VW Engine Number Decoder

Air-cooled Volkswagen Type 1 engine in the open bay of a patina Beetle: gold-zinc fan shroud, orange Bosch distributor cap

VW engine number decoder

VW Engine Number DecoderThe number on the case, read straight.

The chassis decoder tells you the engine number is a different number, stamped somewhere else, and leaves you there. This is the other half. Type what is on the machined flat under the generator stand and get displacement, years, market, whichever horsepower standards the record prints, and what the sources argue about.

Decode an engine numberChassis number instead — that is the car, not the engine
103
Entries in the record
20
Prefixes with more than one answer
3
Checks you can do at the car
Free
Nothing to install or sign up for

Tool one

Read the number off the case.

Type it as you see it; spaces, dots and hyphens do not matter. If the prefix has more than one reading you get all of them, because picking one is how people end up with the wrong heads.

Try AE0123456 (four readings), 1-1277347 (a pre-letter serial) or AS41 (what most people misread as the number).

Type what is stamped on the case.

Tool two

What should be in it?

Pick the car and the year and see what the factory fitted. The answer splits three ways: codes the record scopes to your market, codes in production that year but never scoped by market, and codes it starts but never ends.

Pick a vehicle, a year and a market. The tools need JavaScript; the tables below do not.

Tool three

Three things you can check standing at the car.

Nothing here needs a spanner. Answer what you can see and you get what it implies, what it buys, and how it squares with the number above.

Look at the bottom left of the case for round plugs about the size of a coin, with a flat screwdriver slot facing the ground. How many are there? One sits at the pulley end near the oil pump, the other at the flywheel end. This is the highest-value physical check on the engine.

Caveat. This check is not fully reliable, and we would rather tell you that than let you lean on it. Cases get retrofitted, late Brazilian single-relief cases carry most of the dual-relief improvements but simply lack the second plunger drilling, and some AS21 cases are single relief. Count the plugs, then sanity-check against the rest of the engine. The sources place the changeover at 1971. JBugs' oil-pump table gives single relief 1961-1970 and dual 1971-1979. EMPI's booster kits are catalogued single for 1969 and earlier and dual for 1971 and later, leaving 1970 unassigned. For a 1969 to 1971 case, count the plugs rather than trusting the year.

Look at where the intake manifold meets the cylinder heads. Is the manifold one continuous piece, or is it joined to the heads by rubber sleeves? On top of the engine, either side of the carburetor.

Caveat. The 8 mm and 6 mm figures here are intake manifold studs. Head studs are a different measurement on a different part of the engine, and mixing the two up is an easy way to buy the wrong hardware. Single port through 1970 and dual port from 1971 holds across the carbureted range. The one exception in the other direction is the B and B6 1600, which is single port in 1970 while already being dual relief.

Look at the fan shroud. Is the oil cooler inside it, standing in line with the fan, or is it sitting in a small box on the back of the shroud, offset from the fan? Behind and above the engine, in or on the fan shroud.

Caveat. For the seals, go by the case rather than the cooler. Cases through 1969 have 8 mm oil galleries; 1970 and later cases have 10 mm. A 1970-or-later case takes seal 021117151A with any cooler. A 1946-69 case takes 111117151 with an early 8 mm cooler, 113198029 with the revised 10 mm early cooler, and 021117151A with a doghouse. Both coolers fit all years but not without tinwork changes and the right seals, and retrofitting a doghouse to a pre-1971 case needs an adapter plus four seals. 1971 is the changeover for the Type 1. The research gives no Bus-specific variation on the doghouse timing.

Answer what you can see.

Decode a number above and answer at least one hardware question, and this will reconcile the two.

Where to look

Where the number is, and what it is not.

The pad

Stand at the back of the car with the lid open. The generator, or the alternator from 1973, sits on a cast pedestal on top of the case. Directly below it, on the machined flat where the two case halves bolt together, is the engine number, facing rearward. It is normally readable past the belt and usually caked in oil, so wipe it and get a light and a phone camera under there.

Three exceptions before you call the pad blank. On a 1972-and-later Bus it is in front of the breather tower. On a Type 3 it is on the right-hand case half beside the oil cooler. On a Type 4 it is in front of the distributor on the fan shroud and on the case behind it; read the case, because the shroud swaps.

