ID of Engine Case

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Bill Wridge
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ID of Engine Case

#1 Post by Bill Wridge »

I found this old case in my collection of Porsche parts but it appears to me as a VW case.
here are the numbers.

1-4-3-2
Zundfolge
P 32804

What is it?

Thanks
Bill

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James Davies
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Re: ID of Engine Case

#2 Post by James Davies »

That's a pre-A magnesium alloy 2-piece case. An early 1954 1500 normal. My guess would be March/April. Same case as the early VW cases, but machined and stamped by Porsche to fit the aluminum 1500 cylinders.

It should have the engine type "546" stamped on the front bolt boss on the generator stand half of the case. It will also have a 4-digit internal engine number just above "546".

If you want to know the date when it was cast, there's 3 numbers in circles on the side of the generator stand in the format "(dd) (mm) (ys)" where ys is 195y workers shift s. My guess is that those numbers would be something like (xx) (03) (41). Similar numbers on the other half on the front of motor down by the tach drive.

Nice find! A number of people with early cars are looking for these cases. They were often swapped out for later Porsche cases instead of going through the hassle of rebuilding them with 1500cc pistons and cylinders.

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Bill Wridge
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Re: ID of Engine Case

#3 Post by Bill Wridge »

James Davies wrote:That's a pre-A magnesium alloy 2-piece case. An early 1954 1500 normal. My guess would be March/April. Same case as the early VW cases, but machined and stamped by Porsche to fit the aluminum 1500 cylinders.

It should have the engine type "546" stamped on the front bolt boss on the generator stand half of the case. It will also have a 4-digit internal engine number just above "546".
it does have 546 stamped on case bolt boss with 5907 stamped above it4. 12. 23 is stamped on generator stand

If you want to know the date when it was cast, there's 3 numbers in circles on the side of the generator stand in the format "(dd) (mm) (ys)" where ys is 195y workers shift s. My guess is that those numbers would be something like (xx) (03) (41). 7. 12. 13 in circles on front of case Similar numbers on the other half on the front of motor down by the tach drive.31 01 02 4 VW under push rod tubes

Thanks for the info
The case has a couple corrosion spots but generally the case is clean albet covered with a white powdered oxidation. What is the best way to clean up a case?

Nice find! A number of people with early cars are looking for these cases. They were often swapped out for later Porsche cases instead of going through the hassle of rebuilding them with 1500cc pistons and cylinders.

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Bill Wridge
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Re: ID of Engine Case

#4 Post by Bill Wridge »

James Davies wrote:That's a pre-A magnesium alloy 2-piece case. An early 1954 1500 normal. My guess would be March/April. Same case as the early VW cases, but machined and stamped by Porsche to fit the aluminum 1500 cylinders.

It should have the engine type "546" stamped on the front bolt boss on the generator stand half of the case. It will also have a 4-digit internal engine number just above "546".
it does have 546 stamped on case bolt boss with 5907 stamped above it4. 12. 23 is stamped on generator stand[/color]

If you want to know the date when it was cast, there's 3 numbers in circles on the side of the generator stand in the format "(dd) (mm) (ys)" where ys is 195y workers shift s. My guess is that those numbers would be something like (xx) (03) (41). 7. 12. 13 in circles on front of case Similar numbers on the other half on the front of motor down by the tach drive.31 01 02 4 VW under push rod tubes i probably have some 1500 aluminum cylinders to build it up.maybe

Ys would be 1913. Now that would be unique.

Thanks for the info
The case has a couple corrosion spots but generally the case is clean albet covered with a white powdered oxidation. What is the best way to clean up a case?

Nice find! A number of people with early cars are looking for these cases. They were often swapped out for later Porsche cases instead of going through the hassle of rebuilding them with 1500cc pistons and cylinders.

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Vic Skirmants
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Re: ID of Engine Case

#5 Post by Vic Skirmants »

James; the final number is "shift number", then "year".
Bill's "13" is work shift 1, 1953.
With a December 1953 date, that would be correct for an early 1954 case.

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Re: ID of Engine Case

#6 Post by Dick Weiss »

1-4-3-2 happens to be the firing order.

Dick

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James Davies
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Re: ID of Engine Case

#7 Post by James Davies »

Oops, my bad. I mixed up the shift/year order Vic! Yes, a late-'53 casting for an early '54 case. Very cool!

And the right half and left half were cast 3 days apart. There will also be matching 1- to 3-digit numbers at the back bolt bosses of the case, which are matching numbers given to the case halves when they were machined for each other at VW before being sent to Porsche as a matched set.

That 5907 internal engine number is sort of a sequential number for all cases Porsche produced, at least for these early cars from what I gather. So it includes all all P-2xxxx 1300 cases, all P-3xxxx 1500N cases, all P-4xxxx 1500S cases and all P-500xx cases which were produced concurrently and numbered roughly sequentially themselves. It's actually a pretty good proxy for the number of Porsches built up to that point.

So my guess would be that this motor came out of the ~5907 car Porsche built within a few percent uncertainty. =]

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Bill Wridge
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Re: ID of Engine Case

#8 Post by Bill Wridge »

James Davies wrote:Oops, my bad. I mixed up the shift/year order Vic! Yes, a late-'53 casting for an early '54 case. Very cool!

And the right half and left half were cast 3 days apart. There will also be matching 1- to 3-digit numbers at the back bolt bosses of the case, which are matching numbers given to the case halves when they were machined for each other at VW before being sent to Porsche as a matched set.

That 5907 internal engine number is sort of a sequential number for all cases Porsche produced, at least for these early cars from what I gather. So it includes all all P-2xxxx 1300 cases, all P-3xxxx 1500N cases, all P-4xxxx 1500S cases and all P-500xx cases which were produced concurrently and numbered roughly sequentially themselves. It's actually a pretty good proxy for the number of Porsches built up to that point.

So my guess would be that this motor came out of the ~5907 car Porsche built within a few percent uncertainty. =]
Porsche is almost done. Lookin good. How do you clean a magnesium case? A couple photos enclosed.
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Bill Wridge
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Hirth Roller Bearing Crank

#9 Post by Bill Wridge »

While going through my old Porsche parts from the 60s I found this Hirth Roller Bearing Crank but of course dont know what to do with it except start my own museum.
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James Davies
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Re: ID of Engine Case

#10 Post by James Davies »

Definitely a great museum piece! A real testament to machinists' craft those Hirth cranks. There's definitely renew interested in them these days, though very few of them find their way into running engines due to the cost of rebuilding them.

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