So I have been looking for a fun little project car for sometime and I think I may have found the one, a 1967 Baja Bug that has been pretty much redone it just needs a motor and is right in my price range. Only problem is that i know absolutely nothing about VW aircooled engines. Any good source to start looking for a motor? Or can someone on hear learn me? Ive always loved Baja Bugs so i figured why not, right?
Thanks much in advanced - Bob
thesamba dot com
nuf said.
they are about as simple as you can get without running on 2 cycle and powering a lawnmower
1600 Dual port is the small block Chevy of the VW world IIRC.
Possibly the best book about anything ever.
http://www.amazon.com/Keep-Volkswagen-Alive-Step-Step/dp/1566913101
John Muir.
scrap the vw, get a subie, real power, bolts right up, fuel injection and cheaper to boot.
You say it 'needs a motor', as in it's all blowed up or missing? Blowed up = easy cheap repair. Missing = need to find the engine cooling tins etc.
Type 1 (Bug, Ghia) motors are interchangeable as hell, everything from the original 1200cc single port 32 hp up to the last of the 1600cc dual port Super Beetles is pretty much a bolt in.
Type 2 (Transporter) are easy swaps into a Type 1 too.
Type 3 (Squareback) need the Type 1 engine cooling tins and alternator/generator mount.
Type 4 (412, later air cooled Transporter, Porsche 914) are more powerful and will bolt in but require some custom stuff for cooling tins, cooling fan and etc. The stuff to do it is out there for sure.
I've always heard the best combination of torque and reliability is a 1.8 Transporter, 412 or 914 motor. Don't mess with the 1.7 Type 4, not much performance potential. The 2.0 Transporter motor is a good one, the 914 version of the 2.0 has different and expensive heads which are REAL prone to cracking and dropping valve seats.
I ran a 2.0 Porsche type4 in my superbeetle. Never had any problems with cracking or dropped valve seats
that engine will either need a different flywheel or you will have to do a lot of grinding on the type 1 transaxle to make it fit.
I would run the type 4 as it is the newest of the aircooled engines and of a bigger displacement. They also make a killer 911 style fan shroud for it
Curmudgeon wrote: need to find the engine cooling tins etc.
Its all there... the cooling system on an aircooled is air blown around the engine assembly. The "tins" that direct the air are there for a purpose...
All the flat 4s are neat, and easy to work on.
The "How to keep your VW alive" is essential for a quick learning curve..
I'm still hoping one day to have a Thing 
what he said.
If "needs a motor" means there is a big empty space in the back, go subi, if "needs motor" means there is one there that doesn't run, fix it up.
mad_machine, all 3 guys I know with 2.0 914's have cracked heads and I helped pull the engine on one for just that reason. They were not easy to find used. I understand someone out there is repairing them but it ain't cheap.
The Bus 2.0 uses the same basic heads as the 1.8. They have been known to drop a valve seat too. Come to think of it, I've seen Type 1's that did the same thing and the 1.7 in my car dropped a valve guide. I had to have the head custom machined and a custom bronze guide made because there were no used heads available.
OST, what I was saying was if the engine was, like, completely missing the engine cooling tins (upright shroud, cylinder covers, etc) would need to be sourced along with the motor itself.
Sorry to be vaque. It needs a motor as in big empy space back there. Ill start my searching....
http://www.jdmtigerjapanese.com/subaru/ej20-dohc-engine-only-twin-turbo.html
+
http://kennedyenginc.com/default.aspx
= win
icaneat50eggs wrote: scrap the vw, get a subie, real power, bolts right up, fuel injection and cheaper to boot.
Just Say No To Radiators! 
just say no to paying way more for way less HP!
less hp yes.. but also less complicated and WAY lighter
Shoptalkforums
Forget Samba...
http://www.shoptalkforums.com/
And I second Kennedy... 
Sold all the AC stuff last year.. the rail is powered by a Turbo Dodge powerplant.. No regrets... There isn't that much more wieght.. WAY more power... and AC VW engine would have been$$$$$$ to even compare... and yeah... No more BS.. I love it..
