Matt's 1963 Beetle and a 1600DP engine swap
Posted: Jun Mon 10, 2013 9:22 am
Motor swap commenced 11am Saturday. Second day was needed 
Matt owns a 1963 Beetle that's been around in his family for a couple of generations, and it has a tired old 1200 in it. I'd say it has maybe 20HP left in it, and it has high miles (over 150K as it sounds) and, this 1200 in it now is it's second motor. It's so under powered it's really cannot be driven. The goal was to find another motor to drop in.
About a month ago we were on a Bus pick and found a yard with some Type I and II, and there was a 1600 dual port sitting on the ground, covered with a canvas tarp. We pulled the tarp off and found it's in decent shape, all ports capped off, tins recently painted, turned over, and didn't have any obvious end play issues. So Matt picked it up for $150 bucks - it's a complete, including 12v generator, flywheel, exhaust, etc.
I don't know why this motor was on the ground - upon inspection...it's clean, no oil leaks and painted tins, it looks like it was cared for...but it was a gamble for sure. It wasn't apparent until we got the motor in the car, but the rear main is leaking, and that will need to be replaced. so back out it will come, and the seal will be replaced.
This weekend we started on the project. First off, it's a 6V car, and while in this process we are converting it to 12V. We changed oil cooler seals right away and pulled the tired 1200 out. The generator had 0v output, so Wade had a spare so we swapped that out with a working used 12v generator. Bolted up the newer style clutch disk and pressure plate from the old to the new motor.
Surprise...we found a few challenges getting the new motor in:
There are transmission bell housing clearance issues we were unaware of, and that threw us off the first day. Try as we did, there was no way a 1600DP is going to fit an early transmission bell housing without modification. We found some info (a thread with mention to a sticky, but no sticky...and a YouTube video with decent info) on having to clearance the case, but no good pictures or information on how much to remove. So we ground the obvious spots where the flywheel was hitting, and took a little more on the bottom, top and sides. It now fits in just fine, but may need clearanced further.
The 12v conversion seems straight enough. We already have a new 12v starter, and battery...although we will need to get the proper size...the donor out of my Caddy was too big. All bulbs will be replaced and the wiper motor and flasher relay are on the list to purchase.
A fairly short punch list remains:
Matt owns a 1963 Beetle that's been around in his family for a couple of generations, and it has a tired old 1200 in it. I'd say it has maybe 20HP left in it, and it has high miles (over 150K as it sounds) and, this 1200 in it now is it's second motor. It's so under powered it's really cannot be driven. The goal was to find another motor to drop in.
About a month ago we were on a Bus pick and found a yard with some Type I and II, and there was a 1600 dual port sitting on the ground, covered with a canvas tarp. We pulled the tarp off and found it's in decent shape, all ports capped off, tins recently painted, turned over, and didn't have any obvious end play issues. So Matt picked it up for $150 bucks - it's a complete, including 12v generator, flywheel, exhaust, etc.
I don't know why this motor was on the ground - upon inspection...it's clean, no oil leaks and painted tins, it looks like it was cared for...but it was a gamble for sure. It wasn't apparent until we got the motor in the car, but the rear main is leaking, and that will need to be replaced. so back out it will come, and the seal will be replaced.
This weekend we started on the project. First off, it's a 6V car, and while in this process we are converting it to 12V. We changed oil cooler seals right away and pulled the tired 1200 out. The generator had 0v output, so Wade had a spare so we swapped that out with a working used 12v generator. Bolted up the newer style clutch disk and pressure plate from the old to the new motor.
Surprise...we found a few challenges getting the new motor in:
There are transmission bell housing clearance issues we were unaware of, and that threw us off the first day. Try as we did, there was no way a 1600DP is going to fit an early transmission bell housing without modification. We found some info (a thread with mention to a sticky, but no sticky...and a YouTube video with decent info) on having to clearance the case, but no good pictures or information on how much to remove. So we ground the obvious spots where the flywheel was hitting, and took a little more on the bottom, top and sides. It now fits in just fine, but may need clearanced further.
The 12v conversion seems straight enough. We already have a new 12v starter, and battery...although we will need to get the proper size...the donor out of my Caddy was too big. All bulbs will be replaced and the wiper motor and flasher relay are on the list to purchase.
A fairly short punch list remains:
- Rear main seal
- Wiring to/from VR
- All bulbs to 12v
- Wiper conversion to 12v
- Buy a 12v battery
So tomorrow we will pull the 6v starter and try the 12v starter and see what happens. 