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cayman engine change

M

mark414

New member
Hi
I have a cayman s 06 and the engine sounds like it is about to give up the fight for life, lots of oil/soot all over the back of the car maybe bore score maybe ims but I think it would be best to swap out the engine instead of trying to bring it back to life. the engine I have in it is the m97.21 the question I have is can the engine from an 09 cayman engine MA121 fit into the 06 without to many problem I expect the car engine management would have to be remapped thanks for the help with this problem
 
Hi Mark,

Sorry to hear about your engine woes. I presume you're looking to swap your current engine for the later DFI version. While I can't speak with any authority on this, I'm sure it would mate to your gearbox and body without any problems, but I'm also sure that integrating the DFI engine electronics could prove challenging.

The DFI engine uses a different DME unit compared with the earlier cars (Siemens vs Bosch?) and the later engine also includes additional features such as the electronically controlled oil pump and of course the high pressure fuel supply system. At the very least, I would think that you'd need to integrate the DFI engine wiring harness into your car.

Unfortunately I can't think of anyone who might be able to give you any useful advice on this but hopefully someone else on here can help or maybe you could try the Planet-9 forum - the Americans are more into modifying their cars. I think you may be better speaking to one of the established engine refurbishers like Hartech who'll be able to advise you on the options available for rebuilding your existing engine.

Good luck!

Jeff

 
Hi Mark,

In the main I concur with what Jeff has said, Hartech will have a lot of knowledge on the engine change etc they certainly have plenty of history in the repair of the Gen1 from bore scoring etc than most specialists may I also suggest Autofarm in Oxfordshire, they have built at least one 3.8 Cayman Gen1 other changes such as alternative engine, electrics etc they may also have knowledge of. Another source could be the modified register of our own club. It may be easier to change to a 997 Gen1 engine but then you would still have the IMS ( which could be upgraded ) and no DFI but you would have more power and torque.

If you decide to go the rebuild route then Hartech did a rebuilt bottom end, with some modifications and a price around £5K but it was about 3-4 years ago, how much work that included I don't know but they are a good place to start.

Good luck with the work, let us know how it goes.

Since this is your first entry on the forum it may be of help to you to have a signature giving a few details, such as where you are, maybe club region or county, it helps if people can advise of local specialists etc. Many of us who have been on the forum have these details in our Avatar but for some reason these are not available for our own editing but I have raised this with the guy looking after the Media so maybe we will soon be able to do this.

 
The general information I have is that it can be very difficult to match different generations of engine and control electronics.

Pre-DFI mixing is generally easy but 987.2 DFI to 981 DFI is very difficult even though the physical engine is pretty much the same because of different air sensors and an ECU generation change. 987.1 pre-DFI to 987.2 DFI involves different engine and electronics so also falls into the very difficult category.

You can check out BGB Motorsport postings on planet-9 and reenlist threads for more information.

 
I have moved this thread from the technical articles section as it is not yet an article and I think others will find it interesting, I hope that Mark will get his car back on the road ASAP and that whichever course of action he chooses, rebuild or upgrade leads to a technical article on the forum and maybe in PP.

Good options are probably to rebuild maybe with a few tweaks to raise power levels or to replace the engine with one of larger capacity but even a straight rebuild gets him driving his Cayman again which is better than not driving it! As most will see, attempting to change to a later engine could be more difficult while staying with the pre DFI engines is an easier option due in the main to the electronics. Engine changes are not as easy as they once were.

 
Personally I would keep it stock. Two options would be a like for like swap or rebuild your current engine. Also, check Westwood cylinder liners who list products for various Porsche applications.

 
My view on rebuilds is that if a rebore with oversize pistons is possible then ok, I'm not personally in favour of sleeving a cast block, Porsche did it with the first batch of Boxsters but only where there were casting defects and some came loose, which gave them problems at the time. The 3.4S gave 295PS ( 291 BHP ) and the later Gen2 320PS ( 315BHP ) there are tweaks that can be done to give a similar output if that is what is required

 
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