The number itself

An optional letter prefix of one or two characters, then a sequential number of six to eight digits; the count moved across the production run. Before August 1965 there is no letter at all. A leading 1- or 20- is a type marker, not part of the serial; VW stopped printing it on 31 December 1955 while the sequence carried straight on. A trailing X is a VW exchange engine, though before October 1968 it was not stamped on. A leading E is a factory rebuild by VW in Spain, on one source only.

A blank pad is a documented normal state. VW sold replacement cases with no engine serial number at all, so a missing number does not mean the engine is not original and does not mean anything has been ground off. Decode from the hardware instead.
From April 1972 VW sold short blocks with no digits at all — just the remanufacture symbol and a letter — and instructed the dealer to stamp in the old engine number. A hand-stamped number on a post-1972 short block is not evidence of fraud and we will not tell you it is. What a factory die stamp looks like against a hand stamp is not established in anything we could source, so this tool makes no authenticity claims.

What you might be reading instead

That is the case alloy, not the engine number

AS41 and AS21 are ASTM magnesium alloy designations cast into the case, not stamped serials. A is aluminum and S is silicon, and the digits are the rough weight percentages: AS41 is magnesium with 4 percent aluminum and 1 percent silicon, AS21 is 2 and 1. Neither tells you the year. Your engine number is on the machined flat below the generator or alternator stand, facing the rear of the car, visible past the fan belt.

  • AS41 is the alloy confirmed in the metallurgical literature as VW's 1970s Beetle crankcase. AS21 came later and trades room-temperature strength and castability for better creep resistance.
  • AS31 is a real magnesium alloy but nothing in the record confirms it was ever a VW Type 1 case. If that is what you are reading, send us a photograph before you buy anything to suit it.
  • Which model years or engine codes got AS41 against AS21 is not established anywhere. Neither is where on the case the mark physically sits.
  • Do not assume AS21 means dual relief. Some AS21 cases are single relief.

That is a VW part number, not an engine number

Nine digits in three groups of three is a Volkswagen part number. 043 101 025 is the 1300 to 1600 dual-relief magnesium case itself. Part numbers are cast or stamped into the case halves in several places. The engine number is a single sequence on the machined pad below the generator or alternator stand.

  • Engine numbers run six to eight digits across the production run, usually behind a one or two letter prefix. If yours has a different digit count from someone else’s, that on its own means nothing.

On an early Type 3, R and N are compression marks

An R or an N appearing on the crankcase of a 1963 to 1967 Type 3 is a compression marking, R for high compression and N for low. It is not the engine-number prefix and it is mistaken for one all the time. The Type 3 engine number is on the right-hand case half beside the oil cooler, on top of the case along the crankcase joint.

  • Two dealer-style lists do carry R and N as Type 3 code letters at 52 hp, which is why both readings are shown above. Neither list gives years and neither says which power standard it is quoting.

That is the chassis number, not the engine number

The chassis number identifies the car; the engine number identifies the engine, and on an air-cooled VW the two part company easily because engines swap in an afternoon. They are recorded in different tables and neither decodes the other. For the engine, look on the machined flat below the generator or alternator stand, facing the rear of the car; on a Type 3, beside the oil cooler; on a 1972-and-later Bus, in front of the breather tower.

  • Volkswagen's own records do tie the factory-fitted engine number to the VIN. The Volkswagen Certificate lists it, but only if the original engine is still installed, and VW withholds the engine number for safety reasons when the engine has been replaced. That is exactly the person most likely to ask.
  • Kardex is a Porsche term. Nothing in the research confirms a VW equivalent that would recover a replaced engine's original number.

That is the firing order

That is the firing order, 1-4-3-2, cast above the number pad. Zündfolge is simply the German for it. The engine number is stamped below it, on the machined flat under the generator stand.

Reference

Every entry in the record.

All 103, grouped by family so a Type 4 row is never mistaken for an upright. An em dash means the record does not give that figure: 86 have no SAE and 45 no DIN, and we never convert one into the other. LAC in the Brazilian rows is unexplained everywhere in the record, so it is here too.

