To upgrade or not?

[mikec]

Hi all, just thought I'd ask in this forum, as the 996 has been around a wee while and therefore had more chance to be modded in one way or another what's the best option for an engine software upgrade for my Cayman S? I see DMS do one and Revo also, both about the same power increase, Revo a bit cheaper but I did hear not so good things about Revo for other makes a while back.
Any help is much appreciated.
Mike.

 

[pwafer]

Just going from past experiences with friend, unless you have a turbocharged car... remapping/chipping performace increases are pretty marginal. I'd expect you'd get a little increase in the midrange as the remap will get rid of all the ECO-FRIENDLY settings, but pound for pound the increase isn't going to be much.

I looked at remapping the 996, but the increase it offered wasn't worth the worry with loosing the comfort of my OPC warantee.

P. []

 

[PGAdamopoulos]

ORIGINAL: pwafer

Just going from past experiences with friend, unless you have a turbocharged car... remapping/chipping performace increases are pretty marginal.  I'd expect you'd get a little increase in the midrange as the remap will get rid of all the ECO-FRIENDLY settings, but pound for pound the increase isn't going to be much.

I looked at remapping the 996, but the increase it offered wasn't worth the worry with loosing the comfort of my OPC warantee.

P.  []

ditto

 

[mikec]

Cheers lads, I knew that I wouldn't see the jumps in power that turbo's get, but it's about 20-25 bhp for the engine re-map, noticable I'd say. Also looking into a Milltek system, another 25bhp or thereabouts, it's expensive but some of my fellow Caymenites have been drooling over the sports exhaust from Porsche, more noise no more power and it's expensive for all you get. I'm just getting a feel of things as I feel like it could be done with a bit more power and before you ask, why not a 911, well I just prefer the Cayman S.

 

[Richard_Hamilton]

Personally I doubt if you willl get 50bhp from a remap and exhaust, but if you do let us know how! Porsche make an extremenly good job of fuel mapping, and their power kits give similar claims with a lot more parts.

One point to note is that the Porsche PIWIS or PST2 tester will detect any changes made to the fuel map in the DME. Part of a normal service is to check for faults with the tester, and if there has been any remapping you can kiss goodbye to a Porsche warranty if you have one. There is a TSB on the subject.

 

[Ian W]

I agree that claims of 50BHP increases from a remap and exhaust are outrageous. If you got +15BHP you'd be very, very lucky indeed. Porsche's own factory power kit for the 996 3.6 has gas-flowed heads, optimised flow around the valve seats, gas-flowed alloy inlet maifolds, better exhaust manifolds, hotter inