Engine Work Begins

The hot Texas summer has now given us reason to work on less intensive tasks. As a result, we have begun the engine work. To this point, we really were not sure which engine we have. The 3rd piece had been replaced so there is no SN. The main casing may be a replacement as well since we also don't have a engine model stamped into the casing either. Eric Cherneff's website has a good explanation of these numbers. The saving grace to be sure we had a Porsche engine was part numbers cast into all 3 pieces. By looking at these castings as well as Theresa's research, we have determined it to be a 1962 356B engine.

We received this engine in pieces (in milk crates to be exact). Who knows if all of these parts even came with the same engine. When we found the car, the engine was sitting outside in the weather with the carbs removed. As a result, the crankcase was full of water. In addition, the #4 cylinder was in a position where the intake valve was in the open position. This allowed rain water to get into the cylinder and combustion area causing severe corrosion in the head. As a result, the piston rings seized up and the piston can not be removed from the cylinder. This took some tricky moves for disassembly as the #4 piston, cylinder, and rod was all removed from the crankcase as one unit. We were able to save the rod by cutting away the piston at the wrist pin however the head is not salvageable. The firing deck has severe corrosion and I am not comfortable welding it back up. With the #4 intake valve open and water in the crankcase, the cam lobe was also corroded and will not be used. Luckily, the lifters did not receive any damage. We also found cracks in two of the other pistons so all four will be replaced. The Zenith carbs appear to be in good shape but what is strange is that they have jets that were common to the 356C. Go figure. Whoever rebuilt the engine the last time must have done it on the cheap. All of the bearings were VW and the quality shows. While none of the journals were damaged, all of the bearings had worn through the babbet to the brass backing. Porsche bearings are designed to handle the higher loads and thus would last longer.

The flywheel gland nut was a challenge. We tried everything we could come up with to break the gland nut loose. Finally, we added some heat to loosen up the Locktite and the used a 1/2" impact to take it off. With some work, it finally broke loose. Several people on the 356 Talk List suggested that I use the flywheel torque tool that CIP sells. While it didn't work to take the gland nut off, I will use it on reassembly and on the drum nuts. It appears that whoever built this engine last came from the school of "if one dop is good, a puddle is better." Remember, Locktite only takes 1 drop to work!

Through our disassembly, we determined that the engine was built as a 1600 Normal (60 horsepower). Since we have to replace one piston and the cam, we will build it back as a 1600 Super (75 horsepower). This is the size engine that was originally shipped with the car.

Once everything was disassembled and cleaned, we were very surprised by the condition. The case halves had no sign of fretting and all of the case bores and crankshaft pins were normal sizes and within spec. Carbs and fuel pump are rebuildable and I bought a new Bosch 009 distributor on eBay. It's not the best distributor for this car but it will get us running.

I made a detailed list of the parts I needed including super cam and pistons, a cylinder, a head, engine tins, etc and sent this off to Parker Tyler of G.G. Tyler and Sons in Maine. I should have these along with the engine parts from Zim's by next weekend and we can start back together over the long holiday weekend. I also bought the carb kits from Parts Obsolete .