Easiest performance upgrades for 911e 2.2l engine?
 

What are the easiest perform upgrades for a 1970 911e 2.2l engine? I do not want to tear apart the engine yet so no cams or anything like that. I already have an MSD and good plug wires. My engine has zenith carbs. Any easy ideas? The engine is in good working order.

Zenith carbs? That's T stuff. Sell them and get weber's or better yet PMO's. Don't know of much else you can do for real gains without going into the engine. A good running E is a nice drive. They didn't come with zenith's. Are you sure you have an E engine?
Also, conventional wisdom is that the cheapest performance gains come from reducing weight.

An E came with MFI.

It is strange that it has zenith carbs on it. The serial number is 6200559 which should make it an e. It was imported from Canada.

How much can I get a set of webers or PMB's for? Is the cost worth the switch?

A stock 2.2e is an awesome engine.

What I would do:

Tune the zeniths for the 2.2e. Adjust valves. Verify/adjust cam timing. Set dwell and timing. Basically verify engine is in perfect tune.

Then later put in 2.4 crank and rods. :D

Sorry. It autocorrect to pmb. I meant pmo

I'd contact Paul Abbot at Performance Oriented and see what mods he can do to the Zeniths to try to match up with the E engine. Getting the proper MFI system would be best, but $$$. Finally, tuning the carbs on a Dyno will maximize your performance without opening up the engine.

Weber's come up for sale pretty often. Prices vary dependent on condition. Usually $1000+. Used PMO's rarely on the market. New PMO's $3600 I think. I have PMO's and love them. The great thing about weber or PMO is all the various jets venturies emu l tubes etc etc available for whatever set up you have. The reason I went to PMO's was because I couldn't get those sorts of parts for the zeniths. Tried weber first but the PMO's are superior. Also, Richard Parr is the PMO and weber guru. He produces the PMO carbs. He has all the jets etc for both and can help with setup for either carb.

On the other hand, If it were me I would think very seriously about just going MFI.

The car would have originally come with mfi. Tracking down the right mfi for your motor would be a real hunt but I think in the end it would be worth it. That hunt will never get easier 5 years from now it will be pretty much impossible.

I had an 69 E and had to track down the right mfi for it but it paid off.

I am starting to search around for a set of weber carbs. I am very familiar with weber idf's (obviously not appropriate for this car). Which webers should I look for? 40 ida?

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=121376873808

Would these work?

Wow! $2500 for a pair of webers. If it were me I would pay the extra for the PMOs. Richard Parr will send all you need and they will be set up for your engine. They are nice looking webers but $2500 nice? Give Mr Parr a call. 310-394-0088. Or you can look for less expensive webers.

Would it be worth the $3600 to get the PMO's? I don't mind spending the money if they are that beneficial. I understand they improve drivability. Would they likely improve hp and torque enough to justify the cost?

I agree with all of the above.

Make sure the carbs are spot on......AND just because you have MSD does not mean it is running to its optimum.

In addition I would make sure the MSD is wired properly and has good 12 vdc hot wire to the starter and getting the full amperage it needs. I would install an electrolytic capacitor in this line to make sure the power is constant and has some reserve.

Also get rid of the points in the ignition either with Pertronix set up or Crane shutter system.

Vac Adv. or re-curve???
 

Did the E/T come with a vacuum advance??? If not, could it be added to help with the carbureted mileage issues.

Is there a little "free" horsepower with a re-curved distributor from someone like Woods??

Or, is that best left to the tuners with a dyno, while getting the jetting right???

curious,
chris

The easiest (and best) upgrade is to attend a good performance driving school. Improve the driver, improve the cars performance.

Before you think about MFI...do a quick check on the back left (as you look at it under the lid) side of the cam bank.
Feel around to see if there is part of the cam sticking out (to take the MFI pump gear).
If it's there...proceed...if not..you need different cams to beging with.
Bob

Switching to Webers is a waste of money in my opinion. If the Zenith's are tuned properly switching to Webers will yield no performance gain.

I agree with BK911. It's hard to improve on a 2.2E. Anything less than a displacement increase gives minimal results.

You could switch your gear setup. Maybe something like airport gears or go cheap and switch to a smaller profile tire to drop your gearing. It looks a little funny and makes your speedometer read wrong but it's quick cheap and easy.