"Seriously, hold onto it. Looks like they only made 241 of those if you believe the 356 registry. "
Yup, but there's only 4 guys on the planet so far out there as to collect these, and they already have them. Rare does not equal valuable in this case (pun intended) Once a boat motor....now a boat anchor
"Sounds like the very least it will need the cylinders honed, possibly new rings, and a different smaller set of carbs bolted up.... and then I'lll have 60hp on a good day. Maybe the cylinders are not salvageable? I hope I don't have a big paper-weight on my hands here..."
Maybe not completely hopeless. Not a big fan of the Chinese big-bore sets, but it might be a reasonable low-cost option here. IF the crank and case are good, you could pick up a set of C/912 rods and use the big bore set. The A crank will limit you to about 5000 RPM max (4500 would be safer). A low end torquer cam and the small port heads could work together for a grunty little motor. Find someone to swap the dellortos for zeniths. I doubt you could ever quite reach the 90 hp of a 912, but you might have more torque and it would be quite driveable. If you attempt to do any more than that you'll be better off buying a 912 core for the starting point.
"Most likely a 912 timing cover mounted possibly to a early engine case. Oil pump is the later large size and has no tach cable joint."
This is something bothering me. How does one fit a 912 timing cover onto an early case? IIRC, the oil passages shouldn't line up.