Phoenix from the flames - Porsche Boxster with an Audi 2.7T

[Escy]

I was doing some tuning last night, upped the boost a bit, back to where it was when it was on the dyno when it made 530bhp. I did a timed 100-200 kmph run on my Dragy.

Screenshot_20220821-212852

It was my one and only attempt, the boost did drop a bit at high RPM and there's also some more ignition timing to go in and some fuel to take out so there's definately room for improvement on this time. You can see right at the end, I need to change gear as I can't quite hit 200 in 4th which doesn't help. I can't raise the revs any higher on the standard valve train, I'm already 400rpm past the standard limit. I had the meth injection on and was flat foot shifting. Flat foot shifting makes a massive difference.

When I first saw the time I didn't think it was that great (the Dragy app is full of insane times) but after comparing it to other cars it's not a bad effort, especially as it's manual and there are 2 gear changes in there.

Comparisons

7.1 - Audi R8 V10 Spyder Performance (2019)
7.2 - Porsche 991 Turbo S (2013)
7.3 - Porsche GT2 997 (2007)
7.4 - Porsche 991 GT3RS (2018)
7.5 - Porsche GT4 RS (2022)
17.2 - My Boxster with it's original 2.7 engine

Edited by Escy on Monday 22 August 21:30

[Escy]

I can't remember anything about the job really, I did it 8 years ago.

[Escy]

Have had another crack a 100-200 km/h time after making some changes. Managed to sneak it into the 6's just with 6.97s. Needing that extra gear change kills the time a bit.

Screenshot_20220901-214621

I've had a go at 0-100 km/h, hard to get consistency in a RWD car. I have turned the boost down in 1st and 2nd, I use launch control to build some boost, have tried various RPM's, it seems to instantly wheel spin and then the TC bogs it down. I might be better off going from actuator pressure and turning it up rather than turning it down. The best I saw was 4.69's. Should be able to take a decent chunk off that with some more work.

Screenshot_20220901-221925

[Escy]

The Wookie said:

Try a lower boost level in 1st, ideally with a reduced rev limit just for launch, then instead of balancing the throttle try balancing with the clutch.

If it's not possible then try just constant throttle and balancing with the clutch

You rarely get the speed and linearity of response out of a heavily boosted car to effectively balance wheelspin with the throttle

I definitely need to lower the boost further. I'm a bit reluctant to slip the clutch as I think I'm close to it's limit, kind of expecting it to start slipping at any moment but you are right that it'd be the best way to get it off the line.

I need to turn the traction control off so I can establish a decent launch RPM and 1st gear boost level. At the moment it's kicking in and confusing things.

carinaman said:

Still massively impressed by this build and your spannering skills in general.

Thank you, I've been learning as I go. I'm still not done (projects never are) but it's getting closer. I'm also impressed by it, I have adrenaline coursing through my veins every time I drive it. I'm not used to the speed yet.

Alfred Pina said:

Wow, that sounds great and it has the performance figures to match. Very cool build.

Thanks. It's starting to come good. I'm really pleased with it.

[Escy]

I've been busy so not had a chance to drive this for a month. Went to take it to cars and coffee in Cowbridge this morning. Connected the battery back up (on my remote fob) and the spoiler made some noises which is odd. Drove it about half a mile and suddenly had a warning light for the spoiler, one for the roof and a brake light one. Stopped and the spoiler had gone up, brake lights were on, the tonneau section of the roof opened up by itself and the boot lid had popped open. I instantly knew what's up, had a feel behind the passenger seat and it's soaking wet.

It's not easy to see it but that's a puddle where the control modules sit. One is for parking sensors, the other is the body module.

P9251354

Sucked out a load of water. I've not pulled the carpet up, going to change it as the previous owner had a dog in it and which has made it smell (stinks now it's wet)

P9251357

The circuit boards don't look too bad which is lucky, I think the fact I leave the battery disconnected is the reason.

P9251355

P9251356

I cleaned them up with some isopropyl alcohol and put them back in, sitting on top of their bracket and with a bag over them to help keep them dry. The seat it just placed on top for now. I started the car and everything seems to work fine so I think I've got away with this.

