[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Depends on what your goals are and how much of the work you want to do yourself.

If you want to sell the car later, you're pretty much hosed no matter what you do. Cars in general make lousy investments. Modified cars usually more so, since it's so easy to spend big $$ on a car that nobody wants but you.

If you want to have fun and go fast, $6K will buy you a pretty nice "Big Four". You won't have all the extra mounting hassles a Six would give you, and you can extract a fair bit of power out of the higher-displacement four-bangers. Check the article on Mike Nugent's 2.4 liter car; there's a link to it on the 914 Tech Articles part of this site. It is putting out well over your 125 HP, and wasn't too hideously expensive from what I hear.

If you're paying someone else to do the work, $6K won't hardly even get you started on a Six conversion. The motor itself will probably eat up most or all of that--particularly if you have to have it rebuilt. I am told that parts to overhaul an SC motor (3.0) run rather over $4K, probably more "list". Oil tank, fuel system, headers, mountings, and all of that will blow the budget right out of the water. And that's if someone *gives* you a motor that "needs some work".

You may be able to pull off a mild small-displacement Six conversion for your $6K. I say mild and small-displacement because you can probably stay with the stock brakes and mostly with stock suspension without the car being dangerous. ("Dangerous" meaning lots of "go", and no "whoa"--or cornering.) But you'd be most likely to stay under budget if you could find a 911 motor in good condition.

Don't discount the four-cylinders, though. For a $6K budget, you can probably get enough out of the motor to have a lot of fun. Don't forget to address the cooling issues, though. An external oil cooler would be a good idea, and making sure the stock cooling system is up to snuff is critical. (The 911 fan setup is supposed to provide better cooling, but it is pretty pricey.)

--DD