Need advice for turnkey VW motor in 356

[Pessia]

Hey all. I have a '59 356A coupe that belonged to my dad. It has a replacement motor (built by Vasek Polak) that is wearing out. I've been told that it would cost 20k to 30k to rebuild.

I'm looking for recommendations on a turnkey VW motor to put in. It ran a dual port van motor for a couple years while the Porsche engine was being worked on. I don't care about the impact to the value of the car; it's not a show car and I'm more interested in keeping it on the road and driving it. 100hp to 120hp would be great.

The car will soon have disc brakes in front.

Thanks.
Perry

[Starbucket]

What makes you think it's wearing out? Has it been over 100K since the rebuild? You probably just need the carb.s gone through and a valve adjustment.

[Pessia]

[Starbucket]

0.039" is a lot of end play, is the flywheel torqued? Remove the bottom plate and feel around the bottom of the case for Babbitt flakes meaning the thrust bearing got wiped.

[Pessia]

[Slip356]

I would check around for a quality rebuild at a better price. I had my 62 B engine totally rebuilt including new high end crankshaft, aligned case, new P&C’s, rebuilt heads by the best in CA, bearings & gasket sets etc for $13,500 turn key. Dropped the car off with broken crank & picked it up a few months later with rebuilt engine, have over 10k miles now. It’s perfect.

[ottobevis]

Hi,
I am swapping a VW type 1 engine in to 1966 912. I knew very little initially but have learnt a lot reading through posts on thesamba and shoptalkforums.

These are a couple of things I would start with.

Is the 356 transmission original to the car? I would check the Porsche forums to see what people say about increasing engine torque and longevity of the transmission. I think pre 1961 versions are weaker. Saying all of that your HP target is relatively modest, so unless you plan on a high torque low revving engine and don't abuse 1st it should be be fine. Next I would check the gearing ratios and see the RPM's and speed for each gear. There should be graphs that show this. The VW engine you choose should match this based on the top speed and gear change points you want. On my transmission 5th gear is 3,500 RPM from memory. I want the peak torque between 3,000 to 5,500, so that I am cruising close to the peak torque for efficiency and still have torque left to accelerate. I am not looking for a car that hits 100mph. If I was I would build a higher revving engine. The trade off with that is weaker lower end torque and engine longevity.

I would suggest a AS41 or AS21 VW type 1 case as they weigh about 15 or so pounds less than the new aftermarket aluminum cases.