I have a 1970 1500cc single port beetle and am looking to swap the oil bath one for an after market one that will allow it to breath a little easier.
Can anyone recommend a brand and type that would best suit my car??
Cheers in advance.

not trying to be a smart arse but take the air cleaner completely off and go for a spin around the block

any improvement you get from a freer flowing filter you are not gonna notice especially on a stock 1500

what you will notice is the engine wont run as nice when cold and the life span will be shorter

the old oil baths are the best filtering device there is, far better than the later plastic ones with paper elements

It was only a cost cutting measure that they stopped using them, pancake filters are just for show, they dont filter as well, are noisier and dont have have the built in velocity stack that oil baths do
they also do a nice job of letting water in on bugs with vented engine lids

Hmmmm, sounds like I should stick with the original then.

Sounds like you've made your decision, but just to "reassure" that you did the right thing take a read of this article http://www.vw-resource.com/air_cleaner.html#aftermarket 

Ryan

Thanks Ryan, the article was helpful in making me stay with the original.

But having considered all the abovementioned important facts and you still really really really feel compelled to get rid of the oil bath filter, then a K&N RA-056V washable and re-useable filter will cost around $80 plus you will need the oil to re-coat it at the normal intervals.

It will fit onto the stock Solex 34PICT-3 carb no probs.

And you could possibly install a velocity stack inside the filter as well if you want.

and then there's the oil breather than you'd have to put a separate filter on
unless u got ones that has the breather in on the inlet filter

i don't know if it's just me but the oil breather filter always got too oily to actually breathe

and the the noise... you love it at first... but then you just can't live with it.
a lot like young marriage (just a metaphor)

I completely agree with Joel and everyone else that on a stock 1500, is it reeeaally worth it? Mind you, it annoys me when people say (not that anyone here has!!! I'm just sayin') that K and N style filters don't do anything / won't improve over a stock filter. Whilst the stock filter does have somewhat of a velocity stack internally, K and N and similar style pod / fine wire mesh filters actually straighten and shape the airflow, decreasing the turbulence and improving velocity of intake air. But again, on a stock 1500 it's probably negligeable. Then you have to re-route the oil breather blah blah like has been mentioned but on more performance based engines, I reckon they would help contrary to "wise guys" saying they don't do anything. p.s don't believe me, check out the dellorto superformance tech book.

I certainly don't disagree with what Joel or anyone else has said here, I was looking at a different air filter purely because I live in the hills and have to travel up some bloody big ones to get home and was looking for a quick, cheap and effective way of just letting my motor handle it easier...

I use UniFilters in both the '63 SC and the '82 Camper. In both cases UniFilter had an element that fitted in to the original case. They work extremely well. The elements are simply washed in Mineral Turps and re-oiled with filter oil. I have found them great in the dirt both in the camper and earlier 4WDs that I owned. They have become my choice of filter.

Ian

nuthin beats an oil bath.. save ya cash

how can you clean out the sealed top part of the oil barth. my 1300 was runnning like a dog and i put a cheap empi universal filter on it as a temp and it runs so much better i get better power and throtel respons

Nice Thread Guys some really good info there.