Comments by "Keit Hammleter" (@keithammleter3824) on "3D 🤯 Analyzing one of the Best-Selling engines in the world. The VW Beetle Air Cooled" video.

  1. "Down 2 cylinders" most likely means the mechanic did a standard compression test. It is quite normal for air cooled VW engines to have little or no compression on test on one or more cylinders due to burnt exhaust valves from overheating. But during driving, the power output is nearly normal, as gas finds it hard to escape through a tiny gap. The main symptoms are not lack of power, they include a lot of popping and banging going down hill, being slightly hard to start, and rough idle.
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  2. This video is amusing. It mentioned the use of centrifugal and vacuum advance as though they were special features of VW. By the time VW production started, centrif and vacuum advance had been standard in almost all makes for years. I recall the Porsche engine had only centrif advance. The VW engine was a shocking thing, absolute rubbish. It may have been alright in 985 cc form in a little Beetle in relatively cold Germany. Here in Australia, made in 1200 cc form and larger, hot climate, they all overheated. Due to burnt valves, when Beetles were common you would hear them running rough, and when going down hills, continually popping and banging due to unburnt fuel/air mix being pumped into the exhaust. A large company I worked for bought a fleet of 1600 cc Kombis. We typically loaded them to approaching the certified weight limit, as any business would. The result of this commercial service at Australian speed limits was engines ruined in as short as one year. I remember visiting the service garage we had a contract with. Down one side of the shop they had a row of about 20 partly dissassembled VW engines - all showing clear signs of overheating. Because of the boxer layout, the engines when new were very smooth. Drivers used to think they were ok at low revs, and use too high a gear, causing bearing damage. If you kept the revs up high, it would be very noisy, but the engines would last longer. Until about 5-10 years ago you still saw Kombis occaisonally. Survival of the fittest - they all had large external forward-facing air scoops the owners fitted to get more air flow over the engine, to try and keep it a bit cooler. VW scrimped on wiring. It was quite normal to see Beetles at night with one headlight much dimmer than the other. Other 6 volt cars did not show this trouble.
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