how to put a rotary in a super beetle?

Basically, those aircooled VW's that you have seen with watercooled engines have been done by people who are willing to take on a huge engineering challenge and are able to work out each technical problem one by one. Thus, such a project would be far too complex to explain through email and you still run the risk of ruining a perfectly good bug while trying to get that watercooled engine to fit. (who knows how many aircooled VW's had to be sacrificed before those who installed watercooled engines finally got the expertise and experience to get it done right)

Power and the ability to stand out from the crowd is your objective right? (hey, it's my objective too!) I really urge you to look into installing a VW type IV engine with the upright conversion into your Super Beetle. The VW Type IV engine is still an aircooled VW engine, but it is an updated design from VW and it fits!

I respectfully disagree with your present plans with your car because I believe that we can no longer treat our aircooled VW's as cheap, disposable cars because they are a dying breed (it's been getting harder to play PunchBuggy lately)

Geoffe Elias '74 Super Beetle

Never thought about a typeIV(is that a thing?) where and what do I look for on the internet. I would love to stay air cooled, but how can you turn away

by bolting on that much horsepower that is aircooled and doesn't need some adapter plate...

------------------- Chris Perdue

"Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug!"

Remove "PANTS" to e-mail

"but how can you turn away 220-250hp bolted onto a stock tranny with a kennedy adapter?"

You've got a real good point there. Power is good. But I also think that control and "style" are important too. Control as in not making our weight-bias problem in our Beetles worse by adding a heavier engine in the back, or adding some weight-adding H20 plumbing. Style as in not having to cut up your Beetle in order to accomodate a differently shaped engine or having to route those H20 lines and radiator.

Type IV engines refers to a class of updated (and higher power output) aircooled engines that VW made for later/heavier models (such as Vanagons). I am not sure if Type IV engines have been built to make 250 hp, but it may be possible.

Here are some Type IV power links that I have from my bookmarks. Whatever route you decide, it's your car so I wish you good luck!

-74 Super Beetle

Type IV is a 411/412, a Porsche 914 (a better candidate for rotary repower) or in many buses after, I think, 1972. I disagree that it's all that great. A Subaru with a well worked out in-bay radiator setup-see the new Deutzes-would be a better swap.

A lot of Subarus are flying. No one is flying a Type IV.

"The ultimate" as people have told dimwits like Pauter for years would be a set of cases and crank that take O-200 or O-240 Continental or O-235 Lyc cylinders. The top ends are great with huge valve stems and given steady airflow they will last a long time.

Well, for one, becuase the stock tranny will not handle 220-250 HP. You will also bend your framehead unless you put in a Kafer brace, which essentially stiffens the whole rear of the car to keep it from twisting out of spec under high torque loads. As for the tranny, you need a hi-po tranny with welded hubs, heavy duty R&P, steel side covers, steel shift forks, heavy duty seals, etc. Also, if you want that kind of power in your car, you BETTER put disc brakes on at least the front, and tune the suspension to handle corners, because you WILL drive around them faster, whether or not your car can handle them. If it can't, say hello to a wrecked Super Beetle, if it can, more power to you. A water cooled conversion with a rotary sounds simple: just bolt it on with the adapter. But you're forgetting the immense costs of fabricating engine mounts (a rotary would need a rear mount as well as being bolted to the tranny), tubing for a radiator (where's it going to go?) suspension mods, brake mods, saftey equipment (would recomend a four-point racing harness), etc.

If you really want to do it -- have access to welders and plasma cutters -- and more importantly, the knowledge of how to use them, and of course, the funds; go for it. As someone else said already, however, the "supply" of easily expendable Beetles is running out. Measure TWICE cut ONCE. Good luck, and be safe.

~Anthony

..........not true.