What temp does my 1974 air cooled vw beetle over heat at?

You can get one of those laser temperature guns and point it at the engine case when it's fully warmed up, as long as the oil temperature is below 220 degrees I wouldn't worry about it. If the thermostat flaps have been removed from the bottom of the fan housing then the engine will be overcooled most of the time anyway. Another note, it's popular to run 20W-50 oil in these because people think that it protects better, but these engines have been designed to use straight SAE 30 only because you want as much oil flow as possible for cooling, even though the pressure will be only 25-30 PSI when running on the highway. Thick oil is more likely to just run through the oil pump bypass instead of throughout the engine.

Hard to say with an air cooled engine. I has a 74 super beetle with a 1600 cc motor, and it would vapor lock. It would run until I shut if off, and then wouldn't start again for about half an hour. I realized that the fuel line was sitting on the manifold, after I moved it, I didn't have the problem any more. If you don't already have a temp gage, I would install one. You should talk to a VW expert.

Check this link to Gene Berg. Read all three sections and get the dipstick temp thing then you will know. Do not use synthetic oil in an air cooled engine.

I dont know off hand, we always added an external oil cooler somewhere too, adding extra oil capacity and a cooler away from the motor is going to help that rebuild last longer