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

[Bright Halo]

Really like the look of the spoiler!
Not sure about the headlamp surrounds though?

[Gtom]

Escy said:

Definitely not wanting to do that. I'm not sure how I feel about the centre lock style wheel cap. As a design, I like it, I think the red adds something but I don't like things pretending to be something they aren't. Those wheels on a Golf, everyone would instantly know its just the design, nobody would think they are real but as Porsche are associated with centre lock wheels, there's been a few occasions where people have pointed out the centre locks thinking it's the real deal and been disappointed on closer inspection. It feels a bit embarrassing when that happens.

They look decent without the centre lock cover. I might try that look at some point.

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Fair enough, I just thought it might have been a nice nod to the Carerra GT considering it’s mid engined, silver and has nearly as much power.

Maybe I’m just a bigger chav than I thought!

[Escy]

Pupbelly said:

Every time I log in to this thread I'm blown away by the content - staggering work Sir, even with the spoiler issue! Love your YouTube channel. You should do more links from here to get your views up. That car sounds bl00dy amazing!

Keep up the top work.

Thank you. I need to try and get a decent Youtube video together with some proper action while the weather is good. I did throw a little clip up on TikTok yesterday and it seems to have hit the algorithm jack pot, 110k views in 24 hours, 10k likes. Certainly better than a couple hundred on YT.

https://www.tiktok.com/@escygt/video/7121402055842...

[Escy]

Bright Halo said:

Really like the look of the spoiler!
Not sure about the headlamp surrounds though?

I'm not sure yet either.

Gtom said:

Fair enough, I just thought it might have been a nice nod to the Carerra GT considering it’s mid engined, silver and has nearly as much power.

Maybe I’m just a bigger chav than I thought!

I'm quite liking flat foot shifting so I'll see if I can burn through the clutch in a couple thousand miles to give a nod to the Carrera GT.

[Escy]

The last piece of the Sport Design bodykit was the front corner splitter parts. I've definately been ripped off by the first place I ordered them from. I ordered from again, this time from Design911 and got them about a month later. I took the bumpers off and took them to a body shop. It took them about 2 weeks to get them painted.

Bumpers off, you can see the big old air filter hiding in the corner.

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Got them back

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There was an exhaust trim piece that I was missing from the rear bumper, after a long phone call to my local Porsche dealership it was available. They relieved me of £200 for it but I'm glad I could get it as it adds strength to the bumper and it was bugging me.

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When I had the front bumper painted I got them to flush the holes where the number plate plinth was. I'm using magnets to hold the number plate on now which I think is a nice solution, easy to remove it when I want for a cleaner look.

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Little video showing the plate fitted and removed.

https://www.tiktok.com/@escygt/video/7134248730139...

Some photos. The colour match is good, I'm pleased with how it looks. I might paint the diffuser style bit black in the future. I saw a photo of someone who had done but it was after my bumpers were painted. Think it looks good.

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[gregs656]

Looks great. I see the Cayenne still doing the business too.

[Bright Halo]

Looking really good!
I’m still amazed at your mechanical engine swap work. I have a standard 986 s and there appears next to no room to work on the engine so how you have done this is just mind boggling.
Great car

[Escy]

gregs656 said:

Looks great. I see the Cayenne still doing the business too.

It's been putting in work lately. It's such a great vehicle. I love it but I don't love the 13.7mpg it's averaged over the last 1500 miles though.

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Bright Halo said:

Looking really good!
I’m still amazed at your mechanical engine swap work. I have a standard 986 s and there appears next to no room to work on the engine so how you have done this is just mind boggling.
Great car

You are correct, there is next to no room to work on a flat 6. They are huge lumps. Most jobs I find are difficult on those engines. I've got plenty of room in my car though. There's good access all around the engine, I can get to the front and both sides from underneath. There are no bulky subframes in my way. Often engine swaps are a pain with random simple jobs being loads of work or requiring the engine out.

I think nearly every single maintenance job is easier than either working on the 2.7T in an Audi or a flat 6 in a Porsche. I can change turbos without pulling the engine, change the cambelt easily, spark plugs in 10 minutes. I've got lucky from a maintenance aspect which is just as well as it's required a fair amount of it!

[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

[TroubledSoul]

Sorry to go slightly OT OP, but I was hoping to pick your brains briefly. I've just seen on a Porsche forum you mentioned a few years ago changing the hard pipes on your steering rack in-situ. I need to do this on my 986 and was just wondering if you could tell me how you managed it? Did you have to remove the plastic pipes that go into the rack just next to the hard pipes? Also, do you remember the sizes of the nuts on the hard lines? I'll make a replacement set myself.

Cheers, and sorry again for the derail!

[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

[The Wookie]

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

[carinaman]

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

[Alfred Pina]

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

[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.

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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)

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

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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.

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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?

[Matt Cup]

How about buying a hard top?

[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).

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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.

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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.

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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).

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These fitted straight onto the door cards no messing about.

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Everything stripped out.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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