No Expense Spared: Outrageous Turbo K-Swap 1981 Ferrari Track Build
Arguably the first Ferrari swap of its kind, this 1,200 HP-capable KT1000 K-series by 4Piston Racing totals a $17.5k cost for the engine alone.
We love to see people continue to expand the already encompassing platform that is the Honda K-series. If this next feature doesn’t convince you of its versatility, we don’t know what will. See, the beautiful thing about the K-series is that is no matter whether you are doing a budget build or going absolutely all-out, the K-series has the aftermarket support to back it up. This is why StanceWorks founder Mike Borroughs decided that the K24 was going to be the perfect platform for a new project of his: a Ferrari.
Yes, a Honda engine in a classic Ferrari. Let’s talk about it.
To start, this K-swapped 1981 Ferrari 308 GTBi is most likely one of the most well-documented car builds ever. Over 57 episodes covering the details of this build from A to Z have been released on the StanceWorks YouTube channel.
If you want the full in depth view of this very carefully crafted and complex project, we suggest you check some of those previous episodes out. The amount of detail put into this one is truly impressive.
The purpose of this Ferrari from the very beginning of this long journey was to be a unique, fun, and reliable track toy. Now here’s the problem. Ferrari and reliable usually aren’t used in the same sentence.
K24 for Reliable Power
Enter the magical powerhouse known as the K24. Borroughs knew the outdated engine found in the classic Ferrari wasn’t going to cut it for the needs of this project.
Thus, he quickly sold the original F106B V8 engine that powered the Ferrari for the healthy sum of about $12k. With that he forwarded that newfound cash into some series Honda hardware.
See, the Ferrari engine wasn’t just old and unreliable, it was incredibly heavy at 850 pounds and only made 163 WHP on the dyno. The K-series that would grace this engine bay would blow that out the water.
“I want it to be bulletproof, I want it to be reliable, and I want it to be fast as hell. Now it would be really hard to choose an engine that could do all of those things better than this Honda engine could.”
4Piston Racing KT-1000: Dream Maker
As you might imagine with a Ferrari build as carefully crafted as this one, there were very little expenses spared. Thus, 4Piston Racing’s epic KT1000 “Turbo Endurance” complete crate engine was utilized.
This powerplant is truly impressive and without a doubt one of the finest K24 engines available. Borroughs states, “I’m happy to think that I’ve got pretty much the best K-series money can buy.”
Fully built internals from top to bottom, the KT1000 is capable of 1,200 HP and rated for 1,000 HP. Including the CNC aluminum PRO TSX heads, this engine alone cost about $13k.
However, because of the packaging constraints of the Ferrari engine bay, further details were required to get this K24 to work with the chassis.
Dry Sump
Thus, the engine also utilizes a beautifully crafted dry sump oil lubrication system by Dailey Engineering. This allows for a custom oil pan which gives the K24 substantially more clearance.
The dry sump might be overkill for a build of this power level, however, “we went with dry sump because otherwise wouldn’t fit into the car. We need the change in overall height to clear the chassis.”
This way the build benefits from both more efficient plumbing and packaging. That’s a win-win, however, it comes at a price: about $5k extra. Bringing our total to about $17.5k just for the engine alone.
To no surprise, this is far from the end of the details featured in this amazing project. Once the PracWorks carbon fiber intake manifold and custom turbo manifold are mounted onto the KT1000, it truly is a work of art.
Some Ferrari purists may be internally screaming when seeing this one, but we think this K24 will be one of the best parts of this Ferrari once its finished. Soon to be paired with a Quaife sequential transmission, it will be a seriously stacked powerplant.
Although the intention of this engine is to only make about 600 “usable” horsepower, Borroughs states, “if this engine can make 1000 horsepower, why would we not?”
We like that mentality and we couldn’t agree more with him! There will certainly be some details of this build worth keeping up with as it develops. We can’t be the only ones desperately waiting for the first start up so we can here that K-series finally sing!