Every entry in the record, by family: displacement, bore and stroke, years, vehicle, market, DIN and SAE horsepower
Code cc and name Bore x stroke Years Vehicle, market DIN hp SAE hp Ports
Type 1 upright · 57
2 1192 1200, the 36 horse 77 x 64 1955 to 1965 Beetle, Ghia, Bus · All 30 36 single
5 1192 1200, the 40 horse 77 x 64 08/1960 to 07/1965 Beetle, Ghia, Bus · All 34 40 single
A 1192 1200 77 x 64 — to 07/1960 Beetle, Ghia, Bus · All — — single
D 1192 1200 77 x 64 08/1965 to 1985 Beetle, Ghia · All 34 40 single
D 1192 1200, Mexican production 77 x 64 01/1978 to 1985 Beetle · Mexico 34 — single
E 1285 1300 low compression 77 x 69 1966 to 1970 Beetle, Ghia · RoW 37 — single
F 1285 1300 77 x 69 1966 to 1970 Beetle, Ghia · All 40 50 single
H 1493 1500 83 x 69 1967 to 1970 Beetle, Ghia · All 44 53 single
H5 1493 1500, M157 emissions 83 x 69 1968 to 1969 Beetle, Ghia · USA/Can 44 53 single
L 1493 1500 low compression 83 x 69 1967 to 1970 Beetle, Ghia · RoW 40 — single
B 1584 1600 single port 85.5 x 69 08/1969 to 1970 Beetle, Ghia · USA/Can 47 57 single
AB 1285 1300 twin port 77 x 69 08/1970 to 07/1973 Beetle, Ghia · RoW 44 — twin
AC 1285 1300 twin port, low octane 77 x 69 1971 to 1972 Beetle, Ghia · RoW 40 — twin
AD 1584 1600 twin port 85.5 x 69 08/1970 to 07/1973 Beetle, Ghia, Bus · RoW 50 — twin
AE 1584 1600 twin port, 1971 USA 85.5 x 69 1971 to 1971 Beetle, Ghia · USA/Can 50 60 gross twin
AE 1584 1600 twin port, 1972-73 USA 85.5 x 69 1972 to 1973 Beetle, Ghia · USA/Can 48 48 net twin
AF 1584 1600 twin port, low octane 85.5 x 69 08/1970 to 01/1980 Beetle, Ghia, Bus · RoW 46 — twin
AH 1584 1600 twin port 85.5 x 69 08/1973 to 01/1974 Beetle, Ghia · USA/Can 48 46 net twin
AK 1584 1600 twin port 85.5 x 69 1973 to 1973 Beetle, Ghia · USA/Can 48 46 net twin
AJ 1584 1600 twin port, fuel injected 85.5 x 69 1975 to 1979 Beetle, Ghia · USA/Can 50 48 net twin
AR 1285 1300 twin port 77 x 69 08/1973 to 07/1975 Beetle, Ghia · RoW 44 — twin
AS 1584 1600 twin port 85.5 x 69 08/1973 to 07/1979 Beetle, Ghia, Bus · RoW 50 — twin
ACD 1584 1600 twin port, fuel injected, Mexican 85.5 x 69 10/1992 to 07/2003 Beetle · Mexico 46 — twin
G 1493 1500 83 x 69 — to 07/1965 Bus · All — — single
H 1493 1500 83 x 69 08/1965 to 07/1968 Bus · All — — single
D 1192 1200, Bus 77 x 64 05/1959 on, no end date Bus · All 34 40 single
L 1493 1500 low compression 83 x 69 11/1965 on, no end date Bus · RoW 40 — single
B 1584 1600 single port 85.5 x 69 08/1967 to 07/1970 Bus · All — — single
B5 1584 1600 single port, M157 emissions 85.5 x 69 1968 to 1970 Bus · USA/Can — — single
C 1600 or 1500 low compression — 08/1967 to 07/1970 Bus · RoW 44 — single
AE 1584 1600 twin port, Bus 85.5 x 69 08/1970 to 10/1972 Bus · USA/Can 50 60 gross twin
AB 1285 1300 twin port, Italy — 01/1971 to 07/1973 Bus · Italy 44 — twin
AR 1285 1300 twin port, Italy — 08/1973 to 07/1975 Bus · Italy 44 — twin
H 1493 1500, Type 181 83 x 69 08/1969 to 02/1971 Thing · RoW — — single
AG 1584 1600 twin port, Type 181 85.5 x 69 08/1970 to 07/1976 Thing · RoW 44 — twin
AL 1584 1600 twin port, Type 181 85.5 x 69 03/1973 to 07/1979 Thing · RoW 48 — twin
AM 1584 1600 twin port, Type 181 85.5 x 69 03/1973 to 07/1980 Thing · RoW 48 — twin
AF 1584 1600 twin port, Type 181 Safari 85.5 x 69 01/1974 to 01/1982 Thing · RoW 46 — twin
BA 1600 Brasilia — 1976 on, no end date — · Brazil — — —
BB 1600 Beetle — — — · Brazil — — —
BD 1600 Beetle, petrol — — — · Brazil — — —
BG 1600 petrol, Kombi and Kombi Exp — — — · Brazil — — —
BJ 1300 Beetle, petrol — — — · Brazil — — —
BK 1300 LAC, Beetle and Brasilia — — — · Brazil — — —
BM 1300 LAC, Gol — — — · Brazil — — —
BN 1600 petrol, Brazil — — — · Brazil — — —
BV 1600 petrol, Variant — — — · Brazil — — —
