Building a 400bhp+ 2.5 ltr 944 Turbo

[PSH]

another update...anyone bored yet?....

First is a warning....SWEPCO 201...bad for 944 especially if fitted with a LSD, in fact having now read what this oil was actually made for rather than what is said about it on the forums i don't like it one bit. So i was experiencing some intermittent handling issues, at times the car felt like it was rolling on pebble stones when moving slowly, even in a straight line... could feel rough at speed and worse still, could swing out when taking fast sweeping bends at speed. My son had warned me that he didn't like how thick it was but I had assured him that it had good reviews from other Porsche owners?. Well we diagnosed the symptoms as a sticking diff and decided to replace the SWEPCO with a fully synthetic gear oil, I was a little horrified to see evidence of wear in the oil when it was taken out, some brass coloured which I believe may be syncro's? , there was no such signs when taking the old oil out which had been in there for a long time, thank god I wasn't happy with the way the car handled and changed the oil as it could have destroyed the diff/box. All is working well now so the diagnosis must have been correct.

The car has now done 2,500 miles on the millers engine oil so it's now well and truly bed in, I have just returned from my son's wedding in North Devon clocking up around 500 miles and she didn't miss a beat, this engine is strong, very strong and when pushed she gains speed at a very rapid rate. I can't get enough of the sound when driving through town traffic, she burbles nicely with many people unable to resist that casual look behind them to see what's coming. As i said she feels very strong, the way she pulls from idle is very addictive, pulls like a large capacity N/A car although I don't fully understand why yet. At speed she is unbelievable, a few more notches to my belt, new 911 Cab tried it on, again coming up from behind on a dual carriageway, I was doing around 80 in fourth, pulled to the inner lane and waited for the 911 to try to go past and then accelerated to match and then completely overhauled him as i moved up to 5th, he tried hard but it was a no contest situation as I pulled away at a fast rate leaving him to wonder why/how? data showed 65% throttle and 1.4 Bar of boost leaving plenty in reserve, I had just let the boost build rather than feel the need to press any harder with the throttle, the car is far too fast to do that. Other notches on the M5....BMW M3 and an AMG merc..M3 was out of his league plain and simple...Merc tried the hardest... I won't talk speeds but just to say i matched his rate of acceleration after first letting him go by so i could identify that he wasn't a plain clothes police vehicle and then let him know that he wasn't that fast with a further press of the go faster pedal. I made up the distant so quick that you would have thought that he was stationery...lol

Used a little oil on this journey( 1/4 ltr), not surprised with the speeds concerned, still loosing coolant although not sure from where...fitted new gaskets to the water housing where the water had been coming from before, I know that the heat matrix had been leaking for a number of years prior to being off the road but never by much, i suspect that this is the main reason and will investigate it when I take the dash out. It also seems that the A/C drain is blocked as I'm getting intermittent water splashes up threw the dash vents, doesn't last longer than a second or two when accelerating hard for the first time and then is gone until the car is next run, like the heater matrix i will take a look at this when the dash is removed...

Pete

 

[blade7]

Not bored yet . Interested in why the car feels quicker now too, perhaps there's less drag with the new rings and they are sealing better in the new bores ?

 

[Worsey]

Top read, keep it coming.

 

[PSH]

cheers guys...yes it is interesting about the cars response which low down is more like an N/A than a turbo...rings bedding in better could be a factor although i wouldn't expect it to make that much difference other than the fact the engine is technically brand new. Other possibilities are the crank scrapper, lighter pistons, extra 100 cc's displacement and the machined flywheel which although it wasn't lightened it was slightly below Porsche's thickness tolerance after machining. As it's running so well I'm just happy in how it performs, the drive ability is fantastic, in fact I'm in two minds as to whether fitting the larger injectors and the more aggressive images is worthwhile not wanting to loose what the car currently delivers..however if it's this good now what will it be like when using it's full potential?...am I hearing the 'more boost' call starting over in my head now....i'm trying to ignore it...honest

Handling is good although the ride quality is a little wanting...my son did warn me before fitting the SO2's that the ride would be harsher due to the harder compound used in comparison to the F1's..i may try reducing the settings on the rear shocks which are currently set at max in an attempt to reduce squat when accelerating , the fronts are already at their softest settings. If the road is anything but smooth you can feel a rumble through the car when driving, more so when accelerating, at first I was worried in case I was feeling engine knock ( my paranoia with a new engine) but the rumble remains when dipping the clutch to coast so it's not the engine, could still be a partially sticking diff but most likely the rear shocks stiffness and the tyre's. This diagnosis was reinforced during my drive back from Devon when hitting a new section along the M5..looked like a newly laid section nearly black in colour, when i hit it the car felt like it was floating on air the road surface was so smooth. I even accelerated harder just to see if i could feel anything but all was ultra smooth on that racetrack like surface....now if only all of our roads were like that....

Pete

 

[944Turbo]

Good stuff! I think you can get to the AC drain by removing the cubby under the stereo(and possibly the stereo) but a long time since mine was blocked!

 

[robwright]

Interestingly enough getting a cold gurgle from the heater vents on mine. But not losing any coolant. Be interested to hear your findings Pete. Had a nice drive down the A1 the other day and a chance to do some live tuning on the Greddy. She is strong, very strong, but obviously not in your league.

 

[PSH]

Good stuff! I think you can get to the AC drain by removing the cubby under the stereo(and possibly the stereo) but a long time since mine was blocked!

