Tom's Baja Bug

VW Beetle Repair
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FAQ 09

Question: - What size engine should I put in my Baja Bug? What kind of bolt on horse power can I get?

Answer: The most reliable, fuel efficient engine for a Bug will be a 1600 with some modern improvements (balanced crank, hydraulic lifters, oil filter, dog house oil cooler, electronic points, merged exhaust header, alternator, 3 angle valve job) with the stock carburetor. Read the "All About Performance VW Engines" book mentioned below and you'll see that the most horsepower from a 1600 cc engine at 3500 rpm is actually the stock 34PICT-3 carb on a larger manifold (apparently only available from CB Performance). So called "bolt on horsepower" only applies at engine rpms over 5000! My Beetle never gets over 4500, so none of that stuff would help. Yes, read the dyno tests and you'll see that in normal driving the stock carb has more horsepower than any dual carb setup!

The Weber DFAV carb has very slight power gains, but is a pain to tune. My engine has never run as well with the Weber as with the stock carburetor. Mostly the poor running is dumb stuff: the choke on the Weber is very poor, so either my car almost dies at idle when it is cold, or the choke doesn't open soon enough. Even when the car is hot the idle varies. For no reason the car will idle so slow it almost dies. I'm pretty sure that the secondary throttle plate sticks open a tiny bit unless I punch the gas pedal.

Real horsepower you can use means HP at 4000 rpm and lower. The only true way to increase that is to have a larger engine. People tell me that 1776 is reliable. When you start getting to 1900 and 2000 cc sizes, the engine case (what is called the engine block in water cooled cars) has to be machined, and while these engines can be bullet-proof, it's a lot more $$.

Check out the book:

"All About VW Performance Engines" from Hot VWs magazine. This is great, and includes dynomometer tests of about 40 engine configurations. Anyone customizing an engine must buy this book. Along with all the other wonderful stuff it has details on how to tune (and set the jets) on the Weber DFEV / DFAV carb.

You could just keep your stock engine, add the CB manifold, merged header, electronic ignition (I have a CompuFire) and see how you like it. The later engines (69 and later) have the larger oil cooler, and better oiling system in the case. This is essentially Class 1500 Baja racing and those racers blast through the Baja 1000 and other offroad races all the time. Of course they don't win overall (that goes to the high $$$ trophy trucks), but they finish which is more than you can say for modern vehicles in other classes!

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