TheSamba.com :: View topic - Anyone who can build a 300hp aircooled engine?

Thu May 05, 2005 11:59 pm

I am new to the VW aircooled scene with my "new to me", 74' Super Beetle. The whole scene is very cool but I am totally unimpressed with the engines I have seen. I want something fast, and I have 2.5 years to do it (currently overseas). I don't care if is big displacement, turbo, or N/A, etc. Meaning that I am willing to do anything that works, I just need to talk to somebody that has made around 300hp with a VW aircooled engine. Anyone out there? email me too, [email protected]

P.S. This will be a street legal car. It will have two front seats. I am looking for 1:6 hp to weight ratio.

Fri May 06, 2005 3:13 am

if you want 300+bhp y dont you go for a autoraft/pauter type 1 'based' engine. or build a 2276 of a t04 turbo or bigger! a lad over here in the uk is having a road legal chassis car built with a 1000bhp engine and mendeola tranny!!!

how much you got to spend? dats the main question

Fri May 06, 2005 3:22 am

You may be unimpressed with the horsepower that these some 2l make. But 200 hp get you a 12 second timslip or faster so you cant be unimpressed with that.

Fri May 06, 2005 4:10 am

You may be unimpressed with the horsepower that these some 2l make. But 200 hp get you a 12 second timslip or faster so you cant be unimpressed with that.

No doubt friend, 12 seconds is a good time for a street car. I just want to go faster.

Fri May 06, 2005 4:23 am

if you want 300+bhp y dont you go for a autoraft/pauter type 1 'based' engine. or build a 2276 of a t04 turbo or bigger! a lad over here in the uk is having a road legal chassis car built with a 1000bhp engine and mendeola tranny!!!

Thanks for the advice. Have you ever built such an engine? I am just getting into the scene and I don't know much about the engines. I have studied mostly v8 or bigger engines. I understand the basics of the engine but any brand name stuff sounds like latin to me. I have dedicated an amount of my regular monthly income just to building this car. Right now I am in the research phase, so I'm just saving that money. I plan on paying someone to do most of the engine work for me but I need to be able to tell them just what it is that I want. Plus, I want to know every little aspect of this project in and out. Time is not an issue

Fri May 06, 2005 4:45 am

okor98 wrote:

No doubt friend, 12 seconds is a good time for a street car. I just want to go faster.

how fast do you wanna go? how much do you want to spend? What do you expect from your car? Have you ever ridden in a 12 sec bug?

Fri May 06, 2005 4:46 am

you could run a turbo with Nitrous. That oughtta push you up there pretty good.

Or you could try twin superchargers (you might have to cut out the engine compartment though.)

Fri May 06, 2005 4:51 am

check out

http://autocraftengines.com
http://billetracing.com
http://pautermachine.com

there serious horse powered motors.

but you can get a 2332 on a big turbo set-up, and push 10 sec or maybe high nines.

only time ive seen a twin supercharged bug was in a volksworld mag few months back, in austrailia that looked mental :D

Fri May 06, 2005 5:05 am

turbo

Fri May 06, 2005 5:37 am

jamestwo wrote: turbo

...Schwitzer turbo. 8)

Fri May 06, 2005 6:03 am

300hp+Beetle=Instant death. Which is why I run a 2.3L Ford turbo pushing 379hp now :twisted: .

Fri May 06, 2005 6:06 am

4x4EATR wrote: 300hp+Beetle=Instant death. Which is why I run a 2.3L Ford turbo pushing 379hp now :twisted: .

I have pushed my 2180 to over 15 psi so far, and that yields WELL over 300 hp.So far, so good. 8)

Fri May 06, 2005 6:28 am

Turbo is about the best way to have your cake and eat it too.
I am regularly putting out 300 hp with my turbo motor.

I push a 1900 lb street legal car into the high 10's normally. I normally run a 10.90 index class.
I still have a lot more left in it too.

And my motor is not the most efficent configuration either. it started life as a naturally aspierated motor and hasnt changed.

If you want to buy a turbo motor turn key that will blow just about any thing away on the street, i know of a fuel injected configuration that was street driven and put some 390+ft lbs of torque down at the wheels.
there is no thought process to it, all the research and tuning is already done. Motor will be fresh and ready to go. and the price is EXTREAMLY reasonabaly for what you would get. If i had the money, id be all over it.

Now if you want naturally aspirated, that is going to be a tall order, but not out of the question. its only money. And in type 1 configuration, race only.

Fri May 06, 2005 7:54 am

Making all that horsepower is awesome but what you may find is the magazines and ads forget to mention that HP breaks things.

300HP with some abuse can quickly destroy a tranny thats been built properly if your not giving the gears preload. Cranking up the boost in a turbo will reap more HP but depending on the pistons used or conrod bolts you might discover a "hotrod" sticking out of your engine case.

