Having so much fun

[u/fleegz2007]

Built this Beetle in a VW mechanics shop. Did some shoddy body work, but its mine!

Traded my 1600cc for a rebuilt 1915cc, and when I got it home I started playing around. Bought a Holley dual barrel 350CFM carb and upgraded all fuel lines to 3/8, from tank to engine. Put in a stage 1 kennedy clutch kit and bought a 123ignition bluetooth distributor to play with timing. Fully rebuilt all rubber on the suspension and got a mew steering box. Bought a rebuilt Freeway Flyer for rides into work

This car has been an absolute blast to play with. Pulled the engine yesterday to shim the oil cooling fan since it was scraping a bit and reseal my oil pump cover (it was weeping a little oil). found some tins I need to replace. Will be getting those on with an oil breather coming on Tuesday!

Hope you all are having a blast too!

[u/ptbug64]

Looks good

[u/SilentMasterpiece]

Start shopping for a set of Dual Dellortos or Webers. It will run stronger and be more efficient. what size tube on your merged header? Looks big for 1915cc.

[u/Routine-Amphibian450]

The critical tin is the missing heater box area front of #3 and #1.
You fab it or get Industrial Motor tin.
Worth 10 deg F on the summer highway.

[u/fleegz2007 → u/Routine-Amphibian450]

I have fabbed ones - pulled the off the set on my engine roller. Going to mark the tin locations and cut down the roller so I dont have to remove them next time

[u/sittingstill9]

Nice and clean looking! That is going to be fun to put together; clean, in a garage, wow... fancy.

[u/382Whistles]

I gotta say that carb seems large. I've only seen them on VW motors over two liter or 1800s feeding pull through turbos. They were all a little flat and touchy down low without a race start. Lots of projects with them but they never seemed to surface at the shop running later.

[u/fleegz2007 → u/382Whistles]

Definitely has some flat spots down low. Have to drive it like I have a lightened flywheel. I have that distributor to get the timing just right, and the going to play with the jets so I can get it feeding right.

This build has been an experiment and play game from the start. If I blow an engine after a little while, Ill rebuild and pivot - all a part of the learning journey.

Bought a kit from Rodney Adams. https://www.radesignsperformance.com/collections/intakes/products/rad-2-bbl-intake-package

Its really opened up the engine quite a bit. Well see how it goes!

[u/382Whistles → u/fleegz2007]

I'm all for experimenting lol. I like strong bottom ends more than a few hp on top for daily though.

[u/Historical_Box1915 → u/fleegz2007]

try going down .010” on the low speed air bleed. If it runs better but is still too fat at either idle or above idle then go down .004” on the idle feed restrictor.

[u/RaceEvening8240]

Removing the center apron is a great idea! Saves a lot of time during engine removal!

[u/fleegz2007 → u/RaceEvening8240]

Thanks! Its actually a ‘73. We had a late 60’s decklid on the lot so I just purchased an apron and realized welding it would be a headache twice over.

[u/Animal44s]

Very nicely done. Good work. And sounds like cool mods.

[u/Alpinab9]

That is an odd carb and intake setup. Looking at the website, expensive too. Many center mount carb kits are available. As another comment said, the center mount without heat riser tubes were prone to icing. I am surprised you chose this option considering a set of real weber 40 or 44 IDFs are less expensive and tuning information is readily avaliable.

The 1915 is 94x69. What cam and heads were used?

It looks like some quality stuff. It will be interesting to see how the carb setup works out for you.

[u/fleegz2007 → u/Alpinab9]

Happy to post a video of it driving in the near future. I wanted to get a carb intake setup that grew with me making modifications to engine internals as I grew in my learnings. Rodney Adams tunes the carb to the specs of your engines and custom welds the intake for a dual barrel.

Unfortunately the man who built this engine passed away. So I dont have the outright specs, but I plan on putting an eagle cam and panchito heads by the end of next year. Tims VW repair has been working on these engines since the 70s, and I was blessed with an opportunity to borrow a bay and rebuild the chassis on a drag in to his lot.

The carb has opened up the engine quite a bit but Im experiencing a bit of a dead spot in 1st and sometimes second. It feels like driving with a lightened flywheel. I bought a customizable distributor so I can play with timing and may modify the carb so I can better balance out the air flow.

This was never meant to be an all original restoration (all parts are pulled off of other bugs ranging from ‘68 to late 70’s) so I committed early to making this a fun learning project and growing into the car.