We have recently bought a Beetle and don't know much about them so am after a bit of help. It came with a twin port motor (not sure what size) and no gear box (have since purchsed an IRS box to suit the IRS rear end). I Was told it was an auto but it now has manual pedals in it.
The chassis number is 118 xxxx50 and when I looked it up on The Samba ID list (which was recomended in another post) is says that it is Jan 1968. Does this sound right? It has only one hole in the rear where the accelerator cable comes out (no clutch cable hole) so am I right is assumming it was originally an auto?

Thanks for any help you guys can give us.

Looks like you are right with the year, confirmed in on this site too.
http://www.vw-resource.com/years.html 

If its IRS then it started out semi auto, manual standard bugs were all swingaxle except 76

well in aus anyway, there is a japanese import 76 around here that is swingaxle.

Good luck running the conduit for the clutch cable, its a prick of a job

Yeah I know I found a couple of web sites explaining how to do it, looks like a bit of cutting and welding is in order (should be fun). Is there a way to tell what size or age the motor is? There are numbers on it in a few spots but I have no idea where to find out info on the engine numbers.

The actual engine engine number is under the genertator stand.



Let us know what it is, can get a rough date from that

Engine number appears to be BZ 289312 (in the position as in your photo).

On the side of the case it also says 2BR BRAZIL AS21

oooo a brazilian case = /

From Dylan

Sorry for the silly question but is that a good or bad thing?

It's fine, it just means it's not the original engine (which would have been a 1500 with an 'H' prefix). It's a much newer case and the engine you have is probably a 1600.

It would be most unusual for a 42-year old car to still have its original engine.

Yes the semi-autos were double-joint rear (IRS is not the correct term) and were fully imported into Australia from Germany from March 1968. The manuals (swing axle) were also fully imported to start with, but were locally CKD assembled after June 1968. The Samba is a good site but not always correct for Australian market VWs.