The Volkswagen air-cooled engine is an

air-cooled Air-cooled engines rely on the circulation of air directly over heat dissipation fins or hot areas of the engine to cool them in order to keep the engine within operating temperatures. In all combustion engines, a great percentage of the heat ge ...

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic c ...

-fuelled, boxer engine with four horizontally opposed cast-iron

cylinder A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an ...

s, cast aluminum alloy

cylinder head In an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head (often abbreviated to simply "head") sits above the cylinders and forms the roof of the combustion chamber. In sidevalve engines, the head is a simple sheet of metal; whereas in more modern o ...

s and pistons,

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic ...

-alloy crankcase, and forged steel

crankshaft A crankshaft is a mechanical component used in a piston engine to convert the reciprocating motion into rotational motion. The crankshaft is a rotating shaft containing one or more crankpins, that are driven by the pistons via the connecti ...

and

connecting rod A connecting rod, also called a 'con rod', is the part of a piston engine which connects the piston to the crankshaft. Together with the crank, the connecting rod converts the reciprocating motion of the piston into the rotation of the crank ...

s. There are two distinct families/variations of the aircooled engine namely Type 1 and Type 4. The Type 3 engine is a variation of the Type 1 engine with pancake cooling arrangement. Variations of the engine were produced by Volkswagen plants worldwide from 1936 until 2006 for use in Volkswagen's own vehicles, notably the Type 1 (Beetle), Type 2 (bus, transporter), Type 3, and Type 4. Additionally, the engines were widely used in industrial, light aircraft and kit car applications.

Type 1: 1.0–1.6 litres

1200

The 1.2-litre engine is called ''Typ 122'' and has a displacement of .''Die Betriebsanleitung für den Volkswagen-Industriemotor Typ 122, Typ 126A.'' Volkswagen AG. Wolfsburg. March 1985. Page 29 As industrial engine, its rated power is at 3000 min⁻¹ without a

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

, the highest torque at 2000 min⁻¹. With a governor set to 8% accuracy, the rated power is at 3000 min⁻¹, the highest torque is at 2000 min⁻¹.
Änderungen nach August 1965
'' Nachtrag zur Betriebsanleitung des Industriemotors. August 1966 For other applications, the power and torque output may vary, e.g. On the Beetle produced at 3900 rpm and of torque at 2400 rpm.

Other applications

Beginning in 1987, Dunn-Right Incorporated of Anderson, South Carolina has made a kit to perform the conversion of a VW engine to a compressor.

Industrial

Volkswagen AG Volkswagen AG (), known internationally as the Volkswagen Group, is a German multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. The company designs, manufactures and distributes passenger and commercial ...

has officially offered these air-cooled boxer engines for use in industrial applications since 1950, lately under its Volkswagen Industrial Motor brand. Available in , , , , and outputs, from displacements of to , these Industrial air-cooled engines were officially discontinued in 1991.

Aircraft

The air-cooled opposed four-cylinder Beetle engines have been used for other purposes as well. Limbach Flugmotoren has since 1970 produced more than 6000 certified aircraft engines based on the Beetle engine.
Limbach L2400
Limbach L2000
Limbach L1700Limbach
Limbach Aero Engines Sauer has since 1987 produced certified engines for small airplanes and motorgliders,Carat motorglider
Carat motorglider. and is now also producing engines for the ultralight community in Europe.
Sauer Flugmotorenbau.
, Sauer in Groppo. Especially interesting is its use as an experimental aircraft engine. This type of VW engine deployment started separately in Europe and in the US. In Europe this started in France straight after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

using the engine in the Volkswagen Kübelwagen that were abandoned by the thousands in the country side and peaked with the JPX engine.JPX
JPX In the US this started in the 1960s when VW Beetle started to show up there.EAA Webinar John Monnett
John Monnett. A number of companies still produce aero engines that are Volkswagen Beetle engine derivatives: Limbach, Sauer, Hapi, Revmaster, Great Plains Type 1 Front Drive, Hummel, the AeroConversions AeroVee Engine, and others.

Kit planes Homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits.Armstrong, Kenn ...

or plans built experimental aircraft were specifically designed to utilize these engines. The VW air-cooled engine does not require an expensive and often complex gear reduction unit to utilize a propeller at efficient cruise RPM. With its relative low cost and parts availability, many experimental aircraft are designed around the VW engines. Formula V Air Racing uses aircraft designed to get maximum performance out of a VW powered aircraft resulting in race speeds above 160 mph.Formula V Air Racing
/ref> Some aircraft that use the VW engine are: Volkswagen engine Volksplane

Half VW

For aircraft use, a number of experimenters, who were seeking a small, two-cylinder, four-stroke engine, began cutting Type 1 VW engine blocks in half, creating a two-cylinder, horizontally opposed engine. The resulting engine produces . Plans and kits have been made available for these conversions. One such conversion is the ''Carr Twin'', designed by Dave Carr, introduced in January 1975, in the Experimental Aircraft Association's ''Sport Aviation'' magazine. The design won the John Livingston Award for its outstanding contribution to low cost flying and also was awarded the Stan Dzik Memorial Award for outstanding design. Other examples include the

Total Engine Concepts MM CB-40 Total Engine Concepts MM CB-40 is a four-stroke, two-cylinder, Half VW aircraft engine. Design and development The engine was progressively developed designed around Volkswagen air-cooled engine components. Global Motors originally designed a Hal ...

and Better Half VW. Some aircraft that use the Half VW engine are:

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Volkswagen Air Cooled Engine Air cooled Boxer engines Lists of automobile engines 1930s aircraft piston engines