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Mon Apr 02, 2012 7:52 am

Hi Folks,
I normally hang out on the beetle side, but I recently was offered to purchase a 66' 912 from a friend that has a type 3 pancake engine. My question is this, the motor had fuel injection at one time, which they remove and replaced with carburetors. The car performs great except for it seems to load up especially on take off. If the RPMs are not kept high, the car stalls. I wish I could tell you what carbs are on there, but he is not sure. The best guess is Dorrans???? The carbs look huge to me and I was wondering if perhaps they are too much for a stock motor? What is a good rule of thumb on the T3 engines (carb size, brand, set up)? Is there a good publication that covers the pancake style engine in depth? I would like to run the T3 for a while, so I would like to gain a little knowledge about this engine. Thanks in advance for any thought.[/list]

Mon Apr 02, 2012 8:02 am

Ok, I believe the carbs are actually Dollerttos (sp?).

Mon Apr 02, 2012 8:36 am

Can you post a pic of the engine set up?

Mon Apr 02, 2012 8:52 am

typical Dells that would be used on a type 3 come in different sizes and styles

34 FRD - dual single barell carbs, good for 1500cc to 2L with the right tuning. Not that you couldnt use it for larger motors but not ideal

36, 40, 45, and 48 dellorto DRLA's. Dual twin barell carbs, one for each cylinder. Perhaps the best carbs to be used on an AC VW motor. The number is the throttle body size. With vent and jet changes, these can be used on any type 3 motor, smaller for more stock engines but I've used 40 Dells on a stock 1600 with no issues.

Most likely, you have a tuning issue, nothing that can't be sorted. But you do need to know what Dells you are dealing with. pics will tell us FRD or DLRA, but for the latter you will at least need a mirror to read the model #.

I've left off side draft 40 and 45 DCOE, not used often on vw's unless it's hanging off a turbo

Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:00 am

I will try and get a number this afternoon. Is there an advantage to using the T3 engine over an upright or is the only advantage of a T3 just a space issue, not performance?

Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:04 am

space and cooling differances only, plus yearly variances. A '65 1500S motor in a type 3, with it's higher compression pistons, and dual 32 solex carbs would be more powerful than the '65 beetle 1200. But nowadays with these engines having been rebuilt numerous times, a 1600 is a 1600 when it comes to type 1 or type 3 configuration. Heads, Cam, Carbs, Crank, no differance type 1 or 3

Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:52 am

The carbs are probably badly jetted, out of sync and generally in a horrible state of tune

Mon Apr 02, 2012 12:13 pm

I also wonder how they keep the T3 cooling intake from sucking in hot air, leading to overheating. Did they rework all the engine bay tin and ducting? Or just leave it wide open?