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Mon Apr 21, 2014 7:44 am

I just bought my first VW in the form of a dune buggy (manx myers body). According to the stamping on the motor (HO221865) it is a 1968 vintage 1500 motor. I would like to do some upgrades. I'm thinking dual port heads and a mild cam, and performance exhaust. My goal is to have a dune buggy, that I can drive to local events and have a little fun with. It is not a daily driver, just a weekend warrior. Is there any other Mods you guys can think of?
Thanks

Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:06 am

Welcome to TheSamba.

Here is a bunch of articles to help. Start with the 'easy bolt-on mods' then read the 'performance engine building considerations'

http://www.aircooled.net/vw-technical-articles/

With a lightweight Buggy you don't need a lot of HP to have fun.

Mon Apr 21, 2014 12:17 pm

you just bought the car, why jump in and make changes before you actually know what you are dealing with?

If the car is ready to go now, drive it as it is for a while. If it’s not ready to go now, get what you have ready to go before you start making changes.

You may be surprised with what you have and discover you don’t need to go through the time, effort and money to upgrade to a bigger engine. The buggy should be a lot lighter then a full bodied beetle was. Back in the day even buggies running 36 horse engines had lots of fun!

Get it going, drive it for a while and enjoy what you have. Learn about it and see what it’s short comings are. Then you will know if you want to make a change or not. You may find you want to spend that time, effort and money on something else.

Mon Apr 21, 2014 2:38 pm

rcproductions wrote: My goal is to have a dune buggy, that I can drive to local events and have a little fun with. I think a 1500s/p would do that just fine in a Manx