James gets his engine in!

It was a cold, wet day at Steve's gaf where we had decided to put James' engine in but that wasn't going to stop us. What did stop us though, for a while anyway, was the lack of electrics.

Thanks to the recent weather we've been having, a bit of water had got through onto the electrics and blown the circuit. We spent about 2 hours searching for the problem. Eventually we found one of the lights was soaking wet so we isolated it and hey presto! Back in business!

Compared to that the engine swap went quite smooth. We got the old motor out in good time, taking photos as we went and cleaning up anything that was to be re-used.

Before we new it time had ticked on but we were yet to have any problems. Even James was mucking in and getting his hands dirty (in all fairness he was doing just as much as Steve and Jon).

With the new motor assembled with it's tin, ignition, carb etc we were able to offer it back into the engine bay. Thankfully we discovered James' Bug had a removable rear valance so it was even easier.

Once everything was hooked up and ready to go we took off the king lead and started the engine to get the oil into the right places. Then we re-connected the lead and fired her up. It started up nicely and Steve was able to hold the revs at 2000 rpm for 15 minutes without any flat spots of hesitation.

So all went well and after a quick tune-up James was driving the '62 Ragtop out of the barn and headed home!

Click on the link below to see our photos of the engine fitting.
VW Beetle engine install

If you fancy a nice new engine you should check out www.vegeuk.com and see what they have on offer for you.