling the front off ("service position") and/or dropping the engine/subframe out for most major repairs. Apparently neither is really as time consuming as you think, and once you do it, you can access things. pretty easily.
If the piston you put the screwdriver on isn't moving up and down as the engine is turned over then that piston is not connected to the crankshaft or the crankshaft itself is broken...that is a lot worse than just a big end bearing being shot.
Hi Howard, the piston does move when the crank is turned but there is a big lag. Looked worse there because the piston was at the bottom so less up/down movement as the crank goes over BTC but we also checked mid stroke and we estimate 1 to 2 mm of free movement on the big end. He bought the car when it had been laid up a couple of years and he could only test it on a driveway with the engine still cold. But it was cheap enough and it is a project car so he can take his time. Cheers
Nasty result, nice cars those so it's a shame it's eaten a big end. Were you to do a post mortem on the engine I suspect you'd find that the sparkly bits in the oil are the remains of a pulverised big end bearing, you'd likely also find that the crank journal will be toast, con rod likely damaged too so a replacement engine is the easiest way to go, at least it looks as if you have decent access to everything there. Good luck!
Hi Jason it's a heck of a lump that engine. Weighs about 500lb with the ancillaries (about 230Kg). About the same as the Herbert surface grinder but handle to handle. It will probably come out with the gearbox on too. Hopefully get the front off the car for access. Cheers
Sadly most of the auto manufactures have one or several models with major issues. One really needs to do there homework these days. Toyota and Honda are still getting it done.
My cousin loves the VW diesels "Jetta wagon" he uses them as delivery vehicles and gets 500K miles with few problems. I'm not sure if we can even get them here in the US anymore after the EPA scandal.
Hopefully the engine swap goes smoothly.
Cheers....
Hopefully the day will come when engine designers have reliable computer driven simulators to highlight any potential weaknesses with a particular engine design🤣🤣
Dean, we are all heading to 'EV land' where cars have far fewer parts but, to paraphrase you, most traditional manufacturers need to do there homework and will be consigned to History if not careful. Think old Nokia, Blackberry, Kodak etc. The VW scandal did not pay out much here, we are not as litigious as the US. We just smile and carry on. He'll put the order in for the replacement engine soon - he knows a guy who will recover a good one and then do the prep on filters and chains etc. No warranty of course. He could make the best of two and take a chance on reusing the stretch bolts 😮, assuming he can get gaskets. Chance you take. Cheers.
Take the oil pan off to see what really happened and what the actual damage is. Also check the inside using a boroscope to see if the valves are looking oke and are properly moving: may be the head is salvageable? Good luck: you need it because changing an engine the first time is a very big job I can now tell you after changing a lupo 1.4 engine (tiny) twice: second time it is much easier.
Hi Spixy we watched a teardown on these. There is a pan and then there is like a 2nd pan (a large baffle plate just as big as the pan bolted all round), and then if I remember all the crank bearings are built into the lower casting like Japanese motorbikes with webbing across. And I don't think any of these come off with the engine in. It's a big job. Cheers
@HaxbyShed I watched ruclips.net/video/jEyEmmJcb7M/видео.htmlsi=RFke-GiODmfzrJwx and indeed this is a monster of an engine! 2 V4 bolted together which is very impressive.
Yep, that's the one we watched. They only made the W8 for the Passat - no other car. They are the same as the W12s in the Bentley, Phaeton, Touareg and Audi A8 but with a shorter block (4 in a bank not 6 in a bank). And apparently you can't get the bits for that generation of the W12 either. Cheers
@@HaxbyShed and possibly this configuration is also used in the bugatti vayron. Very interesting. Never looked specifically at vag V blocks.
Well, that's not good...
Nope, it was a nasty surprise. These engines are quite rare and apparently you can make a coffee table out of the cylinder block and a glass top, and sell them for quite a bit. Well we'll see if that's true or just an urban myth. Cheers