AUTONEWS

Porsche 911 Says Goodbye Flat-Six, Hello 600HP Turbo Honda K24

If we asked you to name an iconic sports car, chances are you would mention the Porsche 911 before too long. If we asked you to name an iconic Honda engine, chances are you would mention the K24 before too long. What we have here is a vehicle that brings these two icons together in a wild and wonderful manner.

Ben Sipson purchased this 1999 Porsche 911 and immediately decided to do an engine swap. The Porsche 911s built from 1998 through 2004 are the 996-generation cars. And many in the Porsche world consider them the least desirable of all 911s. One of the reasons for that is due to the fact that the IMS bearing can fail and cause catastrophic engine failure. Sipson decided to avoid that whole predicament by putting a K24A Honda engine in his newly acquired 911.

The Honda K24 engine, with 2.4 liters, is nowadays used in several customization projects, due to its reliability.

But recently, a Porsche 996 was given the engine of the Japanese brand, which did not please the fans of the German brand at all.

The YouTube channel The Drive showed this unusual swap. The owner of the car, Ben Sipson, was inspired by the work of his friends who put a K24 in a tiny Smart and decided to do the same with his Porsche.

Usually, engine swaps happen because the original is damaged. In the case of the 996, its 3.4-liter engine, with six cylinders in line, has a reputation for being problematic, mainly due to failures in the intermediate shaft and excessive wear of the cylinders.

But that was not the reason for the swap. The engine in Sipson's 911 was in perfect working order, so he sold it to a 996 owner who really needed a replacement.

The money from the sale helped fund the installation of the K24, which, of course, wasn’t left in its original configuration.

The new engine received several upgrades, including a reworked block, a Pulsar 6262G twin-scroll turbo, a Haltech 1500 Elite ECU, IGN-1a racing ignition coils, BMW 335i intercoolers, a custom intake manifold, heavy-duty fuel pumps, and several other upgrades.

1999 Porsche 911 K24 Build...From the time the original 911 engine was pulled out until the time the K24 was put in, about 4 months had passed. But this is not just a simple plug and play swap. The list of modifications performed is as long as your arm. Some highlights include the K24A engine, Haltech 1500 elite ECU, Pulsar 6262g twin scroll turbo, twin Tial 46mm wastegates, twin AEM 400 pumps in a 1.5g surge tank, Injector Dynamics 1300 fuel injectors, H&R coilovers, Numeric short shifter, 996.2 GT3 rear decklid and wing, 996.2 GT3 style front bumper, custom saddle brown upholstery and a whole lot more.

The result? On E85 and pushing 24 psi the car made 598 horsepower. At a more conservative 20 psi, the engine is still good for 550 horsepower. A stock 1999 Porsche 911 makes 296 horsepower.

To mate the Honda engine to the Porsche transmission, an adapter plate from Kennedy Engineering Products was used, along with a clutch kit and flywheel.

Power is now sent to the rear wheels via a limited-slip differential (LSD), ensuring that the extra power is put to good use. And when we say power, we mean a lot of power.

Before the modification, the Porsche’s original engine put out 256 horsepower on the dyno. After swapping in the turbocharged K24, power more than doubled to 507 hp – with the potential to go even higher.

The reason so many enthusiasts opt for the K24 is simple: it’s cheap, robust and easy to modify. Should something go wrong, replacing or rebuilding a K24 is much more cost-effective than a tuned Porsche flat-six.

Since Sipson is a parts fabricator by trade, he created many of the parts needed for the swap and now even sells assembly kits to help other 996 owners make the conversion.

This engine swap may be controversial for purists, but for those looking for affordable, reliable performance, it could be the perfect solution.

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