I've been throwing around the idea of hotting up a Karmann Ghia for a while, and came to the conclusion that any sort of serious power output requires significant money for increasingly fragile motors. So the key is to ask yourself what sort of output you need. If you're happy with 60 HP, aircooled is the way to go. as you get North of 100 HP I'd go Subbie or rotary (weight penalty and all).
mad_machine wrote: less hp yes.. but also less complicated and WAY lighter
The weight argument is a bit moot depending on the engine. An EJ22 dressed only with an alternator and intake manifold only has 20-30lbs on a dressed 1600DP. Coolant and radiators aren't to be left from the equation, of course.
I LOVE the simplicity of ACVW engines, and the guttural rasp pulling in through dual Webers, but I'll take the 50% improvement in mileage and 100% power gain any day of the week. The loss of a spare tire well and addition of ~50lbs is well worth the increased performance for me.
ronholm wrote: Shoptalkforums Forget Samba... http://www.shoptalkforums.com/ And I second Kennedy...
What are you using for a transaxle?
ValuePack wrote:mad_machine wrote: less hp yes.. but also less complicated and WAY lighterThe weight argument is a bit moot depending on the engine. An EJ22 dressed only with an alternator and intake manifold only has 20-30lbs on a dressed 1600DP. Coolant and radiators aren't to be left from the equation, of course. I LOVE the simplicity of ACVW engines, and the guttural rasp pulling in through dual Webers, but I'll take the 50% improvement in mileage and 100% power gain any day of the week. The loss of a spare tire well and addition of ~50lbs is well worth the increased performance for me.
it also depends on what you are doing with it. If I were going out into the wild away from civilization.. I would take a moderatly tuned Aircooled over a suby anyway. Less parts to break and no need for coolant
I sold all of my AC VW stuff because I am a big weenie and NEED air conditioning...so others may have a different expeience. BUT, I will say that I have had several bugs with Type 4, high performance Type 1, Subaru, and Ford motor swaps and the engines (whether air cooled or water) were not the problem. I did not have great luck with the durability of the Type 1 transaxle in front of either a Subaru motor or a high performance Type 1/4 motor. And the problems I had were due to case flex and not due to abusive launches or other shenanigans. So keep in mind that if you install a Subaru motor in a bug you might start finding the next weakest link in the transaxle in short order. The bus transaxles are pretty tough though you will need to do some modifications to make the shifter work right in a Bug.
Of course all of this assumes that you want more than 60 or so hp(100 or so with some bolt ons) in a bug. If you dont care then meh...buy a good used or rebuilt motor, putt around, and dont worry about it. On the other hand the EJ20H and adapter linked above will get about 240 hp for about $1k and I have spent way more than that on a quality stock rebuild for a Type 1.
When I've perused the Samba and VW magazines I've really been taken by how little substantiation of power outputs there are. You read a mag like Hot Rod, or GRM for that matter and you usually can get a pretty firm idea e.g. stock SBC with 4 barrel and headers = X HP. Add such-and-such a cam and you get Y HP with a little torque loss under 2000 RPM and here's the dyno charts, et cetera. You'd think that someone would be able to put together a basic spreadsheet that tells you what to expect from all the sundry aircooled variants. It really seems vague as it is. Kind of an industry stuck in the past, which I suppose it is.
Ojala wrote: Of course all of this assumes that you want more than 60 or so hp(100 or so with some bolt ons) in a bug. If you dont care then meh...buy a good used or rebuilt motor, putt around, and dont worry about it. On the other hand the EJ20H and adapter linked above will get about 240 hp for about $1k and I have spent way more than that on a quality stock rebuild for a Type 1.
If I were to build another ACVW.. I would probably go with a porsche transaxle. Either a 901 (with the dog leg 1st) or a later 5 speed
As fun as the subaru swap would be, not even a turbo motor, it all depends on really how much money I would be able to get when I sell my BMW, so spending $1000 or so on the car plus another $1000 plus for motor and swap is just kind of out of the question for now. I can always have it be one of those long term project thingys, but then again im sort of clueless on the prices of these engines which is why I asked in first place.
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