The A stamp on 36hp blocks

[janerick3]

I think it's time to bust another myth...

For years, we've been told the A stamp on the 36hp generator stand means that either the engine has been rebuilt or, for early 1954 engines, upgraded with flat-top pistons.

However, I don't believe the "A" has anything to do with the engine having been rebuilt. The size and location of the stamp is too consistent to have been stamped anywhere but at the Wolfsburg engine shops.

Here's what I think: The "A" is found on 36hp engines originally equipped with vacuum advance mechanisms.

Here's the challenge: If you either have a 36hp case with a number starting with "20," or a mid-'56 - mid-'59 Type 2 with the original engine, look for the "A" stamped on the tower. Hopefully you won't find one--if you do, the myth lives on, for now...
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Thanks,
Jan K.

[consvws]

Interesting... I have a few cases that support your theory

[splitjunkie]

Interesting theory but the German word for Advance is Voraus.
The German word for Vacuum is Vakuum.

Seems like if this were the case then they would have stamped a V rather than and A.

My October '51's 25hp engine has an A stamped on the generator stand so I don't think it stands for a vacuum advance distributor since they wern't available on 25 hp engines.
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Chris

You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld

[splits-n-scoots]

The A stamped on blocks stands for austausch which means exchange.

[janerick3]

[splitjunkie]

I wonder the same thing.

I have three examples with the A and two digits on the lower left of the generator stand.

The engine from my '51. I don't have a birth cert to I can't say for sure that it is the original engine but it is a '51 engine that was built slightly before the car which is normally the case. Everything on this engine is accurate for a '51 other than the 383 which has a date code of May '53 and a Zwitter intake manifold. The engine appeared to have been rebuilt when I took it apart. The car had been parked in '62 and never driven afterward.

A '53 case that I bought on EBay 15 years ago.

A 56' engine that I bought just outside of Atlanta 20 years ago.

The numbers are obviously not restamped but if they were a factory rebuilt exchange engine I thought they milled the old serial number so the dealer could restamp the original number.

Everett says that the A means it is a Dealer rebuilt engine in another thread. This would make more sense to me as far as serial number being original. The only thing that I question is that the stamping of the A and the two digits seems too consistent if they had been done at the dealer.
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Chris

You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld

[EverettB]

First, I have said the "A" indicated rebuilt as people reported that on the site in the past. I don't know myself for sure.

Logically:
I'm not sure why they would stamp an engine case with an "A" to indicate it had a vacuum-advance distributor. What would be the purpose of that? As far as I know there is nothing different about the long block itself where you would want some sort of marking to make sure it got used with the proper distributor.

[splitjunkie]

I'd like to see a picture of that unstamped case.
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Chris

You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld

[EverettB]

Date stamp on the left side of the generator stand is:
3 5 16 - May 3rd, 1956, 1st shift

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[splitjunkie]

That case appears to have had the seial number boss milled off. Compared to my '56 case your boss is almost nonexistent.
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Chris

You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld

[nic_]

My '56 case, with an "A". Engine/chassis numbers are a match according to birth certificate, and it was a CKD delivery to Australia. Not sure how/why the engine would have been rebuilt. I know the full history from 1976, and have no reason to believe it was rebuilt prior to that.

[EverettB]

[54bug]

Replying to Everett's post on un-numbered Factory cases.

Several years ago I had, and then sold an un numbered engine case. This was NOS and was coated with grease. When I bought it it was in a trashed cardboard box with the correct part number. It was an A series case, probably '55 and later.

I picked it up through a friend of a friend who had worked at a dealership clearing old inventory, along with a matching new crank in the correct box. I'm sure the parts are out there, and that VW had evolving policies and practices on parts and engine marking for re-manufacturing. The case in question had the un-milled blank number pad and did not have a A stamp anywhere on the pedestal. What few photo's I had of it are on paper somewhere. Hard to believe I'm the only one to have seen one.

I have to imagine VW's inventory, manufacturing, and parts management were chaotic at best. Part numbers, and markings, are at some point different than the real world part, or what was bolted on to any vehicle.

Interesting side note. I bought the case/crank for a bunch of $$ in the 90's for a '54 bug. Eventually the bug was sold, and I had leftover parts for the car. I tried to sell the case East Coast VW shows without any serious interest or money. It did sell at the Hershey Porsche swap meet, where the early 356 folks were searching for correct 36HP engines. Some purists will note an A series part isn't correct for an early 356, but the buyer wanted the new case without a serial, more than an old case.

Scott

[splitjunkie]

This is supposed to be a numbers matching '51. Has the same serif A stamp as my '51 engine.

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Chris

You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld

[Snort]

I have a W stamp on one of my cases, similar location. Does this add anything to the discussion?

[sweden]

The stamped A stands for that the engine have the bad fiber cam gear.

This fiber cam gear cost vw a lot of money to replace.
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[splitjunkie]

[janerick3]

[sweden]

[sweden]