The Official 356Talk Forum

We pulled back apart the motor from my 52. It was actually a 53 1500. Pretty worn in all areas , a lot of overtorquing over the years. Klaus has a pristine 1100 factory replacement case, . We plan to bore to fit 1500cc jugs so we can use the same heads. what are the options for P & C's. do any of the VW 1500 Pistons work?

Mark

VW 1500 pistons are larger in diameter than pistons for the early P-356 engine.
AA sells a P&C set for P-356 1500 2-pc. case engines that works well.

https://aapistons.com/collections/porsc ... =742289531

I bet Vic Skirmants and Leonard Turnbeaugh have the answer.

I have a used set of Mahle 1500N P&Cs. Can get measurements if interested.
Came with my 55 back in the mid 80s.

Phil; if your pistons were for a 1955 3-piece case, they won't work on a 2-piece case.

Thanks Vic. Not sure which, as original engine per CofA was 2 piece. Will try to post pic.

VW pistons do not work. Porsche never used VW pistons - only VW connecting rods on the type 369 and 506 motors were used.

For a 1500 you have 4 options for pistons and cylinders on a type 546 motor:

1) LN Engineering does either re-Nicasiled Mahles or Nickies along with matched JE Pistons for both. You can get them all matched with pins and rings. Contact LN Engineering for pricing. Nickies will be more expensive than re-Nicasiled Mahles. Make sure you tell them they're for the VW case, as they also make/re-coat 80mm cylinders for the 1500 3-piece case motors from 1955 which have a larger outer diameter for the spigots in the case and head.

2) Shasta produces 80mm cast iron cylinders, and they match them up to JE pistons. A little less expensive, but they work fine.

3) In Europe, Stefi Gencev has produced new forged pistons and aluminum cylinders for the 1500 2-piece motors. Normal or Super depending on your intended compression ratio. You can find his ads on The Samba.

4) The AA kit that Don linked to above. This is probably your cheapest option.

I should also add that you can send your worn Mahle cylinders to LN Engineering, and they will remove the original, dimpled chrome coating and re-coat them with Nicasil, and then match them up with new JE pistons (with pins and rings). Just let them know what your target compression ratio is. I think they supply the high compression ratio JE pistons by default (type 528), but I suspect they can get the type 546 ones as well. Something to ask.

Here are some pics of an original Mahle aluminum cylinder for a 2-pc. case engine.
The last photo shows the dimpled hard chrome interior surface James is referring to.
It would be fascinating to see how Mahle manufactured those (expensive) cylinders back the day - - - -

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can't post pictures for some reason, but after seeing above, my cylinders do not have the clearance notch at the bottom, so must be for 3 pc. case.

Phil, if your cylinders don't have the clearance notch, it's possible they are for the 506 engine, which used the shorter VW connecting rods and thus did not need clearance as the throw is only 64mm vs the 74mm of the 1500 engines.

The 1300cc Type 506 engine was the first Porsche engine to use the aluminum cylinders with dimpled chrome lining.

I used to be able to post jpeg files. Now, for me, this forum only accepts png files, so I had to convert my file to png. Pain in the butt.
Anyway, here is a pic of one of the p/c s.

Looks like a 3-piece case cylinder. What is the dimension of the spigot?

Spigot approx. 90.5mm with my plastic calipers.

Hey guys, thanks for adding info through your posts and conversations with Vic and Greg at J&E, I think I know all my options. I also spent some timeon the phone with Tom Bruch ,who I met in Cedar Rapids. He told me he has been building 36 hp VW cases with 1700cc for the 37 hp challenge at Bonneville that produce 150 hp . I wonder how long they last? Tom Birch in California a big help also.
Still not sure which option I'm taking probably some configuration of replacement Porsche case, late b crank ,heads carbs and externals from my 53 motor. I'm in Santa Fe when I get home Klaus Seibert my builder and I will pin it all down.
Thanks again