Porsche and Honda are two brands that are rarely mentioned in the same sentence. On one hand, you have the German brand known for some of the best sports cars ever made and on the other hand, you have the Japanese brand known for… some of the best sports cars ever made. While Honda’s hay days are long behind it, at least on the sports car front, Porsche’s iconic 911 continues to have a faithful community.
Similar to Ferrari, there are certain things you just don’t do to a Porsche 911, which is why Porsche purists will be enraged by this 997 build. Larry Chen’s YouTube channel has shown us many iconic models, more than a few of which are Porsches. This 997 however, hides a dirty secret in its engine bay. The engine is no longer a flat-six, but get ready, a Honda K24. There aren’t many justifiable reasons as to why the owner decided to do that, but apparently, performance was one of them. Here’s what we mean by that.
Lack Of Performance Prompted The Decision To Do a K24 Swap
Dropping a Honda engine in a Porsche 911 for more performance isn’t something you hear every day, but that’s exactly what the owner, Nick from the YouTube channel, Tuning by Nick did. The 997, in particular, is considered by many to be one of the last old-school 911s. The example here will give purists a heart attack because instead of the original flat-six, it now has a Honda K24 engine.
The engine comes from 2014 Honda Civic Si, and according to last reports, it’s pretty much, stock. The engine was bought from a wrecker with about 90,000 km (56,000 miles) to replace the 3.8-liter, M97 flat-six, which had 190,000 km (118,000 miles) on it. Don’t let the GT3 body kit fool you. This 997 started life as a 2006 Carrera S.
Not long ago, these Honda K-series engines could be bought for a few hundred dollars, but their drastic rise in popularity in recent years has already affected pricing. The owner of the Porsche 997 paid $650 for it. Another YouTube channel, Stance Works, has a similarly outrageous build, featuring a K24-swapped Ferrari 308 GTBi.
Nick prides itself on achieving a clean engine swap without having to cut or alter the car’s body or chassis in any way to accommodate the K24 engine. Originally, the 997.1 Carrera S is rated at 355 crankshaft horsepower, which is around 300 to the wheels. At the last dyno run, the K24-swapped Porsche 911 showed 435 wheel horsepower. Since then, Nick has increased the boost, with the goal of reaching 500 wheel horsepower – a full 200 more than the original engine.
Does A Honda Engine Make For A Better Porsche 997?
It’s safe to say, Honda’s K-series of engines are the four-cylinder equivalent of the LS V-8. It goes, into pretty much anything, and it’s still cheap to find and build. Most importantly, it’s reliable, which is another reason Nick swapped out the original M97 flat-six. The Porsche 911, in general, is considered one of the most dependable and usable high-performance sports cars.
Benefits of the K24 Engine Swap
- More space in the engine bay
- Easier to work on
- The sheer Honda reliability
- Cheap power
- Affordable
- Better weight distribution
- Not a lot of fabrication required
Even so, in its current state, the owner argues that the car is much easier to work on, and then, there’s Honda’s legendary reliability, which is most apparent in its K-series engines. What would probably enrage purists, even more, is that this 997 is an original manual car, which is the one to have since the 997.1’s automatic option was a five-speed Tiptronic automatic. The PDK transmission was not available on the 911 until 2008, with the 997.2 model. Is the Honda-swapped Porsche 911 brilliant or blasphemy? You decide.