P9251358

I haven't sorted the leak, I'm going to be changing a ton of parts soon so the interior and roof will be coming off anyway. The car has developed a few faults recently, the tonneau cover on the roof has stopped sitting flush when I put the roof down and the passenger door doesn't unlock on the central locking anymore. Both of these and then the leak have come out of the blue, this car seems to develop issues to keep me on my toes. These are all Boxster issues, nothing to do with my engine swap. It is also leaking loads of oil as per usual, not had a chance to get it over the pit to investigate. I'll SORN it now and take care of these things over the next couple of months. Probably no point getting it back on the road until Spring now. It feels like a bit of a wasted year, I've not done much with it only managed a few hundred miles in it this year.

I've got a genuine Porsche car cover which came in the boot of the other Boxster I bought. As you'd expect it's really nice but I'm in 2 minds about using it while it's laid up (the car will be outside). I bought an S2000 that had been under a car cover for years and it had loads of condensation under it and it did it no favours. I also have had 2 cars where a car cover has caused the paint to bubble up. On the other side, if it's left sat on the drive the brake discs go rusty, the roof starts to get mouldy and it could possibly leak again and it'll get bird cack on it all the time (I've got a mental neighbour that likes to feed seagulls). I'm not sure what's best?

[Escy]

I really like the look of them with the hardtop. The 987 hardtop is rare and pretty expensive. One came up locally at a decent price last year, I wanted it but decided not to as I'd need somewhere to store it in the summer, plus every time I need access to the engine bay I'd need to take it off. I need access to my engine bay fairly regularly!

[Escy]

I recently stripped a nice spec 987 for parts as It had a load of bits I wanted for mine. The main thing being extended leather (on the dash, door cards, arm rest, roll over hoops, etc).

PB061364

There's lots of little differences between an S and a base which I wasn't aware of. The cluster has silver dials rather than black, it has silver trims in the cabin rather than a grey finish. These clocks are 195mph rather than 175mph on the base model (I don't know if the car is geared to do either speed). I swapped all the coding from my old clocks to the new with PIWIS and changed the chassis number. It won't change the mileage, I've bought something else for that.

PB061371

The black 987 had Bose which I was going to swap over but it was a lot of work and it's not all that great anyway. My car has the most basic audio option, just a tweeter in the dash and a 6.5 woofer in the door, no mid range speaker in the door and no amplifier. I decided now was the time to freshen it up since everything is coming apart anyway. An audio upgrade is a bit frivolous endeavour, I don't use the car that much to really warrant it so I've been collecting parts over the last few months, picking up stuff on ebay to keep the cost down sensible. Had some good bargains. I've gone with Rainbow 4" mid range with crossovers and tweeters. Audison AP8 8" midbass woofers and a Ground Zero Hydrogen Mini 4 channel amplifier. For the headunit a Sony XAV-AX5650 with Android Auto.

PA281363

A side by side of the new and old stuff. The small speaker on the left is a Bose mid range speaker (the basic audio does without it).

PB131374

PB131375

These fitted straight onto the door cards no messing about.

PB131377

Everything stripped out.

PB131378

Some sound deadening added. That's what everyone else seems to do so I've copied them.

PB151382

The door with the 8" woofer mounted, bought some MDF rings to space them out but otherwise they bolted straight on.

PB141381

The amp was mounted under the driver seat, It was a perfect fit. If I get a water leak like I did on the other side I might grow to regret this decision.

PB201385

The new dash had the Chrono in the middle of it. These look nice but don't really serve a purpose. I thought this was a good opportunity to add a decent gauge. I've avoided adding a load of gauges in previously as it's not the look I'm going for. I've gone for an AEM canbus gauge, this is basically loads of gauges in one. I can display, oil temp and pressure, coolant temp and pressure (I don't measure this), fuel pressure, Lambda, MAP, Traction control slip, TPS, Ignition timing, knock etc. There are loads of variables available. I log all I need on the ECU but I figure a boost gauge on the dash is handy to have and If I go on track I'd want to see oil temperature, when tuning it'd be useful to have it showing knock, etc. I bought a white dial to match up better with the new clocks.

PB231386

PB231389

The headunit fitted. This was more involved than I expected it to be but it fits nice and looks decent.

