3.4L vs. 3.6L Engine Swap

[RandallNeighbour]

I doubt you'd ever get your money back out, even 25% percent of the engine upgrade.

I do love the idea though and have written about it here many, many times! I'd love someone on the forum to do an engine swap. My 1997 is a great candidate for it, but I'd much rather have a 987S that has warranty on it and doesn't need an expansion tank, O2 sensors, probably a MAF soon, etc.

It's all dollars and cents now.

So, I'm looking at earning and raising enough cash for a supercharger. Far cheaper (8k) and easily removed and adds tons of HP.

[Brucelee]

Now back in 1966, my brother dropped a 400ci Buick motor from the junkyard, into his 56 Chevy Bel Air Coupe.

If I recall correctly, he paid $200 for the motor and most of the other components mated (love those divisions in GM). Maybe we spent $500 total, I doubt we had much more to spend.

That car was really really fast in a straight line, and frankly, that is all we cared about. It was also very loud and could smoke the tires for about a city block. I love TORQUE!

He painted it flat black, threw some chrome wheels on it and we had the best summer our our lives.

40K??????????????????????

[RandallNeighbour]

Originally Posted by Brucelee

40K??????????????????????

Porsche. There is no substitute.

Well, there is a substitute, and I'd call it all my money and a bunch of the bank's cash as well!

[Perfectlap]

$40K is a bargain man. Look at all the power you are getting.

Porsche is charging 997S owners $20K for the X51 upgrade which is just their version of the "exhaust, intake, chip" upgrade that hardly results in any big power.
Hmmm....buy a 2nd hand S2000 or a nice sound exhaust for my 911?

[Brucelee]

Originally Posted by Perfectlap

$40K is a bargain man. Look at all the power you are getting.

Porsche is charging 997S owners $20K for the X51 upgrade which is just their version of the "exhaust, intake, chip" upgrade that hardly results in any big power.
Hmmm....buy a 2nd hand S2000 or a nice sound exhaust for my 911?

Bargain is a relative term. For $45K, I can go buy a new C6 Corvette that already HAS 400 HP. That is for an entire car.

To each his own!

[JettaGLi16v]

Hello, all,
I am new to the forum,
but within the next day or 2,
I should have finalized the purchase of my first Porsche,
(Having driven VWs exclusively for all my life)

1997 Boxster w/ 3.4 from a 2000 911.
Engine mileage: 40k (installed at 19k, so it is certainly sorted out)
I am not intimately familiar with all of the details of the swap,
but I know there was a different intake manifold involved,
and a custom ECU (from the Vaterland) involving reprogramming
the boxster ECU to work with the new engine.
Apparently the ECU is so intimate with the chassis of the car that it made sense
to reprogram this one instead of swapping to the 911 ECU.

I know there is more to it,
but those are the hilights as I recall them.

But, I certainly will have a fully functional example in the next few days,
so should be able to answer visually identifiable questions.
(If I decide I want to help someone else experience the glory, instead of keeping it all to myself!)
But, categorically brilliant swap.
Arguably the best car I have ever driven, not that that is saying a lot.
I could not speak more highly of this engine / chassis combo.
(Keep in mind the car is well sorted as well: S brakes, Eibach coilovers, corner balanced, good weekend track car)


-Brad

[Adam]

Thread from the dead!

[RandallNeighbour]

Brad, Porsche thought the 3.4 was such a good fit that the new S's are all 3.4's albeit with even more HP and torque than your car.

I dream of taking my 97 and shoehorning a 3.6 or even a 3.8 in there.

[wild1poet2]

The $40k must be for the RUF conversion. You could probably get the swap for a lot less at a local shop. Some will install conversion kits I think, others will use engines from salvaged cars. These guys do it;

www.autosportengineering.com/3.6_conversion.htm

I don't know the price but got to believe it's less than $40K. From what I understand these motors also experience RMS leaks. Makes sense since I think the blocks are the same. Although I am guessing the crank is different for the longer stroke. Crank bore's probably the same. Can someone confirm?