BX 1600 LAC, Kombi and Kombi Exp — — — · Brazil — — —
BY 1300 petrol, Gol — — — · Brazil — — —
BZ 1600 petrol, Van — — — · Brazil — — —
UF 1600 Beetle, petrol — — — · Brazil — — —
UG 1600 petrol, Van — — — · Brazil — — —
UJ 1600 LAC, Beetle — — — · Brazil — — —
UK 1600 LAC, Van — — — · Brazil — — —
UFA 1600 Beetle, petrol — — — · Brazil — — —
UJA 1600 LAC, Beetle — — — · Brazil — — —
UGA 1600 petrol, Van Carat — — — · Brazil — — —
Type 3 pancake · 9
K 1493 1500 high compression 83 x 69 08/1965 to 1972 Type 3, Type 34 · All 45 — single
M 1493 1500 low compression 83 x 69 08/1965 to 1972 Type 3, Type 34 · All — — single
T 1584 1600 high compression 85.5 x 69 08/1965 to 1973 Type 3, Type 34 · All 54 65 twin
P 1584 1600 low compression 85.5 x 69 1966 to 1967 Type 3, Type 34 · All 50 — twin
U 1584 1600 E/LE, Bosch D-Jetronic 85.5 x 69 1968 to 1973 Type 3, Type 34 · All 54 65 twin
U5 1584 1600 EFI, California 85.5 x 69 1971 to 1973 Type 3, Type 34 · USA/Can — — twin
X 1584 1600 85.5 x 69 1972 to 1973 Type 3, Type 34 · All — — twin
R 1493 1500S 83 x 69 — Type 3, Type 34 · All — — single
N 1493 1500 low compression 83 x 69 — Type 3, Type 34 · All — — single
Type 4 pancake · 11
CA 1679 1700 Type 4 — 08/1971 to 07/1973 Bus · RoW 66 — —
CB 1679 1700 Type 4 — 08/1971 to 12/1973 Bus · USA/Can 66 — —
CD 1679 1700 Type 4, automatic — 08/1972 to 12/1973 Bus · USA/Can 62 — —
CE 1679 1700 Type 4, automatic — 08/1972 to 07/1973 Bus · RoW 62 — —
AP 1795 1800 Type 4 — 08/1973 to 07/1975 Bus · RoW 68 — —
AW 1795 1800 Type 4 — 08/1973 to 07/1975 Bus · USA/Can 68 — —
ED 1795 1800 Type 4 — 03/1974 to 07/1975 Bus · USA/Can 68 — —
GD 1970 2000 Type 4, L-Jetronic — 08/1975 to 06/1977 Bus · USA/Can 70 — —
GE 1970 2000 Type 4, L-Jetronic — 08/1976 to 07/1979 Bus · USA/Can 70 — —
CJ 1970 2000 Type 4 — 08/1975 to 07/1979 Bus · RoW 70 — —
AT 1795 1800 Type 4, twin carburetor — 1974 to 1974 — · RoW — — —
T3 / Vanagon · 3
CT 1584 1.6 air-cooled T3 — 1979 to 1982 — · RoW 50 — —
CU 1970 2000 Type 4, carburetor — 1980 to 1983 — · All 70 — —
CV 1970 2000 Type 4, L-Jetronic — 1980 to 1983 — · All 70 — —
Over-the-counter replacement cases · 6
F1 Replacement case, 1300 or 1600 — — — · All — — —
F2 Replacement case, 1300 or 1600 — — — · All — — —
AD 1584 Replacement case, 1600 — — — · All — — —
AK Replacement case, 1967-74 1500 or 1600 — 1967 to 1974 — · All — — —
AS Replacement case, sometimes listed as a 1973-on Super Beetle case — 1973 on, no end date — · All — — —
AM 1584 Replacement case, 1600 — — — · All — — —
Industrial engines · 6
122 Industriemotor 1.2 — 08/1950 to 07/1991 — · All 25 — —
122/1 Industriemotor 1.2, higher output — 08/1950 to 07/1991 — · All 30 36 —
124 Industriemotor 1.5 — 08/1950 to 07/1991 — · All 45 — —
126 Industriemotor — 05/1962 on, no end date — · All — — —
262 Industriemotor 1.8 — 12/1977 to 03/1994 — · All 67 — —
496 Industriemotor 1.6 — 12/1977 to 03/1994 — · All 64 — —
Markers and things that are not engine codes · 11
1- Type 1 prefix, not part of the serial — — to 12/1955 Beetle, Ghia · All — — —
20- Type 2 prefix, not part of the serial — — to 12/1955 Bus · All — — single
6- Industrial engine prefix — — — · All — — —
X Exchange engine suffix — 10/1968 on, no end date — · All — — —
E Factory rebuild prefix, Spain — — — · Spain — — —
SF South African factory prefix — — — · S. Africa — — —
AE Modern water-cooled AE, not an air-cooled engine — 1999 on, no end date — · All 50 — —
ANC 1.9 SDI marine diesel, not an air-cooled engine — — — · All 60 — —
ANF 2.5 SDI marine diesel, not an air-cooled engine — — — · All 75 — —
ANG 2.5 TDI marine diesel, not an air-cooled engine — — — · All 120 — —
O 1493 Almost certainly a misread zero, not a letter 83 x 69 04/1961 to 07/1965 Type 3, Type 34 · All — — single

