Nate, i'm interested in a bug convertible, but can't find engine specs and hp for them. Can you give me a website? thanks, Put-Put
Put-Put Here's a link to a '78 VW beetle. www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z9328/default.aspx You can go over the the right hand side of the page and look at other model year bugs too.
AC VW's O.K. that's an O.K. site , not too far off the mark . The horsepower in the big block VW engines ran from a high of 53 HP down to the low of the low compression fuel injected pollution controlled engines' 47HP . If you get a dual port 1600 and build it carefully , you'll see almost 60 useable HP out of it . There are a couple simple tuning tricks to make even the low compression engines run pretty well .
While we're on the subject of bugs! I dated this pretty young thing in the early '70's and her dad had an automatic shift bug. What a piece of ca-ca. (Sorry, my 3 year old grandson's been here all day and that's the strongest language i've used all day!) I'm thinking it was a '71, but not sure. How many years did they make it? IIRC, you had to put it in first, than manually shift it into second once it reached 45 mph. Refresh papa's memory, would ya?
Yea guys! I worked as the "grease monkey" at the local VW dealer in 68. Finally got "promoted" to the parts department.... got to drive a khia with "auto", what a bumper! mash the pedal, wait 60 secs and away you go... Nate, i'm looking at a 78 conv. HP is 48 for the fuel injection wasn't it? Any thoughts?
Man, I love bugs! My girlfriend drove one in '71, my cousin drove one in '70, my roommate in college drove one in '72. My cousin got busted at least once a week when me and 3 of the guys from the football team would pick her car up and turn it sideways in the parking lot in between two other cars! It took her 2 years to figure out that cousin Kenny had anything to do with it! Bless her heart, I love her so!
The VW M-8 ' Selector Automatic '.... ......More commonly known as the Auto-Stick tranny , it was supposed to set the world afire but kinda missed the American market ~ they sold a zillion of them in 1968 , the first year of production (O.K. now ~ no busting my chaps about " Saxomat " !) , it continued in production untill 1977 , the last Beetles sold in America were 1977 models and still had it available . Basically it was the std. transmission with no 2nd gear and a torque converter controlled by an electric microswitch in the shift column and operated by vacuum..... A complex setup that was actually pretty good if you tuned the engine not to SMOG specs . When Road & Track tested it , it went through the 1/4 mile traps _faster_ than a 4 speed manual box Beetle did.... They had LOADS of teething troubles , most commonly not going into gear from neutral so I had Howie buy a smashed one from the OPG and I took it apart and back to-gether untill I learned how to make 'em work ' Just So ' ~ I had quite a few over the years and they were great . Adding dual carbys made them get up and GO ! my son's 2nd racecar was built out of one , it was fun for a while but the hot rod engine he built for it overpowered the clutch and made it slip . The idea was : three speeds but for general use you'd only need 2nd & 3rd ~ if there was a steep hill or the car was heavily loaded , towing a trailer etc. you'd use 1st. gear too . Did this answer your questions ? .
Nah ; It had tiny main jets and was timed to 3° AFTER TDC for SMOG reasons ~ VW got cute and changed the timing marks , only told dealer trained mechanics so when the DIY'er tuned it up @ home , it was a right sluggish old thing Luckily , they made it simple so once you know what to look for , you can easily time it correctly and it'll zip along again . I ALWAYS replace those weeny main jets with # 130's , makes it more powerful , runs cooler and it increases fuel milage ~ pretty sweet eh ? .