We all know the likelihood of breaking things incease as HP increases. I'd personally start out with a strong stroker then decide on a nitrous or turbo setup. The flat 4 engine is a different platform that requires a steep learning curve to get use to.

Locally a guy purchased a beater mustang 5L. In one day he converted that 14 second bone stock car to a mid 10 quarter mile car just with nitrous. Please bare in mind this was meant to be grenaded by the end of the day but my point is anything can be made extremely fast its just comes down to making "it" last.

You will find that the flat 4 can make some awesome hp but I'd be more concerned with the timeslip rather than just HP figures. A guy with 375 HP in a V8 might only get into the 13's but a guy in a bug will be in the mid 10's.

Theres a guy in my area with a very similar engine configuration as mine but with turbo. I am in the 11.90 category in my daily driver and the turbo guy is in the 10.80's. My engine has held together even after driving it almost everyday including some track time. The turbo however see's very little street and some track time but a "hotrod" went through his engine case.

If you intend to get someone to build you the 300HP motor thats only one stepping stone. Fine tuning is the key and thats not something you can really just buy from a turnkey motor. Fine tuning is the hardest part of making more HP NOT the parts used (in many cases).

Fri May 06, 2005 8:19 am

Excelent Point.

Some of us can defintly brake a crow bar in a sand box.

Alan_U wrote: Making all that horsepower is awesome but what you may find is the magazines and ads forget to mention that HP breaks things.

300HP with some abuse can quickly destroy a tranny thats been built properly if your not giving the gears preload. Cranking up the boost in a turbo will reap more HP but depending on the pistons used or conrod bolts you might discover a "hotrod" sticking out of your engine case.

We all know the likelihood of breaking things incease as HP increases. I'd personally start out with a strong stroker then decide on a nitrous or turbo setup. The flat 4 engine is a different platform that requires a steep learning curve to get use to.

Locally a guy purchased a beater mustang 5L. In one day he converted that 14 second bone stock car to a mid 10 quarter mile car just with nitrous. Please bare in mind this was meant to be grenaded by the end of the day but my point is anything can be made extremely fast its just comes down to making "it" last.

You will find that the flat 4 can make some awesome hp but I'd be more concerned with the timeslip rather than just HP figures. A guy with 375 HP in a V8 might only get into the 13's but a guy in a bug will be in the mid 10's.

Theres a guy in my area with a very similar engine configuration as mine but with turbo. I am in the 11.90 category in my daily driver and the turbo guy is in the 10.80's. My engine has held together even after driving it almost everyday including some track time. The turbo however see's very little street and some track time but a "hotrod" went through his engine case.

If you intend to get someone to build you the 300HP motor thats only one stepping stone. Fine tuning is the key and thats not something you can really just buy from a turnkey motor. Fine tuning is the hardest part of making more HP NOT the parts used (in many cases).

Fri May 06, 2005 8:21 am

Me three..............., or four the Turbo, is the flat four's best freind.

or hop up a converion Suberu STI, 300hp reported in the factory form.
need to do extenive fabrication, but you could be the first!

one right now for sale under High performance parts, $5,000 bucks with turbo and wireharness

Auto-Craft,.............. :lol: :lol: :lol: $5k just for the basic components

Fri May 06, 2005 9:42 am

okor98, since you are new to vw's, it would be a lot more productive for you to get that turn-key turbo motor that muffler mike is referring to.

i think he's talking about the scott f. powerplant that ran a 10.0 in the blue choptop street bug... you'd get his aem fuel/ignition mapping with it, which took him many months to develop and learn... the motor makes 400 h.p., and it's fully streetable.

there are also a number of reliable motor builders who can set you up with a new turbo rig as well, if you want to go that route.

Fri May 06, 2005 10:02 am

Okor,

where do you live? There are 4-5 guys that build those motors I'd trust to build one for me, if we know where you live there might be one close to you.

I'm assuming Outer Banks by the e-mail addy.....

John
Aircooled.Net Inc.

Fri May 06, 2005 10:57 am

Okor you need a big motor that's dependable go see Don Pauter and use the big buck case and heads. Try out the 108mmX94mm crankshaft and you will have a 3445cc VW with a turbo and you will be OK. :shock: Terry

Sat May 07, 2005 11:28 am

okor98 wrote: 74' Super Beetle. I want something fast, This will be a street legal car. It will have two front seats. I am looking for 1:6 hp to weight ratio.

You need a 2276 turbo engine, T3/T4 turbo, 385 flywheel H/P or 335 wheel H/P for a 1.6 weight/power ratio. A 74 super, cage, driver at least 2000 pounds will do 10.27 @ 130