Get a complete (running) sube for your swap.
First of all, you will know it runs, and won't find out the motor is hosed once you've spend a ton off $$ and a ton of time on it.
Second, you will have all the hoses, wiring, sensors and all do-hickeys you need for the conversion and would have killed your budget if you had to buy them all afterwards.
Put the rad up front.
Not sure about cutting the heaterchannels, aren't these a structural part of the bug
?
Turbo is nice, but it is also more complex and will break your tranny faster.
If you are not getting a complete car, grab as much crap off the donor car as possible. DON'T CUT ANY WIRES.
You might want to take a look here :
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/...nagon/messages
In the 'files' section they have a list of 'things to take from the donor'.
Rob.