Just a quick question....

[GrowinHuge4U]

How much does the engine of a vw bug weigh?

I don't really know but based on volume I don't think it could be much more than 150 pounds. I tried searching the internet for an hour and learned a lot about Volkswagen and engines but never did find a place that said how much the engines alone weigh.

[nutzy2222]

probibly around 200 to 300lbs.

[CelticMuscle]

What is the size of an Volkswagen engine?

[COLOR=red]Between 1.1 and 1.5 litres[/COLOR]

How heavy would it be?

[COLOR=red]Engines are made of aluminium which has a density of 2,640[/COLOR]

To find the weight, you times one by the other

[nutzy2222]

so basicly 2904lbs and 3960lbs.

[GrowinHuge4U]

In other words, this friend of mine is hella strong.

[nutzy2222]

id say so

I'm not an auto person but check your math and your assumptions.

I believe that the figure 2,623 (or whatever it was) is a European decimal which would be written 2.623 in America. In other words Aluminum is about two and a half times as dense as water.

A 3,900 pound engine in a Volkswagon seems just a bit heavy :-)

I was under the impression that the "displacement" of an engine was the total volume of the maximum combined space in the combustion chambers. Empty space doesn't weigh very much at all :-)

1.1 litre isn't very big. About the size of a quart milk container.

When you look at a Volkswagen Bug engine the volume of the entire thing isn't very big. I tried to imagine it made of iron and all scrunched up into a solid mass then flattened out into the size of a typical big Olympic weight plate. (45 pounder). The double thick ones are 100 pounds. Perhaps the engine would be as big as two 100 pound plates but I don't think a Volkswagen engine is the size of 40 plates weighing 100 pound each!

Sometimes a calculator is not the correct tool to begin problem analysis with.

And iron is about two and a half times more dense (heavier) than aluminum. So 3900 pounds of aluminum (almost two tons!) would be two and a half times more massive than the space occupied by 80 standard Olympic plates. That would be as much space as 200 plates!!!

Density of fresh water is approximately 1.0 gram per cubic centimeter (g/cc) depending on temperature.

Density of materials that float on fresh water:
oak 0.7 g/cc
vegetable oil 0.9 g/cc
ice 0.9 g/cc

Density of materials that don't float on fresh water:
seawater 1.02 g/cc
glass 2.6
aluminum 2.6
iron 7
steel 8
copper 9
silver 10
gold 19
iridium 22

One cubic foot of water weighs about 62 and a half pounds. A Volkswagon engine isn't much more total space than two cubic feet so that's about 125 pounds of water but would be about 125 x 2.6 or 325 pounds of aluminum. It's not all aluminum because the crankshaft is probably steel.

All in all, from various ways of attacking this problem I think we can say that a Volkswagon engine weighs somewhere in the range 200-400 pounds. Yes, lifting a Volkswagon engine would be impressive.

Along the same analogy, 3900 pounds, two tons of aluminum would occupy 24 cubic feet of space. That is a standard pickup truck bed 8 foot long, 4 foot wide, filled 8 inches thick with solid aluminum. (kind'a where the name "2-ton truck" came from! :-)

And just so this post has something to say about muscles, Human beings float or sink depending on muscle density, fat content and lung volume. Fat guys float easily, a toned, pre-contest bodybuilder might have a hard time keeping his head above water.

Sorry about the little science lesson but I couldn't resist.

[sexiscriptor]

it was completely irrelevent but completely appreciated
Thanks for the heuristic analyses, gryphon!

[nutzy2222]

well i guess when i did the math i multiplied wrong, sorry!

Not a problem. Your math was exactly correct!

The data you had to work with was correct also but it wasn't what was necessary to give the correct answer. All the pieces in themselves were valid information but they didn't fit together properly.