52 engine, cylinder heads

[Bernd Schwarte]

Hello, does anybody know where these cylinder heads fits?
Can I install them in a 2 pieces 1500 engine?
Thanks Bernd

[Vic Skirmants]

We will need dimensions for the cylinder holes, as well as head stud spacing to answer that.

[Alan Hall]

No, pretty sure those are for 3 piece case.

[Dick Weiss]

I have 1- complete rebuilt head available for sale; It has a few miles on it traveling to & from swap meets for a couple of years.

[James Davies]

Those are 1956 Super heads. As Vic and Alan have pointed out, these will not fit on a 2-piece case as the spigot size and stud spacing is different.

[Garry Haussler]

I did not know heads came in normal and supers. ive got a lot of heads so how do i tell which heads i have because i need to mark them N or S ?

[Dick Weiss]

I agree, Garry,

The inlet & outlet ports should be the same; Later heads (including the S90 having the larger inlet ports w/the 40mm valves) continued w/the C/SC/912 head having the 38mm valves & the exhaust valves are 34mm vs. the S90's 31mm valves--same w/the A/B heads
(I won't get into the early Pre-A heads)

[John Linden]

Garry:

Concerning your question about normal and super heads:

I have a 63 Super just rebuilt in 2016. So I am answering your question from the standpoint of a 60s 356B. I wanted to use stock heads with no modifications. As I recall, the heads for the normal and super were the same. Intake and exhaust valves were the same. Shape of the combustion chamber was the same. The difference was the rocker arm assemblies. The Super engine has the lighter weight rocker arm assembly shared with the S-90. The lighter weight rocker arm assembly was originally matched with the Super / S-90 cam. The Normal used a different cam and different rocker arm assembly which was heavier in weight. The Normal also had a lower compression piston. The Normal of course would not rev as high, but the head and valves were the same as the Super.

Sometime in 1962 -- maybe 1963, Porsche reinforced the 356B head. I think this applied to both the Normal and the Super heads. But if you compared a 1961 Normal head to a 63 Super head, the 63 head would be reinforced and look slightly different. But the valves and the shape of the combustion chamber are still the same.

This is to the best of my recollection. If I'm incorrect, I'm sure someone will point it out.

Best to you Garry!

John Linden
Alamo, CA
63 Super

[Vic Skirmants]

The earliest pre-A heads did have different size intake ports for Normals and Supers. That went away fairly soon.

[James Davies]

As Vic says, the intake ports were a different size on the single-barrel Solex carb intakes, though I don't know if this extended into the 356A T1 production. During the pre-A period, the type 369, 506, 527 and 546 heads had round intake ports. The type 528 and 589 had oval intake ports. Also, the supers (528 and 589) had finned shrouding around the valve guides. The normals did not. So they were different castings. The heads have different part numbers in the parts books too.

The split heads in the photo above were a temporary experiment by Porsche in 1956 on their 616/2 heads. It didn't last. Bernd, you should find an embossed date on the valve side of each head given the week number (out of 52) and the year (6) for 1956. I suspect. Can you confirm?

[James Davies]

Bernd, hopefully this animated GIF will show the difference between 2-piece case and 3-piece case heads. Castings were the same between 1954 and 1955, but machining is different - larger spigot for the cylinder and stud holes moved outward by ~5mm.

[James Davies]

See the comparison between super 528/589 heads with normal 506/527/546 heads below.

[Garry Haussler]

So how do we tell from the original post ( 56 heads ) if they are super heads cause i have a few of these type.