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Volkswagen Air-Cooled Engine

Automotive Engines

The Volkswagen air-cooled engine is a flat four cylinder, rear mounted engine design used in the Volkswagen Beetle and Type 2 beginning in the late 1930s and produced for decades. Its simplicity, light weight and lack of a liquid cooling system made it inexpensive to build and maintain, and it became one of the most widely produced engine designs of the twentieth century.

Facts
Year
1936 1
Significance
An iconic horizontally opposed four-cylinder engine widely used in Volkswagen vehicles for seven decades and adapted for light aircraft and industrial use. 1
Manufacturer or Builder
Volkswagen 1
Displacement or Thrust
985 cc to 1,971 cc (approximately 1.0 to 2.0 litres) 1
Classification
Fuel or Cycle
Gasoline / Petrol 1
Configuration
Flat or Boxer 1
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Volkswagen Air-Cooled Engine
Wikipedia
  • Overview
    Variations of the engine were produced by Volkswagen plants worldwide from 1936 until 2006 for use in Volkswagen's own vehicles.
  • Aircraft section
    Limbach Flugmotoren has since 1970 produced more than 6,000 aircraft engines based on the Beetle engine.
  • Introduction, fuel type
    The Volkswagen air-cooled engine is an air-cooled, gasoline-fuelled, boxer engine with four horizontally opposed cast-iron cylinders.
  • Introduction, cylinder configuration
    The Volkswagen air-cooled engine is an air-cooled, gasoline-fuelled, boxer engine with four horizontally opposed cast-iron cylinders.
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