When the head gasket blew in Matt Boulanger‘s 1987 Porsche 944 it severely damaged the stroked 2.8 L inline-four. He considered several different engines but settled on using a 2.5 L KL-ZE V6 from a Mazda MX-6. He rebuilt the bottom-end with CP Pistons and K1 connecting rods. The heads are ported and topped with custom camshafts and valvetrain work. Matt estimates the engine make 375 whp on low boost and 500 whp at high boost thanks to a Borg Warner EFR9174 turbocharger. The engine connects to the stock 944 drivetrain with a custom adapter. See more photos and details here or listen as Matt discusses all the work he put into the 944 below. Then listen to the engine sing on the dyno below that.
Source: Hoonigan Bonus and Crapengineering via Piotr
Going from one of the biggest 4-pots to one of the smallest V6s, very odd but interesting choice. Mazda-swapping a Porsche is also a great way of angering purists on either side (even tho Mazda officially did the opposite in one of their most popular cars – the 787B had a Porsche transmission)
I’ve always had much love for that little KL V6. I want to swap a built and turbo’d one into a project rx-8 – I think it would be a fair substitute.
Sounds like a great combination. I hope one day you can do it.
There was a track-spec Holden Commodore race car down here in Australia that ran a twin turbo KL-ZE back in the day. I remember seeing it featured in the magazines around 15-20 years ago. Apparently it still had the stock crank, but was churning out 550-600HP IIRC.
Edit: It was 800HP. Here’s a link to some info about it: http://www.offroadvw.net/bajawes/800HP_KLV6/wetdream.html
Wow! Such an amazing race car. Thanks for sharing that.
I dig that! Thing of beauty!