Sunday, June 17, 2007

NOS VW 1500 pistons



Sometimes when you stop looking for something that's when it appears. I found these NOS 1500 pistons today at Bill & Steve's. I spent the whole VW Classic weekend asking everyone if they had a set of these or knew someone who did, but no luck. I even asked THE Steve of Bill & Steve's, but he said no. I guess they were on the shelf so long they had become practically invisible -- they were hidden by some other parts in the display case.



The pink paint dot is a color code for matching pistons to cylinders. Pink = 82.96mm, which is in the middle of the range of sizes that were originally available. I still have a used set of 83mm pistons on the way to me from Greg Skinner in Colorado too. Odds are one of these sets will be compatible with my original cylinders. I hope.



VW 1500 pistons were supplied by both Mahle and Kolbenschmidt. You can see the KS logo stamped on the top of each piston below the size.



This version of the pistons, 311 107 101 AA, was introduced at the beginning of the 1963 model year, at engine number 65 745. The pistons Greg is sending are from a '63, so they should be the same ones. I'm not sure how the 1962 pistons were different but I'm confident these can be made to work.

"Im Volkswagenwerk geprüft" means "inspected at the VW factory." Nice to know.

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