wbx to beetle ?

[Jim Hunter]

Hello,

I want to install a wbx engine in my beetle.
I want to ask what intake manifolds,carburetor linkage (weber IDF) I need to buy ? And also is there anyone out there who mades an exhaust for this conversion ???


TIA,
Jim

[volkdent]

Go Suby. More power, more reliable, easier to source parts, more economical.

Jason

[Moog]

Fitting a WBX in your Beetle is easy. You need a 215mm flywheel & clutch from a 1800 T4 Camper/Kombi/Transporter. Flywheel needs slight mod to have the needle bearing pressed in the centre. Then the engine bolts straight on to the box.

Inlet Manifolds - use standard waterboxer & carb, or get IDF/DRLA WBX manifolds from CSP in Germany. I used these on mine, but ended up cutting & welding them 180° as i used Weber throttle bodies & wanted the injectors on the inside not the outside. Standard IDF/DRLA T1 linkage works.

Exhaust - no off the shelf item, but mod an aftermarket T1 with J-Tubes - cut & weld 2 of the flanges as they are at different angles. If you use the early thermostat housing (ally type on Cyl.4) then you need to cut/weld the exhaust slightly to clear a bit, but all easy stuff.

Cooling - For parts on engine i used the early WBX system as it was easy, but others prefer the later system. Later parts are easy to get hold of new, early parts are used only. I use a VR6 thermostat as it is an 80°c item (Std Wbx is 87°c). Header tank is standard Golf Mk2. Used a T25/polo heater matrix under the rear seat blowing down the heater channels.

I junked the 2.1 WBX oil cooler & went for a front mounted CSP item. Changed the oil pump to 30mm gears type to counteract pressure loss in oil lines - Pressure is excellent and oil temp doesn't go over 90°c.

Radiator is then your call - million ways to do it.

Had no trouble sourcing parts or fitting anything - quite easy really.

I'll try and upload some photo's later.

Standard 2.1 WBX with Weber/EmeraldM3D injection makes 130bhp and is dead realiable, nice and smooth, good & quiet - I drive it every day to work and my Mk4 Golf GT Tdi hasn't turned a wheel in weeks!

Hope this helps.

Moog

[Moog]

A couple of Pics for you...

[DORIGTT]

Hey Moog,

Is the radiator in the picture you posted the only one cooling the engine?

[Moog]

Hiya - sorry for the delay in replying - been on holiday

Yes - the Rad you see in the photo is the only one cooling the engine. Temp is fine - tends to stick around 90-95°c. I've re-set the ECU so it cuts the fan in around 95°c but this only seems to happen on hot days and when stuck in traffic - on the open road then it doesn't cut in much at all.

Moog

[Bad bug]

Originally Posted by volkdent

Go Suby. More power, more reliable, easier to source parts, more economical.

Jason

The subaru isn't more reliable. Waterboxers have been known to go 300K miles.

[DORIGTT]

Scooby's are more fashionable and relatively inexpensive after the adapter plate and the engine, and wiring harness modifications and...

No offense to the Scooby camp. It's all Vee Dub in some way shape or form.

[Joel]

Originally Posted by Bad bug

The subaru isn't more reliable. Waterboxers have been known to go 300K miles.

You're about the only person I know with something nice to say about wassers
Everyone I've encountered with one has complained about cooling system problems and cost

Probably fine in a bug but too overworked in a bus

[oasis]

I had an '85 Vanagon (Transporter to most of the world) for six years and loved it. I didn't spend much money on it during that time but I was intense with keeping up on general maintenance, and made darn sure the coolant was phosphate-free. I would only say the 1.9L WBX was overworked if one wanted to drive spiritedly. On the other hand, our family used it for 1,000-mile trips without complaint.

Now having said that, if I got another Vanagon of some sort, I would probably go for a 2.0L ABA engine, a TDI of some sort, or maybe some offering from Jake. The two main reasons would be (1) most Vanagons are not kept up as they should, and (2) many parts have become NLA.

I saw a Type III in the UK for sale with a WBX and I had to tell myself a hundred times I want an air-cooled as my next car. It was very tempting.

[Bad bug]

Originally Posted by Joel

You're about the only person I know with something nice to say about wassers
Everyone I've encountered with one has complained about cooling system problems and cost

Probably fine in a bug but too overworked in a bus

I have a friend in Jamaica that put a 2.1 ltr waterboxer all stock in his 66 beetle, that car was a beast. I can recall once he came for me at work and carried me home, that was my first official drive in it, rain had fallen and a light film of water was on the road. After driving for sometime at a constant speed with all the torque of the engine the tires broke loose, after that experience i wanted one.

