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Mon Jul 16, 2007 8:45 pm

I might be crazy just for asking, but I was curious if anyone has heard of a kit to change the standard fuel injected engine of a 2000 New Beetle into a carborated intake. I like to be able to work on my cars a little bit on the side, but untill now, all of my engines have been a little simpler. I was just hoping to be able to simplify it just a bit. If anyone has heard of this sort of product, any feedback would be greatly apreciated. If this product exists, I'd also like to know where to find it. Thank you.

Thank you all for your input. Since I posted this, my current Throttle Body began to fail. The Garage I get it worked on at will be trying to charge me somewhere over $700 to replace it. The garage told me that its a fairly easy thing to fix and that i could probably do it myself, but the parts alone, will be over $500. I'm trying to weigh my options of replacing it myself, getting them to do it, or changing to carbs (which, i now see may not be worth the hastle). I no longer have the money to drop into the car right away, and will have to save for a little while. Any further input will also be appreciated. Thank you.

Mon Jul 16, 2007 8:49 pm

I'm pretty sure I've seen carbs on 2.0s, I haven't seen any on the 1.8ts though. You might want to take this question to Vwvortex.com.

Tue Jul 17, 2007 5:15 am

BeetDreams wrote: I might be crazy just for asking, but I was curious if anyone has heard of a kit to change the standard fuel injected engine of a 2000 New Beetle into a carborated intake.

Working on your New Beetle might be simpler with a carb... but converting it might be a major hassle. Your engine controls (the computer) are designed to work with the stock fuel injection, there are a couple "tuner" mods that will work within the stock engine controls "map" but a carb isn't one of them.

By the time you're finished you will likely have spent enough money that, had you not attempted the swap... you could have paid the dealer to service the car for the first 150,000 miles or so.

Another trade-off would be fuel economy. A carb can't follow the engine's needs as precisely as fuel injection so it runs "rich" much of the time. A rich mixture will cause your catalytic converter (an expensive part) to do a Chernobyl impersonation.

Even if you were successful your New Beetle would never EVER pass Pennsylvania inspection again.

Tue Jul 17, 2007 5:45 am

Leave it FI and you won't HAVE to work on it.

Tue Jul 17, 2007 6:26 am

Yes, your new beetle can be converted to carbs. But why would you ever want to do that? On a street car this is just not practical.

To elaborate a little on what others have said, you need to understand how the fuel injection works by comparriso to the carbs.

The carbs are always a trade off. For optimum performance, they must be jetted and tuned to the exsisting weather conditions. If air density changes, so does the jetting requirment.

Keep in mind, we are talking OPTIMUM performance and not acceptable performance. When carburated cars rolled out of the factory, they were adjusted for acceptable performance. This ment they would run well in most conditions. But I'm sure you have heard of people living in Denver having different jets then those living in Death valley. It's all because of the air density.

On a carb, the only thing that can be adjusted on the fly is the throttle position, and maybe the choke if it is manual.

The computer controlled Fuel Injection systems have a multitude of sensors that are constantly reading the demand for fuel that the engine is calling for and adjusting accordingly. The mixture is constantly changing several times a second.

This is to keep the performance and the emissions in the optimum range at all times.

When the FI works, you can't get any better. It is just more difficult to diagnose when one of the many sensors stops working. But that is what code readers are for. 99% of the time, if something goes wrong, it will trip a code and store that code in the computer's memory. Plug in your code scanner and you should instantly know where to start looking.

I have a 1.8 liter Golf that we converted to carbs. This is a road race car and the rules for the class do not allow fuel injection. This is no easy conversion. In addition to the carbs and manifolds, new throttle linkage needed to be fabricated and the distributer needed to be changed. A cold air box needed to be added and some sort of air filter. All this in addition to the other changes already made to the car. We are running the old fashioned way with no computer.

If the rules allowed, we would be running with the fuel injection!

You have a nice car just the way it is. Unfortunatly, times have changed and the laws regarding automobiles are getting stricter all the time. You can't make any changes to the vehicle for highway use without violating some law or onother. And there are some Federal laws that get violated when you try to go Old School on a modern car.

It's a new world as far as the daily driven newer cars are concerned. Leave it alone, stay compliant and keep driving without hassles. If you have the need for more, then get something else to play with that is old enough you can understand how it works and you won't be under the magnifying glass of the law.

The best thing you could do with your new beetle is to start reading about the FI system thats on there and learn how it works. There are little tweeks that can be done that will make big increases in performance. And you don't have to spend any money to do them!

Tue Jul 17, 2007 6:27 am

Yes, your new beetle can be converted to carbs. But why would you ever want to do that? On a street car this is just not practical.

To elaborate a little on what others have said, you need to understand how the fuel injection works by comparriso to the carbs.

The carbs are always a trade off. For optimum performance, they must be jetted and tuned to the exsisting weather conditions. If air density changes, so does the jetting requirment.

Keep in mind, we are talking OPTIMUM performance and not acceptable performance. When carburated cars rolled out of the factory, they were adjusted for acceptable performance. This ment they would run well in most conditions. But I'm sure you have heard of people living in Denver having different jets then those living in Death valley. It's all because of the air density.

On a carb, the only thing that can be adjusted on the fly is the throttle position, and maybe the choke if it is manual.

The computer controlled Fuel Injection systems have a multitude of sensors that are constantly reading the demand for fuel that the engine is calling for and adjusting accordingly. The mixture is constantly changing several times a second.

This is to keep the performance and the emissions in the optimum range at all times.

When the FI works, you can't get any better. It is just more difficult to diagnose when one of the many sensors stops working. But that is what code readers are for. 99% of the time, if something goes wrong, it will trip a code and store that code in the computer's memory. Plug in your code scanner and you should instantly know where to start looking.

I have a 1.8 liter Golf that we converted to carbs. This is a road race car and the rules for the class do not allow fuel injection. This is no easy conversion. In addition to the carbs and manifolds, new throttle linkage needed to be fabricated and the distributer needed to be changed. A cold air box needed to be added and some sort of air filter. All this in addition to the other changes already made to the car. We are running the old fashioned way with no computer.

If the rules allowed, we would be running with the fuel injection!

You have a nice car just the way it is. Unfortunatly, times have changed and the laws regarding automobiles are getting stricter all the time. You can't make any changes to the vehicle for highway use without violating some law or onother. And there are some Federal laws that get violated when you try to go Old School on a modern car.

It's a new world as far as the daily driven newer cars are concerned. Leave it alone, stay compliant and keep driving without hassles. If you have the need for more, then get something else to play with that is old enough you can understand how it works and you won't be under the magnifying glass of the law.

The best thing you could do with your new beetle is to start reading about the FI system thats on there and learn how it works. There are little tweeks that can be done that will make big increases in performance. And you don't have to spend any money to do them!

Tue Jul 17, 2007 7:53 am

in a 1958-1967 forum a "new" beetle is a 1967? :shock:

Tue Jul 17, 2007 8:45 am

bill may wrote: in a 1958-1967 forum a "new" beetle is a 1967? :shock:

New Beetle topics in '58 to '67 make at least as much sense as swappin' a carb for the fuel injection on a New Beetle.

Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:42 am

Visit Ross-tech.com and purchase a copy of VAG-Com software.

Learn to use it and enjoy working on your new VW.

Wed Jul 18, 2007 6:27 am

Dusty1 wrote: bill may wrote: in a 1958-1967 forum a "new" beetle is a 1967? :shock:

New Beetle topics in '58 to '67 make at least as much sense as swappin' a carb for the fuel injection on a New Beetle.

Moved... damn I better go wash off my keyboard.