Power Maximization

[arsanc41]

Good evening,

I'm new to VW beetles and got my first one about two months ago. I have a question that I suspect has been asked thousands of times on this forum so I apologize up front.

I have a 63 baja with a 1600 dual port. Most of my riding is in town and highway with the occasional offroading (nothing to extreme). I gotta say I love the car! First bug ever......of course I gotta ask.....How do I get extra HP out of this motor without boring it or purchasing a turnkey motor or larger block. I figure sometime down the road I may explore the previous two options but I'd like to really maximize what I have now. I talked to a few people and answers have been all over the board. Being a Baja it has a 3 inch lift and oversized tires. Other than an Empi 2 5/8 exhaust with a muffler, the engine is stock (had a stinger but couldn't hear my stereo). For the most part it does good on flat highways and roads but reeeeaaaly slows down on highway hills (about 25 mph and lots of dirty looks)

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated.

Have a great evening!

[mark tucker]

turbo/blower, then you can spend the $$$ sooner on a biger better motor.

[mark tucker]

and a good tune up. 1.25 or 1.33 rockers will help a little, duel 40hpmx carbs tuned right, dist set up right. find out what gear is in the trans.if it is a 388 go to the 412 or go to a shorter tire till you can afford a big motor that will pull those tires just fine.
you could do some port work&add some slipin biger pistons(87-88mm, ) but that will just gain some cc's somewhere between 1641 and 1679(I think,see the smoke?) but your best bet is to just tune up&save to build a big motor&keep that one for a spair&upgrade it afterwards.

[arsanc41]

[vwracerdave]

Before you buy anything this is mandatory reading for you. http://www.aircooled.net/vw-technical-articles/

PS John. You have gotten so many great articles maybe you should number them so we can give a quick reference to a specific article.. Just a thought.
_________________
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[modok]

25 mph? whoa, what gear are you in going 25mph?

If the trans is stock the gearing may be too high, so you have to use second up some hills, but even in second it should be able to go 40 mph, if not there is some problems with the motor

[arsanc41]

[modok]

Lots of things can be wrong or right, but what I asked you was what gear are you going 25 mph?

[mark tucker]

yes rejet it. john at ac.net should be able to tell you exzactly what you need. and check the fuel system(hoses,clamps,fuel pump,fuell filter, air filter)
and dont wory about the wife.you were looking for one when you found her!!!just kidden. from a guy with 2 wifes&6 kids. the trick is to buy her somethen then buy her somethen,after a bit buy her somethen, then it's time to buy her somethen.then do somethen for her,now you can start to think what your going to get her next before you even start thinking about crap for your dam old vw klunker in her way.......or do it my way and get what you want when you want it.my only problem isant my wife it's paying these high prices for mostly junk that has to be rebuilt before you can use it (new stuff from the big 4) no Im not cheep, I just have a hard time parting with my $$$ for crap.

[arsanc41]

[arsanc41]

[modok]

oh, ok, well I suppose that kinda makes sense, having to shift down out of third, but even so that's pretty sad

my old bus sometimes was slowed clear down to 45 on a 7% grade (it had a tired 1600), you should be at least faster than a BUS

You may want to investigate the carburetor and distributor, first too find out what kind of each it has and then too see if they are adjusted correctly

[arsanc41]

[yellow73kubel]

Exactly how big are these tires? And is that a 1 5/8 inch header you're talking about?

When you say bogging, is the engine going noticeable flat at some point or is it just sluggish all around? A 1600 on stock gears can only handle so much, and it's no screamer to start with.

The cutting out problem is often found on stock carburetors. Too slow of an idle (i.e. stumbling, it should purr smoothly when warm) and/or an improper mixture would be the first things to check. Once you've identified your carb and given it a tune up, this should go away.

Listen to the other guys for tuning advice, just watch out, they love to go big.

[arsanc41]

[arsanc41]

Hi,

Just wanted to thank everyone for advice. Last night I change the fuel filter and that didn't seem to help. Soooooo I noticed the two adjustment screws and idle screw on the carburator. While the engine was running I would adjust each each screw about 1/4 or less of a turn and listened to what the engine was doing. I've always adjusted my carbs on my harleys so I though the same principle of gas to fuel would make sense. Based on sound, I was able to to tune a lot better. I still want to get OEM specs and recommendations so I could fine tune. The engine shutting off and bogging down was gone as of this morning on the way to work (about 30 miles). Some hills I normally slow down on where no obstacle! When I step on the peddle the carb is not "coughing" at all and no delay when I step on the foot peddle.

Now for the technical piece.... The screws I adjusted, I have no idea what was for air mixture and what was for fuel mixture. I purely did this by sound. There was one screw above another and the top screw was much larger than the bottom screw. Any ideas what might be the air and which one is for fuel? This would be good to know so I have an idea of what I am doing.

[yellow73kubel]

The large screw you adjusted is the idle air bypass, and the small one is the fuel volume control.

You're going to want a tachometer and timing light to tune things properly, something like this for the tach: http://www.actron.com/product_detail.php?pid=16160. Sound gets you in the ballpark, but you can only get so close without the right instrumentation.

This page should help with tuning it the rest of the way: http://www.vw-resource.com/34pict3.html. This is assuming you have a 34 pict 3 (or the rather similar H30/31), though the general idea holds for any Solex. The Bentley manual for your Bug would be a wise purchase, as it gives factory specs and goes into all the detail you'll want.

Good to hear you have things running smoothly! I spent many hours doing the same thing trying to get my engine right (still isn't quite there..), that is the best way to learn your VW.

[arsanc41]

[Cohibra45]

[arsanc41]