how to quickly figure out engine size

[Suero68]

I just recently bought a 1968 beetle. Its got a couple mods but what i need to know is how to figure out the basic engine size Ex 1600 1800 ect

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you got to go into the engine, you know, crack the case and see what size crank and pistons and stuff you got, It's defenetly not worth it, so just say you have a V12 in it. JK

[michla]

With outside calipers, you can measure the O.D. of the cylinder barrel (smooth surface)where it is exposed between the mating surface of the head and the cylinder cooling fins. (crawl under engine).

This O.D will give you a good guess on what the piston size must be.

As for the stroke, you'd need a *long* extension on a dial gauge through the spark plug hole, rotating carefully from BDC to TDC.

Michelle

[michla]

....OR...if you don't have a dial-gauge, you could use a long wooden dowel in the spark plug hole, long enough to measure the difference of travel from BDC to TDC *outside* the cylinder head with a ruler, converting the fractions of inches to milimeters. >Just don't jam the dowel as you **slowly** rotate the engine (trans in neutral/disable ignition) by hand with a socket on the pulley nut!

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'68 Beetles in North America came with either a 1200 or 1500 cc (most were 1500). We've had a few '68s in the family over the years and my current '68 is the deluxe model and has "1.5L" (dark blue ink) stamped on the engine case below the distributor.

If you've got an original engine it could still be a 1500 cc, but if someone swapped the 83 mm pistons for 85.5 mm during a rebuild, then it is now a 1600 cc.