After more than 200,000 km, the original Fuel Injection became unreliable: old wiring and parts increasingly difficult to get. Time for something new with higher reliability, lower fuel consumption and modern components.

The whole picture

Since 2003, Paul has owned the super Beetle with a 1600cc fuel injection engine. The car was imported from California and Paul is the third owner. In 2015, the engine was overhauled due to too much axial play. Everything was technically kept at what it was. Since then, the car has crossed Europe: Germany, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg Belgium, England, the Czech Republic and, of course, most of the mileage in the Netherlands. All together since 2026, some 40,000 km.

While on vacation to the Czech Republic in 2024, the car’s performance was found to be in sharp decline. A malfunctioning injector was already suspected but parts could not be found on short notice. During this trip, it turned out that the catalytic converter was clogged due to the amount of soot created by the bad injector.

What did we do?

A choice had to be made: convert the engine to a carbureted version or make it a new fuel injection 2.0 version. We did the latter. After the engine was disassembled and it was rebuilt by Sander to a VW Airhouse special engine. In this the helical gearing of crankshaft and camshaft has been replaced with straight gearing there is a different camshaft in it that provides better filling. The displacement has increased to 1776 cc and further we have equipped the engine with a series of sensors: crankshaft, camshaft, air intake temperature, throttle valve, oil pressure and temperature, head temperature, control choke valve and lambda sensor. In short, it has become a “modern” engine that you adjust with a laptop except for the valve clearance, which is still done by hand. Engine control is provided by anECUMaster Black; a smart and modern ECU (Electronic Control Unit) that controls all engine functions, injectors and ignition.

For the old engine, getting the right parts became increasingly difficult in recent years. Often they had to be brought from America. The parts for this VW Airhouse Special engine are readily available; the injectors, sensors and pressure regulators are also used in modern cars and the ECU is a European company whose ECU is many thousands of modern cars, rally vehicles and vintage cars.

All assembled and checked: time to fire up! The engine was put on the test stand and fully tuned. After the oil change, the engine was installed in the beetle and the car was put on the dyno bench as a whole. This allowed us to learn the dynamic behavior, complete with shifting, and further optimize the tuning.

After this “makeover,” the Super Beetle is again a great car that is reliable, has high torque that allows for nice cruising, and drives even more economically than the old version.