I just scored a complete 2.7l. six, recently rebuilt by a moron, and a set of webers for $1000.00!
I've been looking for the right deal for a long time and it finally came along.
The good- the webers look like I can probably just bolt them on and it will run, and they have really nice K&N billet air cleaners. The case has been time-serted, so the head studs probably won't pull out. The intake valves look absolutely brand new.
The bad- Mr moron RTV'd the cam towers to the heads, so the cam spray bars are probably clogged, 1 head nut that I can see is missing, somebody spray canned the case and the chain housing blue, the same classless dip painted the fan shroud with silver aluminum paint, and they replaced the rubber section of the cam oil feed lines with fuel hose and crappy hose clamps instead of just replacing the lines.
The engine is a big question mark, but the webers with linkage, manifolds and air cleaners are worth the $1000.00 alone.
Now the spending really starts!

Now's the time to put in the oil fed tensioners, check the spray bars, and have fun. The 2.7 can make a nice 914-6, and if it holds together well, should give you a nice car. I put a front cooler in mine, but some folks have said that you don't have to (which also helps keep conversion costs down).

Front cooler for a six is a necessity.

i dis-agree ... unless you're talking dedicated track car ...

there are many 3.2L cars around here that run perfectly fine without a front mounted oil cooler ...
Andy

I have been running my 2.5 with no extra coolers, runs fine. Even all summer.

As a 914-6 wannabe "I spit in your general direction." Congrats!!

I know Rich Johnson runs an oil cooler mounted under the rear trunk for his 3.0.

3.2 w / NO oil cooler . plug in and play . the stock cooler werks Fine . ask dave at GPR .3.0 3.2 stock coolers are cool

The point(s) are all good, but moot. I already have a front oil cooler and one in the rear trunk. At Willow Springs in 110 degree heat my 4 would stay below the middle of the gauge with no engine mounted cooler, so I'm pretty sure the six will be OK with a total of 3 coolers.

For street driving my 3.0 with the stock cooler is great. In 95+ weather only gets to 200-210. A very different story on the track. I am installing a front cooler currently for that reason.
Van914

The spray bar feed is not effected by the goop used to seal the cam towers.
That said, the chance of them leaking using the wrong goops is very high. Special tools are needed to R & R the cams/towers & time the cams.

All 911s 3.0 & up came with some sort of ex-cooler of varing degrees of effectiveness. If you feel you don't need one, fine....you don't need one till you need one, then nothing else will do. Heat is a killer of aircooled motors, particularly the mag case jobbies.

Y'all don't live in Texas. Here an external cooler is mandatory. Otherwise you end up with 250+ degree oil temp in summer.

...Especially if you go with a 964 or 993 engine... No on-board oil cooler. External from the factory.

I always suspected you were a six predator

I tried running my original 2.4 911 E spec motor without a cooler and was running into 220 range on hot days on the street.

Then rebuilt it to high compression 911 S spec 2.4 with a big monster cooler in the front and I have a hard time getting the thing to go over 190 on the warmest of track days.

Running a cooler is nice extra bit of protection regardless of your application.

I went for a 40 min drive in the six this summer, on the hottest day of the year, just to see what would happen. I have a high compression 2.7 w/ no cooler up front & she got near 230*, on a 101* day. I have a front cooler I plan on installing & now I'm sure it was the right move for me. I realize usage & displacement are critical issues here, but I have to stress the old real estate axiom as well: location, location, location! It gets hot in VA during the summer.

Steve; are you going to put the 2.7 in your race car? What class will that put you in. My 2.7 twin plug never skips a beat. It dyno'd at 198 hp at the wheels and 180 lbs torque. The S cam comes on about 5k rpm and feels like a turbo kicking in. Great engines.

I'll probably be in V-3. I don't think that the (unfair) rules will allow a 914 w/ a 2.7 to fit into V-4 after you put wheels on it, or brakes, or damn near anything else. The $$$ 911 guys fear us 914ers too much to give us an even chance. It's to humiliating for their $75,000.00 911 to get spanked by a $15,000.00 914.

Good luck! You're going to be taking my spot. I bought a Boxster that I plan to build for the Spec series. I have to rebuild the trans in my 914 and then I will clean it up and put it up for sale. So I probably won't be in anymore V3 races. My best finish in V3 was a 5th last year at Buttonwillow. Jim Stedmen does pretty well, but he has some beefy tires in the rear and just put in a G50 box. It's a tough class but it's all fun. There's plenty of people to dice with in Orange Group even when you're a V3 backmarker.

I don't care what "everybody says". I've had a 2.7, 3.0 and a 3.2 in a 914 that needed external cooling. They were fine around town but on a longer trip of say1/2-2/4 hour they started a slow climb to HOT!

On the track, BOOM, instant red zone on the one that I took to the track. I looked into plugged internal oil coolers, thermostats and any of a dozen different scenarios. I just had the bad luck of needing one in each case.

So you can NOT categorically state that the install won't need an extra cooler.

BTW, the engines were in different cars, so that variable was not in play.