What can i do to improve the performance of my VW Bus?

I am an owner of a 1970 VW Bus and enjoy driving it however, i am not a mechanic and i wanted to get some opinions things i could do to modify my car to make it run better overall. Suggestions along with an approximate price estimate as to how much it would cost are greatly appreciated, thanksWhat can i do to improve the performance of my VW Bus?Information.



Get yourself a copy of John Muir's book, "How to keep your volkswagon alive, a guide for the compleat idiot" . . . It's a basic guide on how to fix a lot of things that will go wrong with your VW, and is full of info on how to keep it running well.



The air-cooled VW's need frequent oil changes because they don't have oil filters. If you were to make one modification to your bus, adding an external oil cooler and oil filter would be the very best thing you could do. Then, you should learn how to adjust the valves. Sure, it sounds intimidating to a mechanical novice, but keeping the valves properly adjusted is the other very very important thing you gotta do. It the valves are too loose, the engine sounds like it's full of crickets. If the valves are too tight, the engine will overheat and burn up. But once you learn how to do it, the whole process goes pretty quick.



Also, keep in mind that the VW bus wasn't designed as a racing or performance vehicle. Zero - to - sixty isn't supposed to impress anyone; the engines only have about 67 horsepower. You're doing good to climb a steep hill with passengers.



If your heater is still working, you might want to look around in your leisure time and see if you can find replacement heater parts, just to have on hand for when they do go out. Just a thought . . .



Best wishes,What can i do to improve the performance of my VW Bus?all it takes is money, you can add some performance modifications, it depends on what engine you have already, I know years ago they used to sell a big daddy kit for vw that pumped it up into a good strong engine, you can go single or dual cabs, with some exhaust modification that worked well and sounded better. If money is not a problem, there is a Porsche engine that was a bolt in back then. It was aw some it transformed a clattering noisy bus into this whisper quiet vehicle that whooshed past you going up a hill, (which those of us who had buses did not do any whooshing up hills anyway) I will do some checking on line and see what I find out
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there are a lot of vw parts places, depending on what you are looking for, its a matter of researching what you want. A stock fresh 1,600 would probably work fine, or you can go bigger it all depends on how much cash you wanted to spend. something else I remembered about some older engines was it was a good idea to adjust the valves with each tune up which not every body did. but nowadays you can turbocharge a vw motor and make a real powerhouse out of one. do your research, find some vw forums and talk to the people who have already done what you want to do. best of luck.What can i do to improve the performance of my VW Bus?Trying to add horsepower will shorten life span, so I don't recommend that.

What I do recommend is moving the oil cooler to an external location, so that you don't preheat cylinder #3 any more.

It also would not hurt to add a spin on oi filter and deep oil sump while you are at it.What can i do to improve the performance of my VW Bus?
New aftermarket camshaft



New aftermarket induction parts (e.g. air filter)



New exhaust system.



Make the van lighter by emoving unneccessary things.



Take it in for a service.



All will improve speed and horsepower.