Sleeper Engine?

[Zach Gomulka]

A customer of ours is a hot rodder looking to pep up his wifes stock '63 Turkis Beetle. He bought a 1600 dual port longblock in need of a rebuild, and that will be the basis. The only stipulation is that the motor needs to appear externally "stock", so that means stock carb, exhaust, ect.

How would you do it? Can you go big on the CC's, say 1915 or more? Or will the stock exhaust bottleneck the motor so much it will cause it to overheat? How much cam can the stock carb (34pict) take, maybe with a bored venturi?

I was thinking 1600, c/w crank, lightened flywheel, CB Cheater cam, p+p stock valve heads, maybe a slight bump in compression...

[Dave Rosique]

Zach,

Years ago, for a customer's '60 Bus I built a C/W, DP, stock heads, 1776, Engle 100, 34 carb, stock exhaust. It ran fine, but when we went to Kadrons & header it really woke the thing up.

I was never really happy with the 34 carb no matter what distributor and jetting combo I tried... got sick of screwing with it so on went the carbs and exhaust... end of problems.

~DR.

[Berger]

If you want it to look stock, then think torque. And the best way to get torque is to go up on the stroke. I have a 1641 with 82mm crank (=1950ccm) and a Engle 100. Stock heads, light porting job, about 8,5:1 compression. Runs perfect with stock carburetor, but don`t rev high. But it`s no need for high revs as all the power is between 2000 and 4000 rpm

[louisb]

He is putting a 1600 dp in a '63 bug so its already not stock. Show him a vintage engine with dual kads & an Okrasa style exhaust. Make it a 1776 and it will retain the vintage flavor and give more power.

--louis

[Zach Gomulka]

He is putting a 1600 dp in a '63 bug so its already not stock. Show him a vintage engine with dual kads & an Okrasa style exhaust. Make it a 1776 and it will retain the vintage flavor and give more power.

--louis

I know that, and you know that, but to him all stock VW engines are the same He's just a hot rodder who can't leave well enough alone. The wifey likes the stock pea-shooter exhaust, and since it's her car that's what it will be getting. I tried talking him into Kadrons, and he would go for it, but I don't think it would be a good idea when retaining the stock exhaust. Any thoughts on that?

[louisb]

They make exhausts now that retain the stock look of the pea shooters. She wouldn't know the difference.

--louis

[richie]

He is putting a 1600 dp in a '63 bug so its already not stock. Show him a vintage engine with dual kads & an Okrasa style exhaust. Make it a 1776 and it will retain the vintage flavor and give more power.

--louis

I know that, and you know that, but to him all stock VW engines are the same He's just a hot rodder who can't leave well enough alone. The wifey likes the stock pea-shooter exhaust, and since it's her car that's what it will be getting. I tried talking him into Kadrons, and he would go for it, but I don't think it would be a good idea when retaining the stock exhaust. Any thoughts on that?

Zach,I did a 1641 many years ago with Kads, 1.25 rockers and mechanical advance dizzystock exhaust but no heater boxes,it ran real nice and would pull to about 5000rpm before the valves spring cried enough,so I think H/D single springs would help,also I think now I would throw a 74 or 76mm stroke crank in there similar to bergers idea with some 90.5 piston/cylinders,then work on persuading them to change the exhaust later on to liven it up

cheers richie,uk

[Wray]

What about the CSP exhaust?

http://www.csp-shop.de/cgi-bin/cshop2/front/shop_main.cgi?func=det&wkid=18266050747&rub1=Exhaust%20%2F%20Heating&rub2=Exhaust%20System%2DModified%2CComplete%20Exhaust%20Systems%2CBug%2FKarmann%20Ghia&artnr=20049a&pn=&sort=&all=

Looks as close as possible to stock!

Wray

[RMS Boxer Service]

One of my friends have just finished rebuilding a 69 vert and he also wanted the sleeper/stealth look.
He bought a stainless muffler from Turbo Thomas in UK and it looks very fine on the car, It looks like
a stock muffler with larger bore exhaust pear shooters . The sound is very nice and not too loud.
The muffler is much larger that a stock muffler but once on the car it's not that noticeable.
The engine is a 1600 cc with a center mounted progressive Weber carb, light port work and a W100 cam.
The engine performes much better with this exhaust compare to the stock one it had before. 

I know it anything but cheap, but it's stainless, looks great and performs well so that "could" make up
for the price of £325.

Just my 2 cent


/Rolf

A few pictures from Turbo Thomas homepage:

[Berger]

If you want it to look stock, then think torque. And the best way to get torque is to go up on the stroke. I have a 1641 with 82mm crank (=1950ccm) and a Engle 100. Stock heads, light porting job, about 8,5:1 compression. Runs perfect with stock carburetor, but don`t rev high. But it`s no need for high revs as all the power is between 2000 and 4000 rpm

This is the same engine but with 48 IDA and header. Look at the torque curve! So, as Richie says, build it with stock carb and exhaust now and it will be a pleasant update later with bigger carbs and header.