Board Logo

Info on 1300 motors please!
phantom - December 19th, 2004 at 08:31 AM

Morning all,

I have a '60 beetle (dead engine) and am considering buying a 1300 engine to go into it. The car will be used as a family runabout for a year or so and then become my youngest daughters first car in about 2 years.

It is NOT required to be a speed machine capable of Mach 2 runs and 2nd gear doughnuts, it only needs to be a reliable daily town runner.

Info I have currently is that the engine was recon'd about 18 months ago and is very strong. It is fitted as 12v (my car is currently 6v) and I am offered all the extra stuff in the deal (bulbs, ballast(?), etc). Bonus!

I am not familiar with a 1300, I was going to look round for a 1500 (like what is in my '69) but I reckon this sounds like a good deal and for what the car will be used for I think a 1300 would be OK.

Can anyone help me with ideas, etc on a 1300? Reliability? Parts availability?

Thanks heaps....

lugnuts - December 19th, 2004 at 02:35 PM

Hey phantom,whats the intended purpose of this exercise is it to limit the hp available to your daughter so as to keep her out of trouble.My 1300sp put out 33hp and most 1600's put out 40 not much differance really in acceleration but driveability is better with a 1600,that being said if you find a good 1300 go for it there the same engine except for heads pistons cylinders and there are plenty of options for you if you need to rebuild later in regards to parts availability ;)

phantom - December 19th, 2004 at 08:15 PM

End use will be solely family runabout for the next 2 or 3 years, then daughters car. Won't be doing many long trips (probably max 3 hrs highway driving), mainly around town. Won't be pulling loads, etc, and won't be doing anything fancy. Thats why I'm thinking that the 1300 should probably be OK.

When you say acceleration won't be a whole lot different, but driveability would be, in what way? Any more details?

pod - December 19th, 2004 at 09:04 PM

dont quote me but you will find it easier to rego with the 1300 and parts easy to find as Lugnuts says,he probably means on hills and such:)

andrewh - December 19th, 2004 at 09:17 PM

I have a 1300 in my bug and it's not the best on hills. Usually getting in the right gear before hand and giving it lots of stick helps with that though.

lugnuts - December 20th, 2004 at 01:52 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by phantom
End use will be solely family runabout for the next 2 or 3 years, then daughters car. Won't be doing many long trips (probably max 3 hrs highway driving), mainly around town. Won't be pulling loads, etc, and won't be doing anything fancy. Thats why I'm thinking that the 1300 should probably be OK.

When you say acceleration won't be a whole lot different, but driveability would be, in what way? Any more details?
1300sp/50hp at 4600rpm....1500sp/53 at 4200....1300sp/8.9mkg at 2000rpm....1500sp/10.2mkg at 2000rpm,which according to my calculations means its easier to climb hills and if your feelin lucky (overtake) with a 1500 because its making more torque at lower revs=driveability!!!:duh

rosebud - December 20th, 2004 at 04:47 PM

I have 2x 1300 engines you can have cheap if you're worried about spares,1 still ok

phantom - December 20th, 2004 at 07:30 PM

This is sounding OK, think I'll look into this and go from there. Apart from the less power over a larger engine, any bad points?

Freddie Fender - December 20th, 2004 at 09:51 PM

I have a 1300 in my Beetle, it pulls up hills ok. It is no drag racer or hill climber but it gets along nicely in traffic, pulls up hills well enough and as far as drivability is concerned, it is a very easy car to drive and with some clever gear changing you can even drag out some other cars from the lights to around 50Kph.