Porsche 356 1500GS question.

[landman]

I am building this engine. Looking at the picture, the spark plug wires appear to run from one distributor to the other. Are there 4 or 8 plugs on this engine?

 

[Mark]

From the looks of it, there are two plugs per cylinder.  The plug wires that appear to be going to the other distributor are instead going to one plug on each cylinder on the opposite side of the engine.  You'd wire the engine as though each distributor is the only one on the engine; that is, one wire to each cylinder.  The other distributor's wires would then go to the other plug for each cylinder.

[landman]

14 minutes ago, Mark said:

From the looks of it, there are two plugs per cylinder.  The plug wires that appear to be going to the other distributor are instead going to one plug on each cylinder on the opposite side of the engine.  You'd wire the engine as though each distributor is the only one on the engine; that is, one wire to each cylinder.  The other distributor's wires would then go to the other plug for each cylinder.

OK. I see where they go now. Two in front and two on the ends.

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Yup...your second reference picture shows the 2-plugs per cylinder locations. Later engines used a pair of crank-driven distributors, instead of cam-driven. These little guys are masterpieces of old-school German engineering, with the precision of Swiss watches, complex but still straightforward.

[landman]

Thanks Mark and Bill. Here's where I am with the wiring.