Yes - you can buy brand new 1600 engines for the beetle - made in Mexico and quite good quality according to a VW mechanic I know who has installed some of them.
They come in two varieties - carburetor and fuel injection, so for your '67 you'd need the carburetor version (simpler wiring mainly).
E-mail John@aircooled.net or visit his web site, Aircooled.Net. Tell him you have a '67 and would like a new Mexi-1600 and he can tell you what you need. John will NOT sell poor quality stuff and he has a wealth of info in his head - sometimes his answers are a bit short, but that's just because he's busy.
It will plug straight in to your '67 gearbox, although the clutch plate and throwout mechanism is different between the '67 and the new 1600s (John can tell you which parts need to be swapped for a perfect fit).
The new engines are doghouse cooler engines, so the cooling fan is larger than the your current engine assuming it's the original 1967 1500 size (the fan is wider than the earlier fans), it really needs more air intake than the slots under the back window -- it will run short of cooling air above about 50mph and start to run hot. But if you can find a '67 Cabrio engine lid with the two sets of slots, that will fix that problem. Deck-lid stand offs work too, but look ugly in my opinion.
The '67 gearbox will give excellent acceleration with this engine, but not much extra speed, because the final drive ratio is a little short for the 1600. The 67 used 0.89 4th and 4.125 final drive, where the later 1600s (from 73 onwards) used 0.93 4th and 3.875 final drive, the difference being that at 60mph the earlier ratios give about 3200rpm and the later ratios give about 3050rpm for slightly "longer legs". No biggy unless you intend to do a lot of fast highway cruising.
It's a relatively easy swap, and will give you many years of reliable service.
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Last revised 4 May 2004.