PB231390

How it's looking now it's all back together. The audio upgrade sounds great, much better than the Bose option. It's better than I was expecting. The extended leather doesn't look like much in the pictures but it does make a huge difference in the flesh, it really lifts the quality of the interior.

PB231391

PB231392

[Escy]

Thanks, I'm really pleased with how it's coming together. I'm really looking forward to getting some decent use out of it next year

When I put the roof down the clam shell wasn't closing properly on one side. There's an arm with a plastic ball joint and it had snapped.

PC011398

It turns out the snapped end was a perfect plug for the drain hole on the drip tray. You can't really see in the photo but it's full of water and the cause of the leak. Quite unlucky.

IMG_20221118_141822747_HDR

I've still got an oil leak. I'm going to be changing the upper sump in an attempt to sort it out.

PB261393

[Escy]

I think it's a pretty common problem. An acorn is a perfect size plug for the drain hole but how would you get one in there in the first place?

Batch 7.5R said:

Looking great Tom, the SD body parts and spoiler are lovely. Glad things are finally starting to smooth out for this, it’s such a great bit of kit.

Thank you. I'm really happy with how it looks now it has the Sport Design kit. It's an awesome bit of kit, I plan to use it a lot more this year.

[Escy]

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. -Albert Einstein

So after about 5-6 attempts at sealing my leaking lower sump with various silicones and gaskets I've finally decided to change the upper sump. I had a snapped bolt in the old one which I'd made a mess of trying to drill out (I did it with the lower sump still in place so wasn't accurate enough).

I bought a used upper sump. It predictably came caked in oil, there's no such thing as a leak free 2.7t

PB271396

Changing the upper sump is quite an awkward job, my engine mount at the front bolts to the sump so that had to come off and I then needed to hold the engine up with a chain above the engine as there is nowhere underneath to support it. All pretty much straightforward, didn't take me too long.

PC041401

Engine swaps sometimes fall down when it comes to maintenance where simple jobs become a total pain. It's pure luck on my part but it's another job that is way easier to do in my Boxster than it would be in the Audi. there are no subframes or air-con pipes in the way. It would be a beast of a job to do in the Audi. I can add that to the list along with cambelt, clutch and turbos all being easier.

I went for a quick drive to confirm I'm leak free which didn't go well. It was when it was really cold and icy. Once warmed up I put my foot down and the engine cut out, leaving the car stranded in a dodgy place. My battery is questionable so I was panicking, (I think I've killed another Odyssey PC680, it ran low while testing the roof and doesn't want to charge off my charger). I checked the ECU with my laptop and there was a fault on the throttle pedal calibration, cleared it, got it started and moved it somewhere safe. I then remembered I had changed my throttle pedal while I had the carpet out, not something I gave a second thought to at the time but it's calibrated to the ECU. Predictably while re-calibrating it on the laptop the battery got too low and it wouldn't re-start. I got my wife to rescue me with some jump leads and haven't driven it since. It's SORN and the MOT has run out now.

It's the second PC680 battery that has died and was the cause of me needing recovery previously. I'm going to go for lithium battery next. Same size, more power and lighter.

[Escy]

ronnie-7ivyd said:

Friday night I was doing some googling research on transaxles that fit the 2.7t Audi engine and I stumbled across your thread, over the weekend I have binged all 60 pages, read over 1000 posts and traveled with you over this journey coming into its 5th year!
This thread is phenomenal! I used to be heavily involved in the forums, creating similar threads to this spanning 100s of pages, 1000s of photos, pusing the boundries and constantly fighting issues because noone has made a path for you to follow. I could list all the things I've loved about this thread, the solutions, the mods, the theories, but you can just collectively call it everything!
I used to get people stumble across my builds 60 pages in and messages like this were such a boost! Reading through I could tell when you were on the verge of giving up, things seems alot more positive lately.
Fantastic build, it's been a pleasure taking up my weekend studing it, and it's been great reading an old fashioned blog again! Keep up the great work!

It's been a labour of love, I've been plugging away at it for years, slowly evolving and developing it but the result was definately worth the effort, I've got something I think is pretty special now. Thanks for signing up to write this reply.

mercedeslimos said:

To be fair I've been following this too, and I really feel for Escy with some of the trials he's had in this build. I'd have long given up.

