Darryl's 1956 Volkswagen Oval Window Beetle

Project Page

LATEST UPDATE: 11/24/09 - The pieces for my OKRASA motor are coming together quickly. Getting a working flywheel, crank and cam combination are all I need to put together before I'm ready to assemble the engine. I found DPR Machine Shop Inc. in Los Angeles who routinely strokes and counterweights 36-hp VW cranks for use in 356A engines and will be sending them my crank shaft. I will also send them my flywheel for lightening and drilling for 8 dowel pins instead of the stock 4. First I need to get the flywheel resurfaced at a machine shop locally to insure I have one with enough "meat" left on the clutch contact face to justify the investment in the additional machining. Laying all the new parts out on the floor for a photo gets me excited as I imagine the assembled engine! Yes, that's an original copy of the April 1957 Hot Rod magazine that inspired an earlier generation to "soup up" their oval window!

LATEST UPDATE: 11/14/09 - Isn't this a thing of beauty! Ed Fall of Vintage Werks over there in Utah fixed me up with what I hope will be the perfect centrifugal advance distributor for non-vacuum tapped twin Solexes. Ed restored and re-curved this February '59 date stamped Bosch VJR 4 BR 8 distributor to fit a (BTDC) 7.5°to 24.5°@ 3500 RPM advance curve which according to "volkslore" is a good fit for the OKRASA stroker set-up. I'm also searching for a machine shop that can take my stock 36-hp crank already machined for my case and bearing set and regrind the rod journals for the added 5.5 mm of stroke, 8 dowel pin the flywheel mating surface and add counterweights. I'm also considering lightening the flywheel slightly and of course balancing everything.

UPDATE: I've got OKRASA fever!!! After building my 912 engine, I'm understanding and appreciating the Porsche engineer's approach to more horsepower from an air-cooled engine. I also recognize the Porsche Super-90 engine's roots in the Volkswagen 36hp engine, the parts they share and how it evolved to have nearly triple the horsepower and still be reliable. Now I see that Wolfsburg West has reproduced the classic '50s hotrod kit for the 36hp motor! For the amazingly low price of $1395 (which I ordered immediately) they provide everything in the classic "TS-1200" kit seen here: Wolfsburg West OKRASA 1200cc kit and you've got about 48 horsepower. Now add to that a Porsche 356A crank with additional counterweights welded on and balanced and you've got a "stroker" 1295cc engine. The addition of a Porsche 356A "1500S" grind cam and a free-flow stainless-steel Abarth muffler you've got about 70 horsepower out of that old 36 horsepower motor! I also found a source for a NOS FRAM oil filter cansiter like the one seen in the following photo. You can read all about OKRASA engines following this link OKRASA Vintage Speed.

In the "automotive archeology" department; just to show how "old school" this reproduction Wolfsburg West kit is, click on this link: to take a look at an article in the April 1957 edition of Hot Rod Magazine, Where the founder of EMPI, Martin Herzog Jr. details the original OKRASA kit, its installation and performance. This is from two years before I was born!

In the traditional German manner, a high-performance automobile with one of these special OKRASA engines installed required a warning plaque to be mounted on the dashboard to alert the uninformed driver (such as valets or better yet female passengers) to hold on because this isn't any ordinary Volkswagen engine! The cast metal plaque measures 1½" x 3¾" and should be mounted in the center of the dashboard. This is a photo of the one I found for my car and translated:

Scrounging for and fabricating parts is the one of the fun things about an engine project like this vintage OKRASA one. I found a source for NOS Fram oil filter canisters on the TheSamba.com classified Ads and it arrived still sealed in 1966-dated packaging. I'll borrow hardware from the Porsche 356 engine oil filter implementation and have the flexible oil lines lengthened at the local hydraulic fitting shop to fit the Volkswagen engine placement.

I FINALLY FOUND A SOLID 1956 VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE PROJECT! - One of the many friends I've made at my "apprenticeship" at Wolfsburg Motorwerks in Ballard sold me this solid 1956 Beetle for $2000. I had mentioned that I had a nice 36-hp motor that I had found a couple years back and I wanted to find a solid oval-window project to install it into. This car came with a 1600 engine and is converted to 12-volt, as well as a later "tunnel-style" fully-synchronized transmission so I'll be needing to do some "back dating" to get it all back to original. The important thing is that I found a solid car that only needs new floorpans to make it totally rust-free again! Here's a front view of the car once I finally got it home.

Here's the rear view, the oval window glass is sitting in the trunk so no worries finding the correct makers-mark etched into it.

I have always wanted an oval window Beetle in the 1956 factory color of Coral Red since my father built a dune buggy from a wrecked Beetle that was that color, way back in the late '60s. Here's a photo of one that was sold on eBay a few years back and I saved the photographs for inspiration.

I was scrounging through the pallets of 36hp engine cases at the shop and discovered to my delight a case with a serial number in the correct range for a 1956 model year car! The serial number of my car is 1056121, indicating it was built in December 1955 and the serial number of the case is 1337366, built in February 1956. According to the serial number chart published on TheSamba.com's Beetle VIN number website showing the last serial number produced in a given month confirms the 1956 model year combination. Here's the pertinent information contained in the chart with my numbers in red:

Here's a close-up of the case's serial number:

So a little negotiation with Jack and the case was mine! I immediately ran it down to the machine shop to have it line bored "2nd over" to match the bearing set I was able to find and the already machined crankshaft I had already pulled from the shop's inventory. I also had the head stud holes reinforced with "case-saving inserts" for a total machining cost of $200. All the pieces are ready for assembly and I will be building the engine as time allows over the winter.

I've also already cleaned and straightened all the engine tins and they're all ready for blasting and fresh semi-gloss black paint.

Here's a fascinating silent YouTube video of the Volkswagenwerk (factory) in Wolfsburg, Germany circa 1955, manufacturing oval window Beetles:

Adobe PDF format of the original June '56 owners manual from TheSamba.com
Wolfsburg Motorwerks here in Seattle
Wolfsburg West Vintage Parts
TheSamba.com VW BBS - Awesome classified section for buying/selling used parts
The Vintage VW Club of America Home Page
Koch's Web Page