Disproportionate intake for fuel mileage.

[cosmick]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zackary

I'm attracted to the classic VW since it was the first successful economy car. I just love it when people brag about how they get 30mpg in there brand new SUV or other and I can rightfully say I get more than that in my half a century old Bug.

True, they're not the most technologically advanced car out there. But if you include the build in your economy figures they are very simple and cheap to build, mainly for being the most popular platform in history thus far. I just spent $100 for new pistons, cylinders, rings, hone and wrist pins of really good quality. I don't know of any other that cheap to rebuild.

First, that's not impressive. If you could do it in a '65 Chevy Suburban, then that would be impressive, but that's been done, thanks to an LSx / T56 swap.

Second, total number of original style Beetles still falls short of the GM B-body cars. Sorry, GM wins, as usual. Better yet, V8 B-bodies outnumber the Beetle, without including the few rare 6-cylinder versions. Part of why the SBC V8 is the best selling engine of all time, as most B-bodies had one, and most of them were the 350.

[Isaac Zackary]

My family loves Chevys. My brother just got his rebuilt 350 running yesterday!

Regardless, to me a car designed in the 1930's that gets nearly 35mpg with no modification or eco-driving and can get over 40mpg with some jetting and being easy on the throttle is impressive to me. Of course that's a matter of opinion. If my brother could get 18mpg out of his Chevy truck with the newly rebuilt 350 that would impress him.

I'm not saying this is the best car and engine out there or that everyone should like them. But I think they're a neat concept and are very affordable and easy to work on.

Yes 30mpg in a Suburban would be impressive. Kind of like me getting over 50mpg in my Golf Diesel yet only 24mpg in my Chevy Astro yet I can haul twice as many people and things in the Astro for less than double the price to fuel the Golf.

Back to the original topic. I see that with the unequal intake runners it would be optimal to have different spark curves for each cylinder (or eliminate the inequality and go with fuel injection.) interestingly VW actually had made different cylinders run at different timing on the single port engines, namely, the #3 cylinder being different than the rest. This was in part to the 3/4 head being behind an oil cooler inside the fan shroud. Therefore, the air reaching those heads was pre-heated, so they lacked the cooling the 1/2 head received. But only the #3 cylinder actually ran retarded. You the might ask yourself why both cylinders weren't retarded being that both were put on the hot side. But again, the unequal intake obviously would fill the #3 more than the #4 making it run hotter for that reason too.

Later VW repositioned the oil cooler when the dual port engine came out. Now the 3/4 head receives as much cool air as the 1/2 head and the intake is now more even with the dual port.

As of now I have a programmable spark map distributor (21x21) that I want to play with to see what kind of fuel mileage I can get from this antiquity. But my dream would be to figure out how to use an Adrino with perhaps a Ford TFI module and a crank trigger in order to adjust specific cylinder timing.

[bentring]

Originally Posted by Chrysler kid

You can pretty much rebuild them with a screw driver in the parking lot

one of my regular customers has a 2002? Vw beetle 50th anniversary from mexico. It was a final year production model and it had what looked like jetty style/quality leather seats an upholstery And fuel injection.

He was suprised how fascinated I was with it, he said he could get a dozen more for me if I wanted lol

This reminds me of a story my friend loves to tell about his old neighbor in Oregon who would swap the engine between a VW Bug and Van every time he would want to take a trip in the van. Which happened to be pretty much every other Friday. Then Sunday afternoon it would go back in the Bug when he got back home.

[Isaac Zackary]

Hehe! Ya, I've got it down to about 15 minutes either putting it in or taking it out! Four bolts a couple of wires, a fuel line and the throttle cable and violà! Plus the engines light enough I can pick it up myself.

[Chrysler kid]

Have you ever seen the top gear where Jeremy clarkson tries to drive a model T? The throttle is on the steering column and you have to push and pull a bunch of levers.

He got it up to 31mph on unpaved roads and said it was ludicrous to even go that fast. You hit a rut, large bump, or have to stop fast and you end up in a ditch destroying the car and getting ejected into a field where you die of cholera

[Isaac Zackary]

Hehe! The Bug's not the greatest road handler either, but my manual says it has a top speed of 81mph. I've never gone over 65mph in it. First drive I took it on I got slightly over 30mpg, and that was with it in poor shape. We'll see what she does with the rebuilt motor and engine mods I'm doing.