It's too good to give up on. Every time I've been for a drive I'm buzzing afterwards. I just need to start using it more now.

[Escy]

CedricN said:

I have the 12Ah Lithium battery from this guy http://topend.se/index.php?route=product/category&... , it works incredible well, super lightweight and powerful. They also die when overly drained them though, so i have a cutoff switch. The larger 25ah battery have full BMS with automatic low volt cutoff (about 275£), that seems useful if you killed batteries already I guess there might be similar available locally aswell.

I've ordered a 20Ah LiPo4 from a UK supplier. I should get it tomorrow.

strombomb said:

Escy - sorry to hear about the crummy test drive. I say if you haven’t gotten stranded in your project car, you’re not pushing the limits hard enough.

Most importantly though, is the pesky oil leak finally gone?

I've been stranded a few times over the years! There's no signs of an oil leak now, I'm reluctant to say it's conclusive as the test drive wasn't that thorough, but I think I'm probably good. I had a look at the cam cover seals whilst I was doing the sump, these leak for fun and I've had numerous attempts at sealing them. I'm pleased to say they are still leak free, and that's after lots of hard driving. Whisper it, I might have a leak free engine!

[Escy]

I fitted the lithium battery I bought. It's near enough the same physical size the PC680 was but it's more powerful. 630cca vs 170cca. I was pushing my luck with the PC680, expecting it to start a 2.7 litre engine. It always did providing it wasn't bellow 11.8v (which is where by battery cut off kicks in to protect it). They don't seem to recover if they can run flat. I'd also sometimes throw up a fault code for the throttle pedal as during cranking the voltage dropped too low. The new battery weighs 2.2kg, the old one was around 7kg and a standard one is about 15kg. It's worth fitting one for the weight saving alone. It has it's own battery management built into it, it shuts off at 10.9v so I should never have an issue where it runs down and damages itself.

IMG_20230122_122120947

IMG_20230122_122919341

It was a perfect size to fit in the battery tray, just pushed in and it was held snugly by the sides. Just made a little bracket to hold it down.

IMG_20230122_144044040

Whilst I had the water/meth tank out I noticed there were little bits in it. I'm thinking either the rubber part on the lid of the tank for the level sensor aren't liking the methanol. The level sensor was from a screen wash bottle (which contains methanol) so it shouldn't be that. I'll need to do something about that, I don't want to clog up my injectors.

IMG_20230122_124930620

[Escy]

Thank you. I'm not sure about the difference the cams made as I changed a few things at once like the large port cylinder heads and larger turbo. All together it made a big difference.

[Escy]

The Boxster needs an MOT. I planned to get it done this morning. It's been off the road over the winter. It's been on the driveway, I did have a cover on it but it blew off. It just deteriorates when it's sat in the rain doing nothing. I want to start using it more. It always passes the MOT as I don't do much mileage in it. I knew it'd fail on the number plate lights, I'd forgot to plug them in when I fitted the rear number the last time.

I'd also bought some new rear lights which I'd fit at the same time. I liked the lights that were on it but it was depending on the sunlight. If it was bright, they looked good (like in this photo they aren't that dark), if it was overcast they looked a bit too dark. Smoked rear lights remind me of back in the Max Power days. I'd also cracked the corner of the light and glued it back together when I reversed into the kerb at the side of the garage.

IMG_20230203_152933176

I had wanted to see what the lower section of the bumper looked like in black. I bought a spray on wrap to give it a go, if I don't like it, it can come back off. It wasn't really the right time for it, weather is too cold but I wanted to do it while it was all apart.

IMG_20230203_183148451_HDR

Taped up.

IMG_20230203_183141009_HDR


Painting it.

IMG-20230203-WA0001

I also fitted a reverse camera whilst it was apart.

IMG_20230204_092702186_HDR

How it was before.

P7161407

And now. I think it looks much better.

IMG_20230204_092516952

IMG_20230204_092522210

IMG_20230204_092530096

On the MOT front, I jumped in it this morning and realised the airbag light is on. I didn't have time to look at it so just drove down there. Put my code reader on it and it's stage 1 and stage 2 on the passenger airbag. I must have not plugged it in properly when I swapped the dash over. Not something I can fix in the car park so I figured it's pointless doing the test until I've sorted the airbag. The first drive since fitting the new stereo, it's really good, I'm happy with that.

