Coffee Brake: What Engine Goes in Here?
Time for another Coffee Brake, DT’s feature where caution is thrown to the wind and mysteries of the universe are pondered. Today, as suggested by slowcarSLOW-MPGlol, we look at an empty engine bay in this 996 generation Porsche 911 and try to figure out what belongs inside.
This 1999 Porsche 911 is offered for a resonable $9,500 without an engine, it was probably a victim of the dreaded rear main seal failure that led to secondary and catastrophic engine damage. It is an extraordinarily expensive engine with new examples running $18k from a Porsche dealer, so it would make sense to replace it with something cheaper…but what?
The biggest engine available in the 911 today is a 3.8 liter flat-6, so why not keep the cylinder count but up the displacement to 4.0 liters with an AMC 242 inline-6. Performance with 190 horsepower and 225 ft-lbs of torque will be abysmal…so it’ll need to be fitted with the all-wheel drive system from the C4 and lifted 4 inches and ride on 33 inch Super Swamper tires.
What would you shove in the back of this roller 911?
plenty of choices in non-pinewood-derby 996's for $18k and you could get that fix done i've been reading about – engineless, i'd say seller is on the right track with an electric science fair project – not sure how the transmission works in that situation, but it's probably not going to be an exciting answer
~ The answer is LS. The answer is always LS.
Yep – fits, is lighter than the Porsche mill, and it's a great kisser, too. LS – all the way.
I'm thinking STI engine, but maybe that's too obvious. How about an amped up SVX engine?
yeesh, don't kill a rare and beautiful SVX for this – take that Porsche transmission and stick it in the SVX, you'd really have something – leaving room in the 996 for the electric motor and a cupholder where the stick was
Now you're talking! How about we go a different direction entirely. We get a nice westie sychro and put the porsche engine in that and the westie engine in the porsche to go back to its roots..
This is more intriguing than a typical Craigslist roller because it retains its full interior. I think a tuned 2.0L VW TDI swap would suit my needs. 380 ft-lbs of torque, 30 MPG, race-engineered handling… and a massive wing for some reason.
15 miles on windshield, wheels and tires but no engine? This was no dreaded main seal failure. This was caused by a missed shift which sent the 911 over a curb, crushing the wheels and tires. A tree branch caught the car in mid-air, breaking the window and gently depositing the car into a soft bed of freshly planted tulips. Once fixed, the owner drove 15 miles, missed another shift, blew the engine and eased the car onto the breakdown lane. The only replacement choice? Nissan GTR.
comment of the week, right there – although i thought my Avanti snapback was pretty darn funny
the conversion parts for a really nice clean and proven LS V8 conversion, without the actual LS engine, is roughly $6,600. Twice the horsepower of stock, all the gauges will work.
renegadehybrids.com/