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Still playing around with this...

Got the case partially cleaned up, and bolted the heads back on to try mock up in the car. Seems to fit the engine bay nicely. The 2.1 cooling hardware looks like it would present some issues with the body. The 1.9 stuff looks like it would fit better, but you loose the cross flow.





The injector ports would have to be relocated to clear the body. Would be pretty easy to tig on some bungs a little higher up the bend though. Goal for me would be to use all the stock intake system where I could.





Also scored another 2.1 long block. Looks like it was in a little better nic than my other one. I'm hoping for less (no) pits on the jacket, and more good internals.







I do really like the look of the stock 2.1 crank. Looks super strong, and I like the improved flywheel connection and thrust bearing assy. (This one is from the first motor)





Still digging into things and deciding if I want to bite the bullet and install this in the Beetle. My goal is minimal cutting of the body, and easily reversible modifications/cuts if it comes to it.

go look at my build thread
http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic ... 7&t=138817

like you mentioned that the stock fuel rails hit the sides of the engine bay. i did cut space out for mine, but in my new green bug im rebuilding now, im not going to cut the sides out. i just bought CB preformance's injector fuel rails so i can use a more modern day injector. reason is that i need a bigger injector because ill be tubo'ing it. the fuel rails should be here by the middle of this week. so when they get here, ill mount them up to my motor and see if they will give more clearence. other than that and the cutting/modding needed for the radiator in the front, you dont need to cut anything else out.

i say go for it. at first i built a type4 motor and ended up fabbing EVERYTHING on that motor just to make it work in my bug...once i got it running, i was really not that impressed with it, so one night i started searching info about these waterboxer motors. turns out their really a good motor, just most people use the wrong coolant, and never maintain them. the people who have maintained them are still on their factory head gaskets at over 150k miles...so ive read anyhow. but i went ahead and looked of ol' craigslist and found one in the first 30 mins i looked. i went and got it. then a week later the guy that i orginally bought my type4 motor from wanted to trade me back for a wbx with new amc heads on it. so i did that and thats the motor im running now. from personal experience....i was really on the fence about converting over to a watercooled bug...it seemed wrong, but i wanted a RELIABLE bug that i could drive anywhere in, have good heat, and be able to beat on it and not have to really worry all that much when doing so. honestly after doing so....IM VERY PLEASED that i did do it. ill never go back. the torque in these wbx motors is just awesome. i live in the mountains in colorado, and i can cruise 75-80mph all day long up moutain passes. i could go faster but i need a taller geared tranny cause i have really low pro tires on my bug. i hope my story helps a little bit on deciding to put it in or not. if you got any questions, ill be happy to share any and all that i can to help someone thru the process. best of luck man.

Thanks for the info.. that definitely is encouraging. I haven't seen many people stateside messing with them, but I think the benefits are there. Just takes the effort to set it all up.

I'll check out your thread to see if I can get anymore ideas

Pulled my "new" 2.1 core down, and the case is in MUCH better shape in regards to the jacket lip. Internally, it's about the same. I'm blown away on how robust these engines are. All the main saddles look perfect. You never see a high mileage T1 like that. The new engine had AMC heads, one of which is probably reusable, the other which is junk (loose exh valve seat and deep burn marks in the combustion chamber all around the exhaust valve and plug bore). Pistons likely will skipped past for some forged ones from GoWesty for boost, but now I have another set of liner cores for exchange, and a second good crank. Got my money's worth from this engine again I think.

nice progress, thats good news on the little wear that both motors seem to have. one thing thats good about the wbx motors is that all the vanagon guys are sellin them off for subi swaps or what ever...so we pick them up cheap and stock pile them. lol

i hope you dont mind, but i got my fuel rails in last night from cb. so today i had a chance to compare the cb fuel rails to the stock wbx ones. and i can say that with using the cb fuel rails, your going to save just about over and inch of overall length. i saw these fuel rails and i got to thinking if they had the right injector spacing, so only one way to gind out, and i bit the bullet and bought them, but im happy that they will work perfect for our wbx motors. heres the pics i snapped.

Cool that they line up, but it will still have clearance problems in a stock engine bay from my looks. The original injector bungs are just too far down the intake near the head to clear the side of be cooling seal channel/shelf.

As for me, I decided to not peruse this right now. My car is too original and nice, and I can't bring myself to cut it for a radiator. Especially given my track record of changing my mind down the road. Combine that with the cost of WBX parts and my budget, and its just not the right direction right now.

For now, these parts will go on the shelf for some other day. Perhaps one of my cases will end up as an OXY for a future build.