Edited by Escy on Saturday 4th February 11:25

[Escy]

Thanks everyone. I'm really pleased with how it looks now.

Harfi88 said:

The black looks really good on the bumper, Have you ever struggled with the ARB drop links on yours ? I spent all last Saturday trying to get them off my 987 so I can replace a snapped spring.

It's a well known thing. If they haven't been touched for a while, they don't want to come out. My technique is to cut the drop link off at the ball joint, put a socket on the bolt head that's now left exposed and use an impact gun to get it moving. It won't wind out but it'll break up all the powdery corrosion that's inside, I then hit the other end with a hammer as I'm using the impact gun. That tends to work but you'll be needing new drop links afterwards.

[Escy]

Tap the edge where the bolt goes through with a hammer to try and break it free.

[Escy]

Thank you. There's been a few hurdles along the way but I have enjoyed the build process. I've learnt there is a huge casam between a running and driving engine swapped car (or just highly modified) and a fully sorted car. The hard yards are in the development. I think I'm nearly there but I still have some stuff to do, mostly ecu related things.

[Escy]

Not a bad shout, I put some rubber hose over the positive.

IMG_20230305_142930098

The scuttle panel was quite badly faded, and the paint on the wiper arms. I bought some oil that's supposed to sort it out.

IMG_20230304_115506199

It's come up nice. Hopefully it lasts.

IMG_20230305_143009092

I'm planning to use the car a lot more this year, first trip of the year, the South Wales Porsche group on Facebook had a meet at Baffle Haus which is a biker cafe, cool place. I didn't take any photos while I was there but someone got one of me staring at the laptop which proved to be the theme of the day.

Screenshot_20230305-151855

I followed the wrong Porsche and got lost from the back at one point. Ended up in the middle of nowhere so took the opportunity to get some photos.

IMG_20230305_104843040

IMG_20230305_104854530

Managed to meet up with the others and we had a good blast through the mountains. The car was running alright but I did have a few teething issues. It's been about 4-5 months since it was used properly last, the ecu has had a couple of firmware updates since then and a few things had changed which caused me a few issues. I was initially stuck on wastegate pressure which I managed to fix on my way to the meet. Wastegate pressure was about 380bhp which ironically I'd have probably been better off staying with. You can't really use 500+bhp on those type of roads, just little squirts here and there and turning it right up caused me issues.

It was great fun but eventually a water/meth pipe popped off. Luckily I set-up a failsafe on the ECU the last time it happened so I didn't risk killing the engine. Stuff like this is frustrating. I've got AEM nozzles with a push fit connection, they've failed in the past, going to have to sack them off for some different style fittings.

With the WMI down I went to just normal fuel, had problems with this also. Kept hitting fault protections on the ECU when I'd give it full throttle. It was really annoying me. I was getting over boost protection, need to spend some time adjusting then PID on the boost solenoid, see if I can tidy it up. The other one is injector duty cycle exceeding 96% (I run less fuel when using WMI so it's not a problem as much). It'd probably be sensible to turn the boost down a bit but I've not come this far to hold back on power so I'm more likely to get a larger set of injectors.

So the good news is, no more oil leaks the sump is finally dry. The car ran nicely otherwise. Need to sort these little issues but it's going in the right direction.

The WMI pipe that popped off.

IMG_20230305_144009160_HDR

A spot of oil on the one way valve for the crankcase breather, probably because on end of the fitting has a thread on it. I've re-positioned the clamps to see if it makes a difference, but it's not really an issue compared to the leaks I've had previously.

IMG_20230305_144123274_HDR

In the latest example of why I can't have anything nice, I've managed to damage the car the again. There was a mega tight bridge, you have to go through some posts before you get on it and there was a kerb I hadn't spotted, went a bit wider so I could go through the gates straight and caught my alloy. Really annoying but not as bad as I feared when it happened. Don't know if I'll just touch it up or refurb. Nobody else damages their car, it's always me.

IMG_20230305_141101458

[Escy]

It could have been worse I guess. I found a photo of the meet someone else took, thought I'd share as the car looks good there.