[joeyd63]

I just swapped my subaru EA81 for a wasser



Used aftermarket 200mm Type 4 flywheel from ebay. moddifed stock exhaust to clear trans




the 1.9l cooling is a bit easier in a bug because of the thermostat housing. also the wiring is dead simple if you use all the stock fuel injection.

[Bad bug]

Why did you go to a wasserboxer in your bug, did you have problems with the suby.

[Steve C]

Hi

This is a reply to a post on shoptalk that I did when I was running a 2.1 WBX in my old 1302

==============
Wasserboxer in a Beetle.

The Wasserboxer has received some bad press for headstud problems; coolant leaks and assorted other woes. These problems seem to occur when proper VW servicing techniques are not used, VW coolant and distilled water.

The Wasserboxer motor in my VW Beetle has been looked after as far correct coolant is concerned; I also use distilled water mixed with genuine VW coolant. I fitted an Oettinger 85 thermostat instead of the standard 87. These don’t seem to be available anymore so I have modified a Mercedes one to fit. The top part of the thermostat is the same as the VW one, but the lower bypass part has a larger diameter flange. This can easily be made the correct diameter by first marking out the correct diameter circle with a pair of dividers and the grind the flange down to the marked circle, it doesn’t need to a perfect circle. I also got rid of water-cooled oil-cooler as I have heard that they can fail. I’m running an air cooled oil cooler with a Setrab thermo block at the front of the radiator.

As far as the rest of the motor goes it is extremely reliable, I give my bug heaps. I have bent one Scat pushrod (I’m now running Berg ones) and had 2 water pumps fail in about 100,000 Ks since 1988 and have had a few coolant hoses fail. My bug is also in constant state of improvement, so some things are always changing.

The Wasserboxers use 2 styles of cooling systems, basically the 1.9 and 2.1 litre style. I prefer the 2.1 style.

Fitting the motor is much the same as fitting a type 4 motor, same style of flywheel. The thermostat housing which sits above # 3 exhaust port needs to have some body clearancing. The water hose that runs from the water pump to the thermostat housing needs to be modified at the water pump end. It basically would run straight through the left-hand rear bumper bracket. Any Beetle exhaust can be used, #1 & # 4 exhaust flanges need to be rotated 90. In the engine bay I used basically the whole Wasserboxer cooling system and condensed it to fit. You will need a steel coolant ring main as the plastic one cant be shortened easily.

The coolant runs to and from the front of the car via 1.5-inch stainless steel tubes. These follow the chassis bolts along the bottom of the heater channels. I have just upgraded my radiator with a modified Ford Transit radiator. After some gentle prompting from a fellow list user MARTINSR, yesterday I went out and bought an after market thermo fan from Davies Craig http://www.daviescraig.com.au/. It’s meant to be used for a 5 litre V8 and pumps 2120 CFM, so far its working really well, we are having 40  + days down here at the moment. I previously used a BMW radiator and Audi 100 thermo fan. Cool air is brought into the radiator through an A/C louvered front apron. I removed the deformation plate at the front of the chassis to allow more air in. I had to also remove the spare wheel well and I just left the rounded edge for a bit of extra strength, I supplemented the spare wheel wells strength with angle steel. My radiator is around 550 mm across and 450 mm deep on the cooling surface, it’s actually a little wider where the tanks are on the side. The radiator sits on a U shaped holder right down on the chassis and comes very close to the under bonnet and leans forward about 5. I fabricated a sheetmetal alloy housing to guide the cooling air in and let the heated air exit over the front end. I basically used some angle aluminum for the edges and then filled this in with very thin aluminum sheet. In case you hadn’t already realised my bug is a super. I have seen radiators fitted to standard bugs but I have no experience with this. My spare wheel sits on top my fuel tank on a bracket attached to the strut brace.

Original heater channels were retained and warm air is directed from a Toyota troop carrier heater core under the rear seat opposite the battery, to the interior via early Audi 100 brake cooling fan on the right hand side and via the troopy fan on the left hand side. I have used the rear seat heater cable to operate heater shut off valve.

My Kombi motor was purchased new in 1988 and is 2.1 litre its DJ engine number type 10.5:1 compression, 112 BHP type. I original ran the motor with dual webbers Berg cam. In preparation for a turbo the motor was been decompressed to 8.0:1 and the cam changed back to standard. 1.4 berg rockers are used.

I’m using an after market EFI system with the factory manifold, the injectors in the stock manifold sit in a horizontal plane so the side panels in engine bay that the engine tray seal fits in need to be modified or removed.

================

[al_kaholik]

Is that a stock WBX exhaust too?

Any chance of some pics of where the stat housing is with the engine in situ?