Ok, the 1700 engine was at the end of it's lifetime for sure, eating up oil and smoking like a locomotive, because of the badly worn out cylinder set, so I have decided to change plans on the 2L project, and just build a decent new-ish reliable engine, so I could enjoy my beetle more, and with no worries. The 1.7L engine will now become the long term "all-out" project, and in the meantime, I hope the bug will be running perfectly good. I wonder why I didn't think this up earlier...
That being said, the new engine is already up and running, I did the break-in and about 400 kilometers on it already.

The engine specs are:
2.0L type4 CJ case, with the plugs drilled and tapped.
2.0L crankshaft & rods.
New Mahle main/conrods/camshaft bearing sets. New connecting rod bushings.
Webcam 86A camshaft & matching webcam lifter set.
Original oil pump.
Original 2.0L Piston&cylinder set, honed and re-ringed.
1.8L heads (41x34 valves), just a little bit ported on the exhaust side, and new exhaust valves installed.
1.7L rockers, with the 8mm adjusting screw and the hydraulic shims/spacers instead of the spring.
Scat HD dual springs with the little spring removed.
Pauter HD spring retainers and hardened locks.
Elephant swivel foot adjusters.
228mm clutch.
All the rest, like cooling system, carbs, linkage, ignition system etc, comes from the previous engine.
Right now the exhaust is a hacked up original bus one, but not for long

I'm actually pretty happy with how the engine is performing, the only problem I had was with 2 elephant foot adjusters which exploded (on the same piston), probably because of me not clearancing them well enough. I changed those with original style, and no other harm was done.
I safely took it to 170km/h and it feels like it can do more :D

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...8.jpg~originalhttp://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...0.jpg~originalhttp://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...9.jpg~originalhttp://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...6.jpg~originalhttp://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...0.jpg~originalhttp://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...1.jpg~original

Here's a pic that I find funny:
I can honestly say that I have a 911 connecting rod in my engine. And a 930 one also :P
http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...1.jpg~original

I got a set of gsx-r throttle bodies today :D I'm hoping something nice will come out of these... I'm so eager to start the EFI conversion on my engine! I just love the challenge of always doing new stuff, things that look very complicated (if not imposible) in the begining, and all that it takes until you succeed.
http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...3.jpg~originalhttp://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...2.jpg~originalhttp://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...5.jpg~originalhttp://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...4.jpg~original

Which ones did you get? 600s? or 1000!

actually these are from a 98-99 GSX-r 750. I searched all the topics and pictures I could find about the difference between engine types and years, and I think this model will fit best. That's because of the better injector angle, and the fact that they are 4 separate pieces, making it easy to space them apart for the IDF pattern.

Excellent. I did look at GSXR ones but found a better fit for what I wanted. Are the 750 the tapered 40mm-36mm ones? or are they a straight bore ones?

yes, they are tapered from 48mm to 40mm. I didn't measure the throttle plates but they are probably 46mm.
http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...0.jpg~original

:D should make some nice power! What EFI are you looking to use? Megasquirt?

yeah, I think the best choice in my case is going to be a Megasquirt ecu.

I'm tinkering again with the electronics in my car. First of all I managed to get the tacho to read the RPM correctly, thanks to a Dakota Digital universal tachometer adapter, recommended by Dave (owdlvr) in another topic here on GL:
http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...prd_zm_127.jpg
Thanks for that!

And after that I took on a bigger challenge: I got a universal central locking remote controlled unit, and this is how far I got today:
http://youtu.be/uQvVb8rrtqg
All that's left now is the mechanical part... installing the actuators etc.

While working on the wiring I stumbled upon a problem: The fact that the bug has a single bulb in the dashboard for both left and right turn signals. And that's run by a wire coming from the relay. That was messing with the central locking, and I managed to change it. Now it's much better and the interesting thing is that the battery voltage is much more stable now and the gauges are not dancing in the flasher's rythm anymore.

http://youtu.be/fjszkigvtjE

And while I was at it, I remembered Joel saying on the auusie forums that there's an accesory position inside the ignition switch. I wanted to test that, and after installing a missing wire, it works now. That opened up some new posibilities for tinkering :P

http://youtu.be/SOey4ggivus

Sweet, I'll be staying tuned to see how you make those gsxr TB's work.

Some good work. The cl system looks a lot like the one I have to install on the bug. And the 'x' position on the ignition switch will be invaluable, I'm thinking that you xuls alao put things like the fuel pump priming pulse on it too. I'll be using a relay off it to push to an accessory circuit and fuses.

The very simple wiring diagram I started with got very complicated!

So simple yet so effective.

Perhaps cooler than the key contacts, there's another Dakota Digital module that controls the headlights/domelights/and gives you retained power without presence of the key...Built-in battery voltage monitoring, adjustable timers, adjustable light sensitivity for automatic headlights, etc.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...8.jpg~original

So auto headlight and control of the courtesy light?

Courtesy light I'm going to use a Ford yellow relay. Auto headlights aren't something that I've thought about

What Does the retained power do?

http://www.dakotadigital.com/pdf/PAC-1300.pdf