The team are offering additional services this year of engine servicing as well as rebuilding. Again, their experience means that those niggly issues with your engine can be addressed by people who live and breathe these machines. This is for Beetle engines, Splitscreens, Bay windows and T25s but petrol engines only. Everything from a 1300cc up to some huge 2.3 litre beasts if that is what you want.
Next over is the storage racks of cleaned, painted and tested crankcases, with around 20 on the rack ready to build up. This is also where they check the crankshafts, machining them if required and repair the edges of the cases if they have damage where they need to be bolted to other components.
Once the case has been chosen, machined if required for larger heads and is ready, it goes to the engine build room. Sam who was doing customer engine work is normally in here building engines but today instead it was Michael, preparing engine heads and putting the final touches to another customer engine and cold testing yet another. The testing also allows them to measure oil pressure and record cylinder compression levels in their high-tech A4 diary. You don’t need technology for everything, and it is much easier than having to start up a computer each time! To test the paper trail, we looked at Poppy’s engine, noted the engine number and looked it up in the book. The engine was built on Friday 27th October 2023 by Sam, and we can see the test results.
Back out to main reception, James then showed me the warehouse storeroom where there are over 150 engines all finished as long blocks, sitting on pallets, and bolted inside metal frames to keep them protected. These were ready for shipping and the number was very high during my visit as the season was about to start and they simply cannot keep up with spring demand otherwise!
With these pallets, you can order the long block and have it delivered to your house or your local mechanic. The engine can then be removed from your vehicle and stripped of the tinware, fan, alternator, fuel pump, distributor, oil cooler and so on. The new engines are supplied with a new oil cooler though. Then rebuild those parts onto the new arrival and fit back into the vehicle. Then the old block complete with rocker covers at each end can be bolted into the metal frame on the pallet and the VW engine company will arrange for the pallet to be shipped back to their HQ for rework. And so the process begins again. I was surprised to find that shipping the engine to you and the old one back to them comes to a total for both journeys of just £168! Given that they are inside the ULEZ zone at £12.50 for older vehicles and I used the Dartford crossing both ways, I spent a good chunk of that heading over there myself!
On the turnkey side, if you rock up with your vehicle, they can also offer extra bits – refinishing your tinware to get it looking good, a new 123 distributor, upgrade to electronic ignition if you want to retain the distributor, add an electronic fuel pump. Almost anything can be done there.
As you can tell, this is an impressive operation filled with passionate experts, helping to keep our vehicles running properly. This is not a budget operation, and the word-of-mouth recommendations are extremely strong.
As a reminder, example prices to our club are:
A 1641cc long block engine with a reconditioned crank case = £2,200+vat
A 1641cc long block engine with a new crank case = £2,700+vat
A 1776cc long block engine with a new crank case, big valve heads, mild road camshaft = £3,400+vat
These prices are based on an exchange process with your old engine. During this interim period a surcharge deposit is held of £400+vat. Once your old engine is returned this deposit can be refunded. In the event of your old engine not being “serviceable” they will contact you to explain, send pictures if necessary and a proportionate value of deposit may need to be retained which is understandable.
Knowing what I know now about their operation, I’d have had Eric the Viking’s engine done here. Poppy’s engine was swapped by our local, tame mechanic but in fact, driving Poppy over to Biggin Hill, the team could have done it all for me.
James and I loaded Poppy’s shiny, new 1776cc engine into the boot of my car and I headed off to Aylesbury to see Poppy and deliver it to our mechanic ready for reinstallation. All engines come with a 12-month unlimited mileage warranty. Not that I expect to need that – these are built with the best quality parts, sourced from America, Brazil, Denmark amongst others to give longevity of your new engine to ensure that you get as much time with it as possible.
Instead of getting your local mechanic working on your engine that has not run correctly for many years, consider taking it to James and the team. Or take the vehicle and have them change the engine. Or they can just supply the main part of the engine for someone else to do the fun bits. Whatever you choose to do, don’t forget to mention your membership of the club to get the discount that varies depending on which engine you need.
Example prices for a turnkey solution where you take your vehicle over (club prices, not available to the public) are:
Turnkey Service £595+vat (transfer all of your engine’s bits from the old to the new engine)
Basic service parts (oil, fan belt, fuel filter, ancillary nuts and bolts etc) £70+vat
Engine removal and refitting £495+vat
Plus any potential ancillary replacements that may be required or that you may wish to be replaced at the same time.
Lead times depend on the time of year but would be typically 3 to 8 weeks’ notice, and your vehicle would need to be with them for about 2 weeks.
My thanks to James, Patricia and the team at the VW Engine Company for showing me around and helping me to understand in depth about the operation and what they can offer us.