Wide table — scroll it sideways on a phone

Before the letters

Bare serials, 1945 to July 1965.

No prefix, just digits. The gap between the two series is in the table because it is in the record; a number landing in it needs a factory record, not a guess.

Pre-1965 bare serial ranges, including the gap the record does not cover
Serial range Engine Years DIN hp SAE hp What the record will not tell you
1 to 1,100,000 1131 cc 1100, 25 hp, or 1192 cc 1200, 30 hp 1945 to roughly mid 1955 — — The 1- prefix era covers both engines and the record does not fix the point where 1131 became 1192. We will not draw a line the sources do not support. Below about 1 100 000 and before 1954, a 1131 cc 25 hp engine is possible. Above that you are almost certainly looking at the 1192. The 1- is a type marker, not part of the number. VW printed it until 31 December 1955 and then dropped it while the sequence carried on unbroken. Verified year-end marks: 1-090732 at the end of 1946, 1-0122649 December 1948, 1-0265600 December 1950, 1-0519136 December 1952, 1-0945526 December 1954, 1-1277347 December 1955. The 1945 figure is printed as 2-079093 with an anomalous prefix. It is reproduced here as the source prints it. The 1131 stroke of 64 mm is an inference, not a confirmed figure. Bore of 75 mm is confirmed; 75 by 64 arithmetically gives 1131 cc, but no page states the stroke.
1,100,001 to 3,930,000 1200, the 36 horse roughly mid 1955 to July 1960 30 36 Single port, 77 by 64, 22 kW, 7.0:1, 6V generator, magnesium case. The prefix disappears inside this band. December 1955 is 1-1277347 and January 1956 is 1311073 with no 1-, the same run continuing. Verified marks: 1678209 December 1956, 2156321 December 1957, 2721313 December 1958, 3424453 December 1959, 3927802 July 1960. This is where the 2, 3 and 4 of the code tables come from. They are millions digits, not prefixes. The lower bound of 1 100 000 is approximate. The sources do not fix it.
3,930,001 to 5,000,000 No record gap between the two series — — The record does not support an answer here. Series A ends around 3 927 802 in July 1960 and Series B opens at 5 000 001 in August 1960. A number in this gap needs checking against a factory record or a Bentley manual. Do not force it into either series.
5,000,001 to 9,247,363 1200, the 40 horse August 1960 to around the turn of 1965 34 40 Single port, 77 by 64, 25 kW, 7.0:1, 6V generator, magnesium case. A brand-new sequence opened at 5 000 001 for model year 1961. The 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of the code tables are the leading digits of this run. Verified marks: 5073407 August 1960, 5958948 July 1961, 6935203 July 1962, 7893118 July 1963, 8796622 July 1964, 9239890 December 1964.
9,247,364 to 9,725,086 1200, the 40 horse, VW D stamping band around January 1965 to July 1965 34 40 Same engine as the band below it. What changes is the marking: past 9 247 364 the factory added a separate VW D stamped below the serial. Look for that second stamping before you decide a number is wrong or has been altered. 9247364 falls between December 1964 at 9239890 and January 1965 at 9289000. July 1965 at 9725086 is the last pre-letter number. From August 1965 the letter prefixes start, with D0 016 999 and F0 115 030.
17 and up, no established upper bound Type 3 1500, no letter prefix April 1961 to July 1965 — — Type 3 engines before August 1965 used a simple numerical sequence with no letter prefix. April 1961 runs 0 000 017 to 0 000 065. This is the answer behind the phantom O code. A leading zero in 0 000 017 reads as the letter O once it is copied into a table. Four variant columns ran in parallel and the bare number alone will not tell you which you have: 1500 at 45 hp, 1500 M240 at 41 hp, 1500 S at 54 hp, and 1500 S M240 at 52 hp. Aircooled Community quotes 53 bhp for the 1961 1500, 54 for the 1500N and 66 for the 1500S, apparently on a different standard. Nobody labels their column. The upper bound is not established. The letter era begins in August 1965 with K0 004 204, but where the bare sequence stopped is not printed anywhere in the research. The number is stamped on the right-hand case half beside the oil cooler, along the crankcase joint, not under a generator stand. An R or N on the crankcase of a 1963-67 Type 3 is a compression marking, R for high and N for low. It is not the engine-number prefix.

Upright or Type 4 — the line published tables get wrong

Through model year 1971 every Bus engine is a Type 1 upright. From 1972 in the USA and Canada every Bus engine is a Type 4 pancake. Outside the USA and Canada the upright ran alongside the Type 4 until July 1979, so a 1976 European or Italian Bay can legitimately be an upright.

Sources: TheSamba letter tables, serial archive and forum threads, Aircooled.net, JBugs, lightner.net, Heritage Parts Centre, Volkswagen Classic Parts, CSP, ETKA, Cool Air VW, Limebug, davidplanella, Aircooled Community, The Autopian, Springer and Wikipedia.

Now buy the right thing

Start from the part family.

Decode a number above and these narrow to your vehicle.

What these links cannot do. They narrow by part family and vehicle, nothing more. Displacement, bore, port count, 6V against 12V and case type do not exist as filters on this catalog, so we will not pretend to filter by them. Take the bore and port count off your decode and match them in the titles.

Questions

The things people ask us.

Where exactly is the engine number on an air-cooled VW?
Below the generator or alternator stand, on the machined flat where the two crankcase halves bolt together, facing the rear of the car, normally readable past the fan belt. On a 1972-and-later Bus it is in front of the breather tower, on a Type 3 beside the oil cooler, and on a Type 4 on the case behind the fan shroud.
My engine has no number on the pad at all. What does that mean?
A blank pad is a documented normal state. VW sold replacement cases with no engine serial number on them, so a missing number does not mean the engine is not original and does not mean anything has been ground off.
The number looks hand-stamped. Has it been faked?
Not necessarily. From April 1972 VW sold short blocks with no digits, just the remanufacture symbol and a letter, and told the dealer to stamp in the old engine number. A hand-stamped number on a post-1972 short block is what VW asked for.
Why does one prefix come back with several different answers?
Because the record carries several. 20 of the prefixes here have more than one reading, and picking one would be a guess dressed up as an answer.
Why is the horsepower blank on so many codes?
DIN and SAE are two ways of measuring the same engine and most sources print one or the other. 86 of the 103 entries have no SAE figure and 45 no DIN. Converting one into the other invents a number nobody can stand behind.
Why is there no compression ratio for my Bus engine?
Almost nothing in the record gives one. Only 2 of the 27 entries that list a Bus carry a compression ratio at all; the other 25 are blank, and we would rather show the blank than borrow a figure off a Beetle.
My decoded year and the engine in front of me do not match. Which one is right?
Trust the hardware for choosing parts. Treat the mismatch as a swap or a rebuild rather than a fault in the decode, and buy to the plug count, port count and cooler you can see.
Is a 1976 European Bus an upright or a Type 4?
It can legitimately be an upright. Outside the USA and Canada the upright carried on alongside the Type 4 until July 1979. Published tables usually get that wrong.
Row of stripped VW floorpans standing in the sun, seen from inside the dark Washburn's Metal shop

Talk to a person

Send us a photograph of the pad.

If the number is unreadable, or decodes to something that cannot be in your car, that is worth a phone call. We would rather spend ten minutes on the phone than process the return.

Parts, fitment and general(657) 438-7002
Chassis number decoderBeetle M-code decoderM-plate decoderEngine build calculatorCompression ratio calculatorAll our decoders