IMPROVING PERFORMANCE

[barrie nunn]

i totaly agree with you ........built quality is important... why the need for all the hp on crappy british roads beats me... i find the cayman pleasing to the eye to look at allbeit spend a few quid on a nice sounding exhaust it does breathe that much easier... id pick a cayman over a scooby anyday

 

[sawood12]

It is very difficult moving from a turbocharged car to an N/A car. My 944 Turbo felt much quicker than cars that were actually much quicker than it (if you get my drift). I climbed out of a Ferrari 360 after a trackday at Donington Park feeling extremely underwhelmed by its performance even though on paper it is a much quicker car than my 944 Turbo was, so i'm not surprised that a Cayman feels slower than a Scooby, but I would bet my house the Cayman is quicker, I know a 944 Turbo is quicker than a Scooby. If its 0-60 thrills you want then maybe a 996 turbo would have been a better choice.

 

[tscaptain]

That all depends on your Scooby![] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_KcPU25YoM Andy F remapped one of mine years ago and with some other tweaks and serious work on suspension and brakes it was fast(er) on both the straight and winding. However, if we're talking standard factory car though - Porsche every time.[8D]

 

[laura w]

Unfortunately the cayman is def a fair bit slower than the sti...with the ppp upgrade...BUT I am starting to care a little less each day I drive it as I get used to the drive! Wanted a turbo but couldn't afford one that wouldn't b too ancient.

 

[bazhart]

Advising caution when someone wants performance is never a recipe for appreciation - but - in our role of repairing the very small numbers of engines that fail - we have had to fix a number of cayman S, 996 3.6 and 997 3.8 engines in which the piston has seized on the thrust side of the bore only. I could stop here and just say - "so don't try and tune it up any more" - but for the benefit of anyone interested in technical development - we have our own technical theory as to why (and have tested some potential cures) believing that it is connected to too high a cylinder wall temperature and the resulting failure of the piston coating and oil film running against the porous Lokasil cast in liner (that in itself is not as good at heat transfer as Nikasil or Alusil as used in previous Porsche high performance engines). Tracing the problem throught the different almost identical engines in the range (from the original 2.5 Boxster) it seems that this particular problem has manifested itself as the engines have increased the thrust load on the pistons by (a) increasing the bottom end torque and (b) shortening the con-rods - while not increasing the coolant flow in line with the increased output - putting the engines nearer to a safe operating limit (although in most cases still inside it). Drivers are not revving the engines as much to get the same level of performance and the piston load is increasing while the coolant pump speed is lower than before for equivalent performance. It is common with this type of failure for it to appear after the coolant flow has reduced a bit (through wear on the pump clearances), bore clearances have increased with running in and wear (creating more blow by and reducing piston cooling), oil degradation (partly influenced by longer oil change intervals) and coolant airating with time while the inner cylinder block gets coated and reduces heat transfer rates - and this seems to be the case with the failures we have seen after some 20 or more thousand miles of use. For cost reasons if we trace back on the power development of previous Porsche engines by specialists - there has been a tendency to use the customer's car as the guinea pig - often with severe intial reliability problems that they have to pay for. Right now we are in the middle of a set of tests - with a similar car - to find out the temperatures in different parts of the engine under running conditions - after which we are testing two different approaches to lowering the temperatures and are happy to publish the results. If this proves succesful then further tuning may be reliable but right now I would await the outcome before putting any more strain on that area by trying to tune up the engine (with the possible exception of raising the revs to produce more power but not the torque or bmep as this should increase coolant flow and oil splash cooling rates). So with these reservations about the Cayman S safe output limits - I would wait a bit until we finish our tests and any other power increases have proven reliable before rushing into something you may just later regret. Working in an environment in which we are enjoying building some highly tuned Porsche engines and involved in Boxster racing and Sprinting - I am really sorry to appear to be a bit of a Killjoy. Baz

 

[Dylan1]

so in summary -dont do it[]

 

[barrie nunn]

hear hear baz

 

[JohnP]

For straightforward performance improvements to your car invest your money on some advanced driver training - and no, I'm not talking IAM or RoSPA. You'll probably recognise the benefits straight away and it's transferrable to any car at no cost.

 

[berty987]

I see that FVD offer a third radiator kit that allows the redundant slot in the S front bumper (unless you have a tip) to be used to give extra cooling. Is this an alternative to redesigning the engine , ie running the temperature lower and having better cooling so avoiding the issues ?

 

[bazhart]

A third radiator would lower the temperature only if the thermostat was also of a lower temperature and if it was you would only need the third radiator if the ambient temperature was really high (not I think in the UK). Baz

 

[Morganbear]

Baz I'd be interested to hear your comments and those of others about using this software to remap the DME...http://www.planet-9.com/news-items/50160-2010-softronic-winter-special.html ? Seems like a relatively inexpensive way of getting a few more bhp., I've a gen1 2.7. Cheers

 

[berty987]

If you are looking for similar or better performance to a subaru turbo then a carrera S or 996 turbo would have been a better choice of car. In buying a cayman you are effectively buying the comparison of the 2.0 non turbo impreza ie the cheaper lower performance model. Thats not to say its a lesser car than a 911 , its just specifically de tuned compared to its bigger brother. If your thrills come from 0-60 times and straight line performance , the cayman isnt really the best choice, a lotus or TVR would have been more akin to your specification. The money you will spend tuning a cayman to give impreza performance is better spent changing to a 911. . The 1000 - 2000 pound upgrades will give you 30-40 bhp 60 at most , which will not give a huge improvement in 0-60 or kick in the back performance hike. Most people start with a simple ECU upgrade for about 500 pounds which gives a smoother power delivery and about 20 hp Next comes performance exhausts , particularly hi flow manifolds with sports primary cats and catless back boxes - about another 10 hp Next up is throttle body and plenum - allegedy another 10 hp or so , but you need the exhaust and ECU remap to get the gains Finally you are into cylinder head work and cams - expect 2-3 k for this work and 20 hp Sports air filters aren't necessary and give no gain on their own. The claimed figures demonstrate increased air flow on a rolling road which is an artificial figure. The gains are short lived as the lower pressure drop which gives the improvment can only be sustained when the filter is new and clean. Within a few thousand miles the filter is close to standard in terms of air flow and ultimately when dirty will be worse.