Name That Engine, German WWII Version

Joined
Dec 5, 2003
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Location
New England, USA
Was at a Porsche indy shop a while back. Knew who they were, but not local and I just happened to be driving by. This was just delivered from a local museum. The tech said it was a 'German tank engine', which I'm pretty sure it isn't, unless a pony motor or other auxiliary. No one there at the time really know the engine, and I got the feeling I shouldn't be poking around, but they let me snap a pic.

My research turned up empty. At first I thought may be a field generator or power for a searchlight, but doesn't appear so, or I haven't been able to determine .

Here it is, a massive mostly alloy, air-cooled OHV flat four. Crossflow heads w/ two one barrels carbs. Single magneto ignition w/o shielded leads and plugs (so not a radio/radar truck power plant?). Interesting is that all of the baffling is really nice castings as opposed to sheet metal. Starter appears on the cooling fan nose with possibly reduction gears on the rear. Appears to be a very well designed and constructed engine.

Any history buffs care to chime in? I'm really curious.
Gereng.jpg
 
Looks like a Krupp M305. Panzer 1 and a few other scout/APC vehicles used it.

Edit: if I'm wrong, it's gotta be some other sort of early-WW2 engine. By the time the USA got involved, pretty much all German tanks had v12s.
 
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You two are good, thanks. I guess I didn't think of its use in a vehicle as a prime mover, and just assumed it was for power generation or similar use.
 
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