Aircooled VW South Africa

Hi,

Do you still have the 4-into-1 exhaust or has it been sold?

yes the exhast is still availeble, its still in a good condition, send me a pm with an offer. ( i can organize the sealing kit too)

Hahaha had a funny noise the whole time till this morning when i pulled the motor out and to my findings saw i had a dis-integrated clutch (cause, gearbox oil seal shot) fixed and running smoothly again

Hexadane wrote: (cause, gearbox oil seal shot)

Just some advice 90% of the time with a conversion motor in a bug and the Spigot shaft seal is shot make sure the spigot is running in the flywheel bearing if not the clutch plate has free raighn to swing the spigot around and wear the seal open for the oil to Escape

What the difference in fuel consumption like between the two motors and is there an increase or decrease in power with the Nissan motor??

Town driving the fuel consuption is bit heavy( motor hasnt been tuned and self made exhaust) but on the open road a drastic decrease in consumption, power wise excelent price wise not to expensive conversion and get electronic ignition, if you want to see what i have done till now ill try to post sum pics, I did the conversion by myself only got help to bend my water pipes, and to hoist the motor into the ol buggy

Hexadane, please show some pics of raidiator placement and water pipe placement. PLEASE, THANKS.

Ok ill make pics off every thing, but ill probably only be able to upload them on thursday, as i got faster internet at work, dial up Su!ks The Radiator i used is a golf Radiator i think got it from my friend.

Or even just let me know where you placed your radiator and how you flowed the water pipes

The radiator is placed neatly where the spare wheel is supposed to be, the pipes i used rubber water hose(not easy to find) and "32mm" aluminium pipe, borrowed a pipe bender and bent the pipes that i could mount them as close as possible to the chassis, i still want to post sum pics some time.

This is something i do not wish apon anyone, I had to strip the gearbox out as i broke both the gear selector arm and the gear selector of gears 1&2 don't ask how i mannaged that. im curently waiting on the repaires before my WC bug can kick bmw butt again, other than the gearbox i have not had any other problems otherwise.

hitlers revenge wrote:I can be a bit more positive than my fellow forum members. I have a nissan motor in my buggy and have had no issues what so ever in the two years after the conversion. One of the main cooling issues I had heard about before doing the conversion was that you piping had to be of 32mm pipe. The other main fault was to make sure you got your resiviour bottle above the highest point of your radiator. And also to make sure you got rid of any air bubbles in the cooling system. As far as clutch shudder goes, You just need to put a washer next to the C - pipe to give a better bend in the pipe. As far as adaptor plate and fly-wheel goes I just walked into an engineering firm and told them I wanted to convert a Beetle to Nissan and hey presto the gave me all I needed. As far as I'm concerned there is no better motor as your torque is nearly the same as 1600 beetle and there is only a slight increase in rev's in 4th gear. I am very happy with mine, in fact 2 Nissan powered buggies have just done a 2500 km round trip from Cape Town and Upington and back with mine being one of them.

Best of luck mate.

Er... hummm... come now Dave ,
Which trip was that, this year? Because the one I was on (last year 2007/8 to Upington), the two 1400 Nissan buggies gave plenty hassles... Both with radiators and/or pipes. The only buggies that made it without any engine problems were the two with stock standard AC 1600 twin port motors, Dugald's and Fiona (Shrek's better half, she did lose a wheel, my ex-wheel actually). I am absolutely not ashamed to say that mine was not one of the hassle free ones. My modified engine overheated, once at 13h00 at Klawer, but, I was towing a trailer and it was 40 in the shade and the buggy club wanted to drive in convoy at 70kph at which point I was either revving in second or labouring in 3rd. The club's prezz has had all kinds of kak with his all along i.e. not just on this long trip, but for several years, water leaks galore, and I don't know what else, water pumps, timing, starting, all you ever hear from him are groans about Shrek, and how he misses Pink Floyd, plus the last time you came to visit me, I came to tow you in, which wasn't the last time, I read on the forum. Please don't take it personally, mate , but I think you painted a bit teenzy-weenzy bit too a rosy picture in your post. I have no problem with your bug, it's cool and looks great, especially with it's new bonnet badge , and I love the fact that you love your engine and bug, no problem there.

Anyway, this is about advise, so I think that for reliablity, the best is to stay with a AC 1600 twin port, unmodified, or the like. The proof is indeed the Dec/Jan 2007/8 2000km trip from Cape Town to Upington, tussen hom en die hel is daar net n sif-draad. If you've got a dud, and I suppose they come along once in a while, get another... I've heard of bad, but I've had many (eight, not that many) great ones.

I remember having to "borrow" some water out of the milnerton marina once when my fastback was still 1400 powered ..... those were one of the times.

Hey Ron and Gill, If you do stupid things like I did to my bug what do you expect. One cannot go rolling down a gravel road with a buggy thats 100 mm higher than the road and not have a rock burst a rubber pipe. The reason for the last breakdown and your subsiquant tow was caused by moving the radiator to a position between left rear wheel and engine which caused major overheating. Also what happened was that the coil wire fell off.

On this years trip I raised my buggy to standard height and had no issues with burst pipes what so ever.

Be good and see you on Friday. AND I will park in the street this time.

Cheers maate. Enjoy the flight.

hi guys nissan conversion is great i raced one at oval track for 2 seaons and all i killed was gearboxes , was best car i ahve ever driven , i took motor and put in my buggy and what a stuff up , torque was to high up rev range ,(this is a hot motor and you should have the same problem) would start to wheelie at 90 100 kph , scary , i reved it 8000 in third , and felt like jumping out when it wouldnt stop, but yeah keep your pipes to the same diameter as nissan 28mm , run a sealed system with expansion bottle (no cap on radiator just a bleed screw , put you bottle higher than rad bleed and all is great , there are two in town and they run beutiful , if mine wasnt so scary to drive i would still have it in 100 kw/ at 7400 and pulls to 8300 easy , the down side is the nose gets light due to weight transfer , ok at 30 kph but at 150 kph no fun , so handling wasnt good , but yes do it , i had a 12 mm plate cut , i used the nissan flywheel and starter , alighned it all, made aligners to align gbox , cut a piece from belhousing for starter , had no shudder with normal clutch , but lasted only 1 run , then i used copper,