is there a way to identify a vw motor Horse power and year with the serial number?

Answer 1

If you are talking about the old Bugs or Buses then yes you can easily tell. Another person mentioned John Muir's book "Volkswagen repair for the complete Idiot". It is one of the very best books on those cars and was written so that folks who had never worked on a vehicle in their life could maintain and even overhaul their bugs and buses and large numbers did. It has a chart in there with the breakdown on all the serial number series that tell which year and horsepower a particular engine is. Like has been mentiioned before the engines swap from year to year easily so could have a 70 motor in a 66 bug, and even the other way around. That book which is in almost all libraries and book stores has been reprinted many times over the years and there are versions to cover the later water cooled model s as well. He died some years back, but his family continued printing the book and updating it. I have an old copy that came in a 70 Bus that I bought and it is covered in dirt and grime from the many times I have used it myself. Now if you are talking about the newer VW products of course none of this helps. :-)

Answer 2

In older VWs, you have no assurance that what you are looking at is original engine. So, the year of the bug's body may not help.

To really get it all, you need two numbers off the car:
* the engine number, which should be on the "pink slip" or title papers, but if not, it's stamped onto the engine (just under the generator in old bugs; on the block halves in newer bugs).
* the body number. If you lift the back seat, you see a black shiny inspection plate cover at the end of the gear shifter tunnel. Right in front of that, stamped into the tunnel housing is the body number.

Now the local VW dealer can track it all down for you. You have two options:
1. Drive to a nearby VW dealership. They can pop the hood and tell you the year and horsepower by examination (no charge). If that's all you need, you're done.
2. If you can't GO to a VW dealership, call them. Ask for the Parts Department. With the engine number, they can tell you what year it was made, it's horsepower, etc. If you want to take it a bit further, give them the body number and they can tell you when it was made, even down to what day of the week (Lemon Law).

The Parts Dept may be hesitant since they are busy with counter customers and what you are talking will take 10-15 minutes. The only other way is to write a letter to Volkswagon of America in New Jersey. Give them your numbers and wait. To do that, you'll need the Dealership Parts guy to give you VoA's address.

Good luck.
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Answer 3

I have a chilton V W repair book. Its copywrite is 1971. And it list all the chassis numbers that V W had on their vehicles and cross refferences them to the exact year and hp a particular car would have. It has the engine numbers also and the series letter. That number is located under the generator pedistal. The book is called " Chiltons repair and tune-up guide for Volkswagen 1949 to 1971. I hope that helps.

Answer 4

Book with everything about VW's..."Step by step guide for the complete idiot...VW guide". Has types 1,the bug, 2,the bus & 3, the square back. Book has everything you will need or want to know about the BUG.

Answer 5

Jtexas has your answer. Evinrude used an common device back then. first no. HP and next style turn into the final digit of the year......the two potential this is a "short shaft" a three could be a protracted shaft.