Thanks Tony...I'll check it out.....the water was certainly cold Rob....I got a little wet on my way down to Devon...luckily it was clean water as i was wearing light coloured jeans and a white shirt..good to hear your car is performing well..as for my coolant leak I'm going to pop over to my son's garage and let him do a pressure test to find where it's leaking from, should have done this from the start...lol

Pete

 

[PSH]

morning guys..

a word on oil....I can't find it in this thread but I'm sure that I stated that I was trying a millers oil, alas I can't remember which type now...anyway reason for this post is I don't like it. It seems to break down quicker than the Mobil 1 that I'm more used too....my son wasn't keen on Millers from the beginning but I gave it a try anyway as the new Mobil 1 motorsport 10w/60w seemed a little thick for a new engine and the review on millers looked good but I suspect it's more suited to race engines where the oil is changed very frequently. Anyway I'm not saying millers is no good, I'm just saying that I don't think it suits our cars for road use. I have now returned to Mobil 1 and this post is just in case others are using millers after reading this thread......

regards

Pete

 

[blade7]

I've been using the Millers 10w50 CFS for 5 or 6 years Pete, change it every year/3k or so. What it does have is enough ZDDP for our type of engine. Was it the CFS or the newer Millers Nano oil you used ?

Paul.

 

[PSH]

it was the nano oil Paul, can't remember the grade .....iirc covered somewhere over 4k miles, certainly under 5k

Pete

 

[edh]

I thought the Millers CFS appeared to work well in my turbo - certainly the usage rate was much slower on trackdays than Castrol Edge that I tried, which seemed to disappear at an alarming rate (both 10w60 IIRC) Oil changes were fairly frequent, but no reason to think the CFS wouldn't last.

Now on cheap 10w40 for my S2 - oil is one more thing I don't need to worry about any more

 

[PSH]

hi guys

Long time since I've posted to this thread, I didn't know where else to put this and since it's all part of my car I have put it in the build thread. Basically, I finally got around to fitting that enormous K&N filter that I bought some time ago. Naturally, this was done at my son's on his ramp, we had a little play around with the various components under the front driver's wing to see how we could make this thing fit. you may recall that I also bought some reinforced air intake ducting to help. first off we removed the plastic inner wing cover, removed the horns and the brake air ducts and a support bracket that held said air ducts to give more room. The first picture shows the ducting winding it's way under the inner wing and forwards to where the brake duct goes. The MAF has been moved to just in front of the air filter, you may just be able to see it? The ducting then goes through the wing all the way to the alloy tube with it's various connections that connects to the turbo.

Here's a picture to show the top, think I need to find some blue air intake ducting to match the silicone hoses, a job for another day.

This picture shows the bracket refitted and that we have used it to relocate the horns. I have forgotten to take an important picture but shall try and describe what we did with the brake duct. You can see in this picture that the bracket has a right angle now going under the MAF and air filter, this is what the bottom of the brake duct fits too. What we have done is cut away part of the top of the brake duct which the end of the filter cone now sits in to, so the duct is not only forcing air into the brake deflector shield but also part of the air filter which btw is now getting air from all around it instead of just partially with the old filter which was about half its size. The filter in this position is actually sitting a couple of inches higher than the old one was.

The plastic inner arch was then refitted and it all fits.. hooray. Other jobs done, new front brake discs, pads and sensors were fitted and the starter motor was removed, cleaned, lubricated and now doesn't make a sound when cranking over.

all in all a good day, we still have the rears brakes to fit, that will have to be another day, oh and the front bearings were cleaned, regreased and adjusted.

Pete

 

[blade7]

Tom M'guinn on rennlist built an elaborate 3 filter setup that fits in that area Pete. Mounting the filters that low seems to get them filthy with road grime relatively quickly.

 

[PSH]

Yep, they get dirty...it's not that far from the old filter's position but much bigger.

Pete

 

[blade7]

I wonder if the benefit of having the filter in the airflow, are outweighed by how far it is from the turbo? You could get quite a big air filter behind the headlamp if you cut out the steady bracket.

 

[PSH]

No point in putting an airfilter in the engine bay, you are only sucking in hot air. I gave the car a good blast today, well the sun was out... I can feel the extra power, response is quicker too, she is a beast of a car, there's no doubt of that as an Audi on the A41 discovered when trying to undertake this afternoon. I do love letting cars think they are going to shot past and just press the throttle a little further and let the boost build, left the Audi for dust, won't mention speeds. Checked data after, 1.5 BAR boost at 62% throttle...that's all I need to leave most cars behind...., . The MAF being next to the filter must be good too, some times there is a strange feeling when coasting, I think only going downhill, the car seems to pulsate some times, might be due to the length of tube between filter and turbo?...disappears instantly when opening the throttle, I'll investigate this more later, it's not a problem, has no effect on the car's performance, might need a little tweaking of the map? I'll have a play with the laptop later.

 

[blade7]

I take your point about heat in the engine bay, but running the reinforced hose from the front of the car to the hole in the wing would help. Nearly 22lb is quite a lot of boost, what injectors are you running now, and do you have a wideband AFR gauge fitted?

 

[PSH]

hmm.. not sure I understand your first sentence? My hose does go through the 32 hole in the wing? Yes to having a Wideband, that was a very early mod, I have the 'Innovate'. I'm still running on the 'running in ' map...55lb injectors, the other maps with more aggressive ignition are written for 80lb injectors, the car has so much power that I've not felt the need to fit the bigger injectors, well, not yet..

 

[blade7]

Air filter behind headlamp, hose feeding to the hole in wing, from the front of the car. Picture the turbo sucking in air from 2 ft v 5 ft, don't know if that will make a difference. I've got the Innovate too.

 

[PSH]

Oh..I see...Even with a hose from the wing the temp will still be high....add the fact thst the filter is close to the header tank whicj itself is very hot..