Motor Swap

I was on thesamba.com website and found a beetle with a subaru 2.5rs motor and was wondering how hard it would be to do swap it in a beetle? I know beelte engines are air cooled and suby's are water cooled.

the hardest thing is finding a good place for the radiator

I'm not sure what that would involve exactly, but usuallly water cooled motors in an aircooled bug would have to run a radiator in the front so it gets air flow, but that means you'd have to ventilate your decklid.. drilling holes, or cutting a section out and putting a screen or grill... not too cool looking... You can get a VW engine to haul... maybe you'd want to look into the bigger ones... with the right tranny, you can get what you want.

you would have to do some major modification to get one to fit. you would have to get(or fabricate) a wiring harness,motor mounts,a transmission that would fit, relocate the radiator and fan, make a header/exhaust, not to mention cut off most of the back end just to fit the engine in. by the time you have done all this it probably would have costed you $20,000 and countless hours of work. Definately not worth it.

The suby motor will bolt right up to the stock tranny with a Kennedy adapter kit, $490 last time I looked. This tranny will suffice unless you abuse it, or do some major modifications to the engine. You will probably want to go with the four cylinder because it has a wider aftermarket selection of parts, easier to find stock parts and will fit a lot easier. There will be a little trimming in the engine bay to get it to fit. If you get the motor from a parts car, you will want to get the complete engine wiring harness with it. That will make the installation a lot easier.

Your main obstacle will be cooling. Most people put the radiator up front and run water lines under the car. I have also seen the water lines run throught the tunnel or inside the heater channels :screwy: . Another option is what this guy did. (http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=87841&highlight=subaru)

I did a 1.8 rabbit conversion in my 914 and the whole ordeal cost me about $2000 (5 years ago). If you can pick up a used engine for a reasonable price, and assuming you do all the work yourself, the conversion will cost you about $2500 - $3000. Not too bad for ±150hp in stock form. How much would an aircooled engine making that kind of power cost? Also, how long would an aircooled engine making that kind of power last?

Lots of good info at www.shoptalkforums.com in the "conversion peversion" section.