New member, future 356 cabrio owner and confused about my future car?

[Pat Schoettker]

Hi All,
Living in Switzerland, owning a Porsche 993 cab, I have been dreaming on owning a 356 for many years!
I have been driving a MGA Roadster while on the look out.
After 5 years of searching, I believe I found my gem

I found a 1963 BT6 Porsche cabriolet in Swizterland, original colour but with a non matching engine. The car has been stored for 30 years in a garage close to where I live and is in an excellent shape as I can tell. Some work needs to be done on body but no rust at all, cabrio needs some work. Engine is sound, fuel pump is leaking and brakes are stuck. All doable.

A few things than I am confused about and for which the seller (grandson of owner) could not help.
Maybe you all can?
Attached a few pictures:

The chassis number (158384) seems to be a 1963 BT6 by Reutter, swiss licence says first registration July 3 1963. Good.
The transmission number (50817) seems to be matching the year. Good.
The engine number seems to be 61615 and from what I found, it is « older » than 1963?
The Porsche SC badge on the car seems to be wrong ? Was it put there by previous owner (deceased in the meantime)?

I decided to buy the car, but spending the week end to know as much as possible about the car so I can negociate the prize.

Can’t wait!
Sunny greetings from Switzerland

Pat

[Sebastian Gaeta]

Pat,

Welcome and congratulations!!

To answer your questions, the website by Eric Cherneff 356a.com shows your engine to be a 1956 "Normal". The engine experts will chime in here and will tell you that is probably not th eideal engine for your car in the long run for a few reasons, but will suffice for now,

The SC badge is obviously not correct but fear not, the correct "60" badge will fit the same holes as the "SC" badge uses so no worries about any additional holes in the body.

It's very early where I am and I am on my way to an event, but you will no doubt receive many noce replies here about your car. It looks great and you will immensely enjoy your time not just with th car but th epeople here who will offer up any help you need along the way.

[Vic Skirmants]

Welcome aboard, Pat. The transmission number indicates the trans was built in October 1961, but the "KD" in front of the number shows that it was a factory rebuilt unit.
Question on the engine number; is it really 61615, or is that the designation on the right side engine case; 616/15? That would be a 1964-64 356C engine. Also it has a 912 fan shroud.

[John Brooks]

Contact Josef Pit Schweiger. In Geuensee. At JPS air cooled. Josef can help you sort it out

[Pat Schoettker]

Thank you all for the first answers. Could the engine number be the 741 02x I noticed on the picture? As I am a newbie, I didn’t take all the right pictures while checking out the car. I can’t fin such a number on the Porsche registry database.
Pat

[Martin Benade]

No, that’s the transmission type.

[Mike Wilson]

Congrats! One other observation. The fan shroud is for a 912.

Mike

[Marcus van Bers]

Pat, congratulations. Beautiful looking car from what I can see. You should be able to find the engine number here, circled in red.

[Al Zim]

This car was manufactured after 1 January 1963. That is when SOME COUNTRIES insisted on the European delivery exhaust system. I believe these were Germany and Sweden The BAD news is that parts for the exhaust system on European Deliver vehicles is that there are no parts. That is a 60 year old car. If it has been driven in the winter Most cars were! there was no rust proofing on the car. You may be LUCKY! an underside of the car shows less than normal wear. Rust needs a careful analysis. The Zenith Carburetors have not been assembled correctly. 63 carburetors are usually better than 1962 and earlier carburetors i have had limited experience with the oil filler which is different on the European cars, but this one seems to be incorrect I may have forgotten their distinct characteristics after 60 years.
In March or April 1963 There was a distinct change in manufacturing the engines. Use your parts book and it will tell you what these new case numbers are. I believe that number will start as P*00* 8XXXXX or P*00*7XXXXX. This is a better case to own. Find someone (and individual friend)that is really smart and has experience. Pump that person for all the information that you can obtain. al zim Bueno Suarte
The transmission has the mount cast into the case for the camber compensator I think that started after 1961.

[Jules Dielen]

Pat,

Welcome and congratulations!!

To answer your questions, the website by Eric Cherneff 356a.com shows your engine to be a 1956 "Normal". The engine experts will chime in here and will tell you that is probably not th eideal engine for your car in the long run for a few reasons, but will suffice for now,

The SC badge is obviously not correct but fear not, the correct "60" badge will fit the same holes as the "SC" badge uses so no worries about any additional holes in the body.

It's very early where I am and I am on my way to an event, but you will no doubt receive many noce replies here about your car. It looks great and you will immensely enjoy your time not just with th car but th epeople here who will offer up any help you need along the way.

It could also be a super or s90, a kardex or COA will tell

[Jim Liberty]

Welcome to the best car club in the world. Join the Swiss 356 Club. They are active and a great gang. .................Jim.

[Juha Vane]

Pat, someone might start to look for tar and feathers, but I wouldn't be too much concerned about numbers matching.
Aren't you getting the car to enjoy it, driving around and tinker with it in the garage? If it's something special and you
would put on display in a museum, then number matching can be important.

Of course with the numbers you have an idea what you are buying, but how important are they in use?
My reasoning with my somewhat non-original 356 is that there are "plenty" of fine restored cars, so a couple of
outlaws won't be a problem.

[Pat Schoettker]

Thanks again, great forum and people
I got some answers from the owner of the garage the car is stored at. The good thing is that he did his apprenticeship 60 years ago at the local Porsche garage, on the 356, couldn’t find a more passionate guy.
The engine is a 616.15 (see picture), with 75HP, dated 1964 according to his documents. He also tells me that the car is a 1963 356 B type SC T6.
As you all say, no big difference for me, more a « get to know the car » I fell in love with.
Now the ball is in my field to see how much I can « negociate » the car.
I’ll keep you posted.
Thanks again
Pat

[Jay Darlington]

shouldn't one check the numbers on the thrd piece??
Jay D.

[Sebastian Gaeta]

Thanks again, great forum and people
I got some answers from the owner of the garage the car is stored at. The good thing is that he did his apprenticeship 60 years ago at the local Porsche garage, on the 356, couldn’t find a more passionate guy.
The engine is a 616.15 (see picture), with 75HP, dated 1964 according to his documents. He also tells me that the car is a 1963 356 B type SC T6.
As you all say, no big difference for me, more a « get to know the car » I fell in love with.
Now the ball is in my field to see how much I can « negociate » the car.
I’ll keep you posted.
Thanks again
Pat

But that is not the engine serial number, look on the generator mount as seen below.

Once you can tell us that number we can determine which engine is in the car.