Hi all

I've been quietly absorbing information from the forum and various other websites for quite a while about engine mods, and would really like to start upgrading my engine soon.

The only question I have is where should I start with my engine? It's a 1300cc Beetle engine. I have noticed that a lot of people who do their engines up tend to have much larger engines.

My main objective isn't to make the engine a high performance machine, but just to give it a bit more power for driving around town as I find the current power is horribly insufficient, especially when climbing hills (as I so often have to do living in the hills district). Having said that I'd like any upgrades I do to be a sort of basis for bigger upgrades in the future should I decide I do want a high performance engine.

I read through the "Easy Mods for your Aircooled Engine" article at aircooled.net and it seems that the three "simple" upgrades would be to install ratio rockers, dual carbs and an upgraded exhaust header (I presume this is the manifold?).

Any thoughts would be apprectiated.

Andrew

You can do a top end rebuild using 1600 barrels and heads. This would give you a motor that will last a long time and have a lot more power.

It would be false economy to put any performance equipment on the 1300 if it is not in very good condition.

I don't think twin carbies, ratio rockers and extractor exhaust system will make much, if any improment to Your 1300cc engine unless it has twin port heads.
Even then the gain isn't going to be significant..
You really have to start with a late model 1600 twin port engine with doghouse oil cooler, then twin carbies, extractor exhaust system and ratio rockers can get the engine revving.
[breathing better] . then electronic ignition... spin on oil filter ....

Lee Noonan

in support of what Lee and Peter have said, a 1600 upgrade to your existing 1300 engine will give you (breathing, jets etc. being appropriate)about 23% more power and, more importantly, 23% more torque without sacrificing any drivability; in fact it will be much more drivable.

For commuter type hills and such, you really want a broad torque curve rather than a spectacular peak power. Carbs, ratio rockers etc. won't give you what you need. A better exhaust system is always a good thing (both for torque and power) but the trick is to find a system that is really better than the stocker for a mild engine. There's an old saying "You buy the Horsepower and you drive the Torque".

hth

Hmm, thanks for the replies. You've confirmed pretty much what I suspected - that a 1300 is not the greatest starting point for adding performance.

When the time comes to think about the upgrade I might try and find a cheap beetle with a decent 1600 engine then swap either the whole engine or just the cylinders/heads.

Hi

You havent said what model 1300 you have, twin port 1300s are a great base for any performance upgrade. If you have single port 1300, go with the 1585cc as already suggested.

1302Steve

The engine is apparantly a 1974 model (verified by the engine number - ARxxx). I am not sure whether or not it is a twin port model or not. It looks as though it could be a twin port, but I'm working from a picture, which doesn't really show the intakes too clearly.

1302 Steve: If it were a twin port engine, and in good condition (as I'm inclined, perhaps incorrectly, to believe) then would you still go for the upgrade to 1600 or is this a worthy engine to consider other sorts of upgrades first.

I am quite keen on the idea of bumping it up to 1600 if I could get hold of a fairly inexpensive set of 1600 cylinders and heads. However if I can get a useful performance upgrade just from some bolt on parts, I'd quite like to explore that option before comitting to rebuilding the engine since I don't really have time or space to do that just yet, and rely fairly heavily on actually having the car running.

Has anyone actually made any upgrades to their 1300 engine without increasing the capacity? If so I'd like to hear their thoughts.

Hi

I think you will find your engine number is AB and it would be twin port, the twin port manifolds are 3 piece, the ends being alloy.

In my opinion they are one of the best motors to modify, the bottom end is 1600, they are very understressed and generally need only minor reconditioning, they have 10mm headstuds which is OK for what you want to do.

Best thing to do is collect the parts and wait for wet weekend, drop it out, bolt the 1600 bits on.

1302Steve

The engine number definitely starts AR. I did find a reference to that engine code somewhere on the internet which confirmed that the engine would have been built somewhere between mid 73 and 74 and is a 44hp (from memory) 1300 engine.

Unfortunately I can't find any reference to it on any of the engine tables that a quick Google search turned up so I don't have any idea about the specs other than the ones above.

Does anyone know of a definitive table of engine codes?

From an overseas website it says an AR is a 1300 twinport,your bloody laffin,1600 P&Cs and a set of Kadrons or 36-40 webers dual barrel.:P

Thanks for all the suggestions. What I am now tempted to do is to skip 1600 and go straight to something bigger (1915 would be nice, but possibly not quite so big). I've decided that I really want a fairly high performance engine in the long run (assuming I decide to keep the car), and starting with a big set of cylinders sounds like it would be a good plan.

It was this kit that really caught my eye.

I'm not sure if the crankcase would need any work to use such cylinders, but I suppose it's nothing a little research wouldn't fix. Then later I suppose I can venture into bolt on upgrades, like disc brakes so I can actually stop the bugger.

Lugnuts: What is the website you found my engine number on?

[Edited on 26-3-2004 by andrewh]

It was bugbits it was on the 2/11/2001 so i dunno if its still there http://www.bug-bits.freeserve.co.uk/bugbits/data.htm  Its not there no more dude!

[Edited on 31-3-2004 by lugnuts]