A new old engine, the right one.

So after the full restoration and passing the registration test, on the final fettling and shakedown runs, the engine went pop.

On inspection it wasn’t that serious, a valve follower somehow working its was out with minimal damage, but it would involve a full strip down and repair.

The fact the car has a ‘normal’ engine always niggled away in the back of my mind, so perhaps this offered an opportunity 🙂

And so the search for the right engine started… research in the various online databases provided the specific number run for the correct engine – a ’63 1600 Super, from the Karmann factory.

Amazingly I found one almost straight away – amazing as I had been keeping half an eye out previously to no avail. The was a complete engine, original in every way, just in need of a refresh – oh and in the US. I air-freighted it straight over and gave it to AAA for the refresh.

They used the over-sized barrels and pistons and the dual 40IDF Webers we’d used in the ‘normal’ rebuild – keeping all the original parts of course, lest anyone wanted to return it to standard in the future. I’ll repair and rebuild the ‘normal’ engine too, as for someone that may be the final numbers correct piece of the jigsaw that this Super is for me.

Here she is, during rebuild.