My Porsche journey (AKA Search for Nirvana...)

[whitewater]

That’s really fabulous news [] Congrats! Now you can put that money towards something towards this great project and keep us all entertained with updates []

 

[Peter_Bull]

Well, well, well...

Some interesting news over the weekend...

Following the submission of my small claim court action last week, I received a full refund from Super tweaks...

No apology message of any kind though but at this stage, I don't really care as they are blacklisted for life as far as I am concerned.

Thanks to your advice, I have £1.000 back in my 997 project's budgets.

Very happy!!!

Well done - fabulous news. Pat needs a 'pat' on the back for the recommendation!

Just show the power of the Forum.

 

[Rodney Naghar]

Congratulations! That’s what forums are for, now please spend it on some splendid car parts!

 

[BooTooo]

Hi All,

For the ones of you interested by the Paddle mode, here is a detailed instruction manual written by "SpawnyWhippet" from the RENNTECH forum.

HERE

I have also a PDF version (PM me if needed).

 

[BooTooo]

Hi all,

Yesterday, I sold the duck tail I purchased last year (pictures in earlier post) to a very nice chap that I hope to meet again post confinement to continue our 911 chat...

It really shows how my “997 modification’s project” has evolved over time (as stated previously, trying to improve/modernise the car comfort/performance without betraying the original spirit & design).

In this particular case, the 3 things that really bugged me were the drastic & permanent modification of the back of the car design, loosing the iconic spoiler deployment and the potential engine airflow restriction.

This made me look again at my options and I finally settled for a mini duck spoiler wing to be added on the existing 997 spoiler. I bought a cheap spoiler on eBay (to keep the original one untouched and be able to go back "bone stock" if I want) & this mini duck spoiler wing on eBay.

I’ll keep you posted on the final result once everything has been integrated and painted in the iconic Porsche Silver "Le Mans".

 

[kalsi997]

Hi Great work. I like what you've done - impressive.

I'm also considering adding a similar spoiler to the rear without going overboard.

Where did you get the spoiler and how is it fixed in position - screws or double sided tape?

I would like to speak to you to discuss.

Thanks

 

[BooTooo]

Hi Great work. I like what you've done - impressive.

I'm also considering adding a similar spoiler to the rear without going overboard.

Where did you get the spoiler and how is it fixed in position - screws or double sided tape?

I would like to speak to you to discuss.

Thanks

Hello Kalsi997,

The old 997 spoiler & the mini duck spoiler were both sourced on ebay (there is a direct link to the eBay add for mini duck spoiler in my previous post).

Happy to have a chat (just PM me)

 

[BooTooo]

A quick update from the front....

My steering wheel is back so I am finaly going to be able to drop it for the paddles integration along with the rear spoiler job to my favourit Inde...

They did an excellent work! Very happy... I love the smell of leather in the morning [&:]

I spoke to HARTECH today. The build of my oversized engine is finished and is being put back in the car.

After that, ECU tuning & dyno + few maintenance things.

No collection dates yet []...

We agreed to touch base once a week going forward to discuss progress. My money is on a collection at the end of Feb.

 

[BooTooo]

I have a collection date from HARTECH!!!!!

March 4th []

More & new pictures soon!!!

 

[BooTooo]

Hi all,

Just back from Hartech and... what a (long but exciting) day!

I spent 3 hours on site and was explained and showed the entire engine oversized process & modifications as well as all the engine's service recommendations to follow.

I have made some videos and will put everything on Youtube at some point.

The journey back was interresting... At first, things did not seems very different on the motorway but I ended up on a tipical british narrow country side road after taking a wrong exit and there, what a difference when overtaking traffic... I passed a line of 2 car & a truck like it was nothing after what felt like a strong & immediat acceleration...

The new manifolds have also modified the exhaust's sound into something deeper and I LOVE IT...

I will add some pictures of the engine rebuild process in the coming days but in the interim find below a Before/After comparaison of the HP & Torque.

 

[BooTooo]

Here are all the pictures!!!

A very happy customer on collection day!!!

What are they hiding from me???

Hello again my Precious!!!

Full demo on what has been done to the engine with spare parts And the rebuild photos....

Job completed...

 

[BooTooo]

No rest for the braves...

I take my 997 to Audiofile Incar limited on Monday for the full cabin sound dampening & Stereo upgrade.

I will post some picture of that job as well late next week. More soon...

 

[BooTooo]

A forum is about sharing all type of experiences right?

Today's one is called BAD Karma.

Something you cannot avoid whatever you go or do...

Here is what happened:

https://youtu.be/Q3TunJv_IKE

And here is the result...

 

[jondrayton]

Engine work looks absolutely amazing and what a performance increase! I bet you smile every time you open the engine lid and see the "3.6" on the airbox cover....

I feel gutted for you with the bodywork damage - so frustrating!

What do you have to do in terms of running the engine in and maintaining the Hartech warranty - can you get the car serviced locally or does it have to go back to Hartech.

Cheers,

Jonathan

 

[BooTooo]

Hi Jonathan,

I have to encourage a degree of engine wear by driving spiritedly to help the new cylinders & pistons to bed in for the next 2000 miles.

At this point, only an oil change is required (Millers CFS 10w50NT+).

Once done, back to the normal Porsche services interval with a strong incentive to change the oil once a year as a minimum (which is what I always do anyway).

All this can be done by my local Inde that came with me to meet the Hartech team (and drive my other car back []).

He will be doing all the service as always. With regards to the Hartech warranty, it only covers the new parts they have put in + the assembly. As it is a 50% old / 50% new engine, there isn't a full warranty as such and if anything happens, the car will have to be shipped back to them for a full inspection to determine what went wrong and who's fault it is.

It is therefore fair to say that there is an element of risk associated with the work that has been carried out on my engine. To reduce it to a minimum, I have decided to pay the Hartech price (higher compare to less renowned engine rebuild actors) to benefit from their excellent track record & oversizing experience.

 

[BooTooo]

This morning, I collected my 997 from Audiofile Incar limited that has been working hard during 3 days to complete a Hifi upgrade (All front speakers + new amplifier + new DSP) as well as a full cabin soundproofing (Hello Dynamat).

The team has been professional from the beginning to the end (Courtesy car provided, demonstrated very good knowledge of the inner body of the 997 with tons of explanations of what they were going to do, why and what result should be expected based on the options I selected).

They have not disappointed!

From the outside, the cabin looks completely stock. In the inside, if you look hard, you'll find a small LCD screen to control de DSP settings attached to a cable purposely left loose and hidden in the space in front of the Tiptronic gear stick (the current PCM 2.1 cannot control it as too old).The new speakers are really something and with the DSP set to "Main driver", it is like I am literally seating in front of several speakers instead of getting the sound from each sides… totally mind blowing... The Bass are finally there and strong (and they must have come with a lot of friends as there is plenty of boum boum, should I need it).

As you can see below, they really did a fantastic job on the doors to sound proof them from the outside but aso to "enable the subwoofer to sound as it should"...

All the new equipment has been integrated under the bonnet in one single place, so my boot capacity remains the same (no equipments in the way) and is working perfectly with with my pre-exisiting Blutooth module to stream music from my phone to the PCM. Happy days

I kept the LCD screen loose because my money in on a future release of a new upgraded 997 Porsche Classic Communication Management systems like what they did for the air-cooled & 996 unit that, hopefully, should be able to control it directly so at some point it should disapear.

The cabin insulation has been done from the back of the car all the way to the front of the pedals as you can see on the pictures. The wheels arches got a 2 layers special treatment of special black Dynamat as my 19" 305 rear wheels have been very noisy at high speed.

I’ll keep updating you on the benefits perceived of the cabin noise insulation but driving it back home already showed a clear improvement.

 

[Rodney Naghar]

Fantastic! What are those tweeters (Kevlar?) they look special!

How much weight has been added as a result?

 

[BooTooo]

Not sure about the material of the tweeters. Sorry...

The Dynamat + amplifier/DSP altogether must add around 15 to 20Kgs but with my new 3.9L... []

 

[BooTooo]

Hello world,

Here are few additional picture showing the intergation of the new Stereo in the cabin & under the bonnet + as per all the PM received, the equipment installed.

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[BooTooo]

Greetings,

It has been a while since my last post so here are some fresh news from the Porsche counter

Believe it or not but I just came back from France where I spent a month due to some family matters. The good news is, as I was driving alone, I took the 997 for the 1.300 miles journey (Bromley to La Rochelle) which really gave me the opportunity to enjoy the latest upgrades.

HARTECH engine upgrade:

The engine performed flawlessly, and the high RPM sound is absolutely intoxicating. I am now getting to the point where I find difficult to remember the level of performance before the upgrade. A slight back side kick to the right when going full throttle from start does remind me that, courtesy of the torque increase delivered by the 3.9L, the engine I have behind is far from a factory one...

Sound dampening job: Two things to take in consideration for this one… The quality of the road surface and the cabin noise insulation. The terrible state of the M20 I started my journey on made difficult to test anything but as soon as I arrived on the (expensive!!!) French motorways, the improvement was impressive. My biggest problem came from the back wheel arches that were "transmitting" directly all the road noise & vibrations generated by my back tyres (a lot of gum connected to the road when you have 305 like me…). I asked them to put 2 layers of isolation on them during the installation and it really paid off. The excessive noise from the be back of the car is now pretty much gone. Up to 80MPH on a quality road, the car is now quiet enough to listen to classical music or be able to chat with a passenger without increasing your voice. Above 80MPH, the extra noise comes from the air friction on the front of the car.

Overall, this upgrade changed my cabin noise level from high to medium up to 80MPH (70% of my drive time) and above that speed, it reduced, in my opinion, the noise level from unbearable to high...

New Stereo installation: I would probably apply the same above and bellow 80MPH principle. Nevertheless, the new sound remains day and night compare to the stock system. The definition of each instrument is much cleared in song and thanks to the DSP, it is like I am seating right in front of all the speakers.

That it for today and now that am back and start my 10 days quarantine, I have a lot of time to start organising the upgrade of my plastic centre column/hand break for a trimmed black leather finish and check if my new steering wheel with paddle shifts & spoiler are ready!!

Best!