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Porsche Industrial / ST4

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
The first hint of the porsche powered ST4's came in a European VW Magazine comemorating the delivery of some early VW to the South Pole. It remained a "Myth" for some years. www.356registry.org These Guy's are the Real Porsche technical gurus. They have entire threads about the Industrial engines. P Mag.jpg
Notice that this one sports a huge Magneto aircraft type distributor and shielded plug wire.
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
These engines had an additional crank bearing, an entirely different Oil System, Smaller pulley on the Generator/fan, square or rectangular exhaust ports, angled valves, and were balanced to spin much faster than most "VW" products.
bluhorsa.gif

blutextb.gif
 

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Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
They also had dual carbs, Zenith, or Solex, and were later upgraded to Webbers.engine.jpg

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Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
The Porsche engine because of it's larger intakes and exhausts had much higher torque, and a wider Torque Band, as well as the balance to run at much higher RPM's. What this translates to is more power across a wider speed range. They were just better engines. Porsche is alleged to have balanced the Crankshafts on a Westinghouse Balancing machine, to 10,000 RPM's even though the engines only had 'RED LINES' of 6500 to 7500 RPM's. They also tuned the length of the Exhaust tubes so they didn't have that cyclic VW sound. They purred! One can get about 100 HP out of a modified VW engine before things start to break, but with it's beefier block and all the other refinements the level at which things started to fail on the Porsche motors was almost twice that.
 

Snowcat Operations

Active member
SUPER Site Supporter
I once read an article that said the porsche engine were installed at a dealer. I cannot find this article now. It may also be in my small collection I bought from Europe. I need to go and re read all that as well. It could have just been someone taking there Snow trac to a Porsche dealer. BUT I could have sworn it was related to the South Pole. Keep the articles and info coming LYNDON! GREAT STUFF!
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
I don't know about the tranny's. I installed numerous 356 engines in VW bugs, a Bus, and a Fastback. They pretty much just bolted in. there were clearance issues with the larger Porsche Diaphram clutch that required grinding away a bit of the bell housing with a dremmel. >
There are 2 very unique 4 cylinder variations of the 356 engine, both "Rare as Hens Teeth". One had dual overhead cams and was the 140 HP Currara C2, with tiny bevel gears and drive shafts that ran the 4 cams. This was only produced in 66, and cost a fortune. They were also prone to problems due to play and slop in the gears that drove the cams. Most C2 owners run a 356 engine and have the rare C2 motor stored for car shows only. The other even rarer engine is the Desmodronic or something close to that. It had tiny connecting rods that drove the valves in both directions, NO VALVE SPRINGS!
Only a couple makes of race cars and Motorcycles ever sported this system. Capeable of Very Very high RPM's due to not "Valve flotation". I have no Idea what the Horse Power ratings were, and have only seen drawings and pictures. They were only built for Racing Porsches, and in limited numbers. These engines could likely run to 12 to 16,000 RPM's. As Horsepower is a function of torque, and time, this would likely put the Horsepower around 350 HP! perhaps a bit more than one would need in an ST4.
I personally would recomend a TDI. They are 90 HP, and I know one will fit in as I had an ST4 with a similar water cooled Rabbit 4 cylinder engine in it. I'll see if I can find any Picts of these 2 Rare engines.
 

Snowcat Operations

Active member
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WOHA! Wouldnt the TDI be very heavy? The fuel econmy would be very nice though! I would imagine this would be a Snow Master or Trac Master swap only though.
 

Lyndon

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I see I'm mistaken about the years of manufacture of the C2 motor. I'm trying to downlaod the Engine ID chart from another site. Stay tuned for more info & Picts when I get back from my inspection out at Polar Bear Pad( Actually "F-Pad", which is surronded by the frozen Arctic ocean on 3 sides, and where almost all of our Polar Bear Sightings take place, 7 in this fiscal year.)
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Yep! thats the "real McCoy" a P followed by a star was the prefix on all the Blocks. Aslo the place where the pedistal attaches is slanted instead of being flat with the engine.
 

Lyndon

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
DSCN0245.jpg
This is a Porsche 547 engine, or the "C2" motor that generated 140 HP and had all the fancy drive shaft driven cams. But hold on to your wallet, these babies usually cost as much as a Rolls Royce, maybe 30,000$! For that kind of bread I'd be considering owning another snow cat or maybe a plane! Notice that this one is fitted for dual distributors, like a Rolls Royce or an aircraft. It would probably operate comfortably at 14,000 feet.
 

Snowcat Operations

Active member
SUPER Site Supporter
I once found a new 356 Porsche engine that also had dual distributers. The company who owned it manufactured the dual distributer kit. They wanted 10K for the engine! To rich for my blood. But if I ever win the Lotto..........
 

Snowcat Operations

Active member
SUPER Site Supporter
Tha fan shroud above looks familiar.......
 

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