All the info that you will find on this page has been supplied by my Brother (Dave), who has completed a number of Type IV into Beetle conversions over the past couple of years. If you have any questions about what you see on this page, please let me know and I will ask Dave if I can't answer the question myself.

Below you will find some pics that I took of Daves type IV converted bugs. An overview of these cars is below:

'67 Bug (Sharpbuilt type IV upright converion kit)

A fairly standard looking car except for the massive 8 inch wide tyres on the rear which go some way to ensuring traction in most situations (but not all!! :) ). It is also lowered to improve cornering and handling characteristics. The pics below were taken in my brothers garage. This is a daily driven car (despite the fact that the back seat is out - pinched the battery to run the fridge in his Baja whilst up on Frazer island).

Engine Specs:

• Stock 1800 type IV
• Square port 2l heads
• 1800 valves (the big ones, not the 1700 versions)
• standard Carbs
• custom made tuned length exhaust
• type IV heater boxes (shortened to fit)
• std 1300 bug swing axel gearbox (so far it still works!)
• 8 inch rear wheels
• Sharpbuilt upright fan conversion

Dave asked me to mention a couple of things that might be of interest to those of you who are planning on doing the conversion - things that he has learnt by doing this conversion himself...

• Use the standard type IV lower back cooling tin. Apparently the sharpbuilt kit does not include this piece and makes no mention of it being required. It is required for a number of reasons. 1) It ducts the cooling air under the cylinders and 2) it protects your push rod tubes from damage from flying debris.
• Unlike the type I engines (in bugs), the type IV engines require some sort of rear engine mount (have a look in the pics - Daves mount is clearly visible in the pics with the exhaust in them.)
• Ensure that you use a 1600 fan - the widest one you can find - be careful, many 1600 are fitted with fans from other models so don't make assumptions. Ensure also that the fan is spaced as far back as it can be, without it rubbing on the fan housing (obviously!) to ensure the maximum flow of air through the oil cooler.
• Whilst the oil cooler mounting suggested in the Sharpbuilt kit does work, Dave feels that it is too close to the fan and is too difficult to get to the oil hose to cooler connections (they are inside the fan housing - making it impossible to check for leaks). Daves suggestion on for this is to use the standard 1600 mounting block with the bottom holes welded up and new holes drilled in the side of the block (have a close look at one of these blocks and you will see casting marks where these holes need to be). Fit oil fittings to these new holes and when it is fitted to the engine the cooler will sit in (very close to) the standard position, and the oil hose connections will be protruding through the front of the fan housing - easy to get to and check!
• You will need to run either a lifted engine lid or one with many holes in it. It will fit under a closed lid but will run way too hot.
• It is quite likely that you will have to run an external oil cooler too. Daves bug is fitted with an external cooler mounted above the gearbox and fitted with an electric fan triggered by a Golf radiator thermoswitch mounted in the oil line near the cooler. Dave says now that it is run-in, the fan only runs when you are giving it a hard time or on hot days.
• Be willing to fiddle with ideas when fitting these kits - they work well but can be refined in areas to work better.
• Use a single air filter rather than two sepearte ones. The engines run better, give more grunt and are generally quieter through a single filter. Dave used a modified L bug plastic filter box (and filter) to achieve this and it works well. - Just a note: in these pics the car is fitted with dual pancake filters because the filter system that was originally built for this car is currently on his Baja until the fuel injection comes along, so to stop the animals from making a home in the carbs whilst the filter is missing he has just put the pancakes back on. Also note that this is why the coil is mounted in this position.

Oh yeah, the last thing he said regarding this engine was "excuse the oil and dirt - but the car is driven daily,spends much of its time outside and is rarely drive gently. Its not pretty, but it works hard and goes harder!"

Click on the thumbnails below for a bigger image...

'65 Baja (Sharpbuilt Porsche fan conversion)

This car has been recently rebuilt, and a 2 inch body lift kit has been installed. It is regularly used both off and on road. The vehicles specs are:

• Based on 2l Fuel Injected motor
• 1mm (40 thou) overbore
• Fully balanced
• Custom grind hydralic cam (260 deg Duration, 270 thou lift)
• 1800 big valve heads (see comment above on this)
• Fuel injected - see Daves Fuel Injection page for details
• custom exhaust
• standard 1200 swing axel gearbox turning 10.5 X 31 tyres
• external oil cooler (with fan) likely in the near future.

This engine is only three weeks old (at time of writting - 8/1/04) and Dave reports that it has no trouble spinning the rear tyres whilst rolling (clutch out - any revs) in 2nd gear, just by mashing the accelerator! - And thats on a dry road!!

As with the upright conversion, Dave feels that there are a couple of things that might be of interest to those of you who are planning on doing this conversion...

• Use the standard type IV lower back cooling tin. For exactuly the same reasons as the upright kit
• Use a rear engine mount. Again, for the same reasons as the upright kit.
• You will need to run either a lifted engine lid or one with many holes in it. We have seen this kit fit under a closed lid but will run way too hot.
• Just like the upright kit, be willing to fiddle with ideas when fitting these kits - they work well but can be refined in areas to work better.
• Use a single air filter rather than two sepearte ones. The engines run better, give more grunt and are generally quieter through a single filter. Dave used a modified L bug plastic filter box (and filter) to achieve this (pinched off his upright conversion in the '67) and it works well on this engine too.
• Be prepared to work out your own linkage system if you plan on using standard carbs - Dave wouldn't let me take photos of this part - his quote: "let 'em figure that one out for themselves!" (either that or wait until it shows up at one of the events around the place and have a look yourself!)

As you can see from these pics, this car has spent some time recently playing on some of the local bush track (an in the local creeks too!)

*** NOTE ***

I recieved an email from Mike Sharp (13/1/04) who informed us that the fan fitted to this engine in, in fact, the incorrect model.  This was the cause of the warmer than expected operating tempratures that Dave had been experiencing.  Dave replaced the cooling fan shown in these pics with the correct fan and the temps have dropped to a normal level, in fact Dave now feels that it takes too long to warm up - particularly on cold mornings!

I should also mention that this car has destroyed a couple of gearboxes whilst being used off-road (diff failures!). Whilst Dave does not drive it gently, which is probably the reason for most of the damage, be aware of the power of the Type IV engines (and the weaknesses of the Type I gearboxes!).

Click on the thumbnails below for a bigger image - note these images taken before the EFI system was fitted...

The pics below show what the car was being used for when I caught up with Dave to take these pics:

Thats 120kg of cement on the back seat and a large box trailer (with long drawbar) with 12 sleepers in it - he has some gardening to do! Tells me that it carries this load with very little effort!

If you have any questions regarding these conversions or anything you see in these pics please Email me and I will pass the question on to Dave (he is not computer savvy - thinks a keyboard is a rack on the wall where you hang your keys!!)