Tuning Your Volkswagen

We have provided comprehensive tune-up procedures elsewhere on this Web site. The material listed in the Table of Contents will provide background information gleaned from conversations with Rob Boardman and his responses to questions regarding the tuning of VW engines.

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Following are links to sub-topics related to the subject of tuning the VW engine -

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Tuning Summary -

Rob wrote, summarizing the various steps of tune-up -

Now if all of the following is true -

  • Compression is good (all >100psi);

  • Plugs are good and gapped properly;

  • Distributor cap and rotor are in good shape, points and condenser are good and the points are gapped correctly (dwell angle just right);

  • Coil is good (see note below);

  • The carburetor and distributor are the proper match (e.g. 34-PICT/3 carburetor with the SVDA distributor);

    • (Or, if you are running an 009 centrifugal advance distributor with a 34-PICT/3 carburetor, the carby is properly modified for use with the 009 distributor (larger main jet, hole in the butterfly valve plugged, etc.). This is a stop-gap solution to the incompatibility problem between the 34-PICT/3 carburetor and the 009 distributor. This problem will be discussed further in the following pages.)

  • There is no air inleakage;

  • Idle is correctly set (800 - 900 rpm);

  • Timing is right on;

Then you should be fweeming!

A note from Bob Hoover regarding the coil (black vs blue) -

Question: Is it beneficial to use a Bosch Blue coil with it, or would stepping up the coil help out also?

Bob responded -

Joke, right? :-)

Electrically, the blue coil is EXACTLY THE SAME as the black coil.

The joke here is that the amount of energy going into your coil is determined by the contact area of your points. If the coil used more energy you would need larger points.

The black coil uses varnish & tar in its construction, the blue coil uses Formavar (a high temp varnish) and polypropylene. (Cut them open. See for yourself. No mystery here. But lotsa sales hype.)

In theory, the blue coil should hold up better at higher temperatures but in fact, both coils do about the same.

(You don't really believe all the BS in the ads, do you? :-)

The only time you might need more spark than the stock coil can provide is when you have a very high compression ratio or extremely wide plug gap.

See our tune-up procedures and other pages herein for specifics.

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Back to Table of Contents

Disclaimer stuff: Rob and Dave have prepared this information from their own experiences. We have not assumed any specialised mechanical knowledge, but we DO assume that anyone using this information has at least some basic mechanical ability.

We hope you find this information useful, but we don't take any responsibility for anything which happens to you, other people, your VW or any other property or goods resulting from your use of this material.

Feel free to print off any of this information for your own use. If you intend to link this material to another site, reprint it, or in any other way redistribute it, please leave the information complete, including this disclaimer section, and provide a link to this Web site.

Contact us.

Have fun fixing your VW - just keep them fweeming, OK?

Last revised 6 May 2004.

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