Reimu

Many other engines are famous for certain things that makes them special. It seems like the 951 engine has nothing really noteworthy about it aside from "well its kind of big for a 4 cylinder.."

An opendeck block with notorious rod bearing problems and a turbo on the wrong side, didn't even come in 16 valve form. What does it have going for it?

drift a 944

Depends on what you compare it to I guess.

Such as, if you compare it to a 944 NA engine....

So, what is the deeper meaning of asking this question? Are you contemplating swapping in another motor from a different vehicle? If there is an obvious benefit in doing so, then go for it.

Jamesr6967

Lol ! Cue Odur ........

Dougs951S

The pros are that its a factory block which has its basis in a design that stems from the 70's. It is an 8 valve SOHC 4 cylinder with many, many less than ideal attributes. With a few simple mods it had the potential to (fairly) reliably make some pretty decent power. It still manages to embarrass modern sports cars...Go find another 70's or 80's 4 banger that can claim that.

333pg333

Torque. Plus as Doug says, compare it to other motors of it's era. Not that you don't raise decent points. Would have been great if they'd managed to develop it further...alas...

black944 turbo

For its age it is very advanced. Sodium valves, ceramic exhaust ports, al. Cylinder wall (not sure this a plus), advanced exhaust manifold materials, lots of torque, and fairly smooth for its size and age of design.

manticore33

For Porsche, I'd say it is nice because it is EFI over the CIS system that was still in use on the 911 turbos. Also, it was full world engine which means the power was the same in the USA as Europe which is HUGE for the era. Most performance Euro cars (M5, 535i/any that used big-6, 190e-16v, 928, and etc) of the 1980s came to the US down 20 or 30 hp. It was only until the mid-90s for instance that BMW started producing worldwide engines. And, more recent M3 i6 engines still differ by market.

The 951 turbo set up is truly remarkable. From the factory it came with all of the goodies (FMIC, turbo timer, external wastegate, oil cooler, headers) that are "upgrades" to most production turbo cars. I am still amazed at how short the intake piping is on the car (coming from DSMs where piping went long to fit FMIC).

The 951 engine set up is more a sum of its parts oppose to any one specific design attribute.

Voith

Hydraulic engine mounts were derived from washing machine, and later copied by other car manufacturers.

s14kev

Pros? Forged crank, rods and pistons in a relatively cheap package. (Except the 89+ cars with cast rods but no one wants an 89+ anyway ). Overall its immensely strong given the factory HP output.

My early interest was in Japanese cars (SR20's, RB's). Although they could make reasonable power with mild upgrades there was no doubting the effects the cast internals had on longevity.

odurandina

well, for starters, being bolted to a car that's tied with that F-40 for best handling car of the '80s – and let's you know it the moment you take it on your first drive.... the engine was good for the times, but on a $$$/litre/hp/mile basis, it's not very good by today's standards.... and before too long, you're trying to compensate for the lack of mid-level torque/power by dialing up boost/starting down the slippery slope towards bankruptcy, etc...

that moment he realizes (2.5 liters) in full tune only hints at the potential of the car – and the only family swap that effectively deals with the lack of mid-level power is not only extremely expensive to build, but just another maintenance hog to daily drive for many years *(but, bulletproof).

of course, far-worse would be doing a 3.0/968 Turbo S replica.

we'd be fully terrified a bird might crap on it.

fixed it.

zeusrotty

Yes, you can sell the motor for 1500.00 and then you have to pay 1500.00 less for the V8 swap.

jm964cab

The 968 turbo not only beautiful but very powerful. A slippery slope that can haunt someone for many years. When mated with the N/A2.7 head can be very reliable, and cost effective using majority 951 parts. I have not had any maintenance issues in years.

blade7

Admittedly 16v but E30 M3 and Ford Sierra Cosworth engines, both with a lot of competition success.

333pg333

True, but both those cars were designed and built with competition in mind.

blade7

The Cosworth head was originally but the Pinto block wasn't. Cossie short engines probably cost half as much and take half as long to build, and take a quarter the time to pull.