A 1500 Beetle single port engine should have a 30 PICT 1 or 2 carburettor, depending on the Year.
The 28 PICT 2 is really for an early Transporter or a 1200 Beetle engine, and could be restricting the engine.
I would suggest getting the correct Solex Carb and inlet manifold, you should see a good improvement over the 28 PICT 2, but you may need to change the jetting slightly, to suit your 1600 Barrels & pistons.
I had a similar 1500 with 1600 B&Ps in a 1970 Beetle, and it ran very well with the Solex 30 PICT 2

 

A 1500 Beetle single port engine should have a 30 PICT 1 or 2 carburettor, depending on the Year.
The 28 PICT 2 is really for an early Transporter or a 1200 Beetle engine, and could be restricting the engine.
I would suggest getting the correct Solex Carb and inlet manifold, you should see a good improvement over the 28 PICT 2, but you may need to change the jetting slightly, to suit your 1600 Barrels & pistons.
I had a similar 1500 with 1600 B&Ps in a 1970 Beetle, and it ran very well with the Solex 30 PICT 2

Ah, that would make sense actually. The previous owner told me he blew the OG 1200 motor so sourced this one to replace it, I guess he didnt get a carb with this motor then.

I know that the dizzy is a 67/68 year model so Im guessing that the motor is too. Any idea which 30 pict I need if that's the case?

Any thoughts on the weber also?

Cheers!

 

OK cool thanks for the help....again!

 

The 1500 was probably the best engine that VW ever put in a Beetle, and incidentally it also had the steepest hill climbing ability! Keep it absolutely bone stock (apart from the extra capacity) and enjoy the low-down torque!

 

I hear you loud and clear on that, and I think you're right, keep it simple👍 he pulls really well to be honest!

 

With single port heads it’s not worth the bother as the air flow is much more restricted than twin port heads. Stock set up works best in my view with stock heads.

 

If you really want to wake the engine up fit twin 34ict Webers. You may also find that that two tip GT exhaust is also more restrictive than a standard system. A header with a single quiet muffler/silencer or a standard box with big bore tailpipes would be a better choice.

 

Yeah I definitely want to avoid twins for now I think, I like the simplicity of a single carb. I was looking at a weber 32/36 but it's probably unnecessary.

The GT 2 tip defnately gives it a bit more go, I switched back to the standard exhaust for a while but it really brought the power down, I was surprised just how much by.

Just noticed you're on Anglesey! I'm only over in Snowdonia 👍

 

As Manxdavid said, the stock exhaust needs big bore tailpipes to unleash its potential. The stock 'peashooter' tailpipes are a major restriction.

 

Good to know, I assumed it was the flow through the box itself that caused the restriction.

I actually didn't like the bigger bore tips on the GT so cut them off and welded a couple of pea shooters on there (counter intuitive I know!). The power feels just as good but retains the more original look

 

I used to run 1500 engine with a Nikki carb conversion which ran great. A bit old school now though. I've still got the carb up on the shelf in the garage 😄

 

This kind of tailpipe is all you need :

My mate runs a Nikki on his Buggy with a 1600 TP engine, goes well.

 

Maybe have a think about converting to twin port heads. You could then fit a progressive weber carb kit and as mentioned previously a single quiet pack exhaust with header.

It'll cost a little more but worth it in the long run.

 

If

Maybe have a think about converting to twin port heads. You could then fit a progressive weber carb kit and as mentioned previously a single quiet pack exhaust with header.

It'll cost a little more but worth it in the long run.

If I went for twin port heads, would I need to buy new valves and rockers etc to suit? Or to all the bits swap over?

 

If you want more power, go twin port with dual carbs. Depends on budget. Where it snowballs is buying new heads, carbs, pistons, etc, you'll then need to look at the bottom end. You don't really put a new top end on an old bottom end. If there was no end float and there wasn't a crank grumble for the 1st few seconds on starting from cold I'd consider doing it. The crank grumble can be tested with you in the car, windows up. No radio on, start it from cold and listen for a grumble noise that disappears soon after start up.

 

If you go to twinport you'll loose some of that lovely low down torque, but you'll gain a bit more power higher up.

If it was me, I'd say keep it singleport and find the right stock solex to suit it instead of the 1200 one.

However, if you do go twinport, remember that to do it right is more than just buying a pair of TP heads. You'll also need twinport cylinder tins, inlet manifold, doghouse fan housing, wider fan, oil cooler and bracket, flap linkage, two piece doghouse tin and rubber seals for it, hoover bit, and new rear tin (over the bellhousing). You will also need to fit 4 shorter head studs (upper centre ones) The cash and hassle adds up.

And if you then slap a progressive on top of it you'll have a new set of hassles trying to get it to work well with the aircooled, as they were designed for ford cortinas and the like, they are not well suited to aircooleds and won't give you much power increase for the hassle and cash spent. They can be particularly troublesome if you want to run them through winter on a daily driver as you can't fit the proper VW air filter and therefore they are prone to carb icing unless you DIY bodge up some hot air ducting to feed the air filter. A few people have managed to make them work well and get a few more HP but they'll never give you the sort of power increases that twin carbs will because they're still crippled by the very restrictive "handlebar" manifold setup.

If you want carb upgrades, go for proper twin carbs instead, they will give you more bang for your buck, potentially better running and less icing hassles in winter. Aftermarket carbs that are centrally mounted are a halfway house, not good for one thing or t'other. If you want a single carb best stay with the factory setup and it's stock air filter. If you want twins and revvy power then convert to twinport first and then fit separate carbs, either ICT's or DRLA's / IDF's depending on the thickness of your wallet.

Whichever way you want to jump, cost it out carefully before you set your plan and bear in mind what has been said above about upgrading the top end on an old bottom end, if your case and crank have had a hard life they won't last long when you want to rev it higher and push more power out.

Dave.

 

 

Just rebuilt ours to 1600sp, prefer longevity over tp as heads crack between ports. Have fitted 34icts though but run standard exhaust. Tried without tail pipes in and was a little quicker but prefer standard look. If I could find stainless OEM exhaust would fit that but can't warrant 500 quid on csp type......

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Correct standard carb or twin 34 it's, and keep your single port heads, they're things of beauty. Swapping them for third world made replicas of twin port heads would be madness.

 

I think I'll defnately stick with single port and single carb.

A though the stock 30 pict-2 makes sense, I must admit I'm tempted by a progressive 32/36 weber with the single port adapters. Not to get more power but just to get it running sweet. I'll probably not use it too much in the winter so carb icing doesn't worry me much.

Is thern any other reason why that wouldn't run well?

 

Got this for sale if any good. Looks like new. I haven't used myself though as bought by mistake for my van. Aparently was used as a test carb on a couple of engines. Owes me £105 so hoping to get that back.

 

I tried a weber progressive on my 1.6 t2 tp for about a year. Had it all set up via a garages rolling road, and to be honest it really didn't seem any better than my solex pict3, certainly nothing that noticeable. It ran well when set up correctly (they are more fiddly to set up compared to original solex) but I was dissapointed in what was probably my unrealistic expectations. If you're gonna stick with a single carb, like others have said best to go stock original. One of the best things I did was to have my carb refurbished, think it was gower and lee.

 

Don't bother fitting twin port heads - you will have problems with head stud length and need new tinware. The power increase will be marginal unless you fit twin carbs. I would swap the existing carb for a Solex H30/31 made by Brosol (NOT Bocar!). I may have a spare NOS one for sale if you want it. I run these carbs on 1500 sp engines with good power, no flat spots and excellent fuel economy.

 

A single port with a pair of Weber 34 ICH or ICTs is a thing of beauty. With a good quality exhaust, an SVDA and an Electric fuel pump it will be a really nice drive, be great on fuel and give you more smiles per mile. I really miss my Bug.