Help!.. To buy a 911T 2.2 engine or upgrade my 2.0 engine

[jrnicl3]

Hello Everyone,

I am close to purchasing a 911T 2.2 in very good condition with the carburetors and still I question myself, would it be better to upgrade/rebuild my 2.0 engine with more power.

Any thoughts on this?

I have a Porsche 1973 914.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Lots of thoughts here, many of them contradictory.

If the car is very original, and the 2.0 liter you're asking about is the four-cylinder one original to the car, it will hold more value if you keep the four-banger and don't upgrade it. Remember, it is original only once, and original cars command the highest prices, especially ones with low miles.

Building an upgraded four-cylinder motor can be done for less cost than a Six conversion. Extreme four-cylinder builds can cost more, of course, but those are usually not very good street motors. But the four-cylinder is lighter, even more so once you add in the oil tank and such.

The mounting and such are already built into the car. It is a lot easier to upgrade the existing motor than change to a different kind of motor. Be sure to price out the conversion parts and add those to the price of the six-cylinder motor; sometimes the conversion parts wind up costing more than the motor! Most of the four-cylinder motors will tend to be much torquier than most of the Sixes, which can be nice in daily driving. Rebuilding pretty much any four-banger will be much less expensive than any Six.

The Six... Well, it's a SIX! It's smoother than the four-cylinder mill. It revs better than most four-cylinders, and the sound is incredible. It will probably be more durable than a 2-liter four-banger, though since it's used (versus a fresh four) that probably won't be a factor. They also have a better cachet than the four, and if the car is not all-original and very nice, the Six will add more value.

Good reasons to swap, good reasons to upgrade, good reasons to leave it as-is. Which is probably why there are a number of swaps, a number of upgraded four-cylinder, and a number of original cars out there.

--DD