As I recall, my old 1962 VW had an air-cooled aluminum/magnesium alloy engine. It was very lightweight and apparently strong enough to take a beating, considering it was air-cooled.
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As I recall, my old 1962 VW had an air-cooled aluminum/magnesium alloy engine. It was very lightweight and apparently strong enough to take a beating, considering it was air-cooled.
your VW engine had a magnesium block, cast iron cylinders, and aluminum heads. it also put out about 45 hp. the blocks do eventually get beated out of shape by the crank and have to be line bored when they are rebuilt.
aluminum is used on motocross bike frames, I can't think of anything other then aircraft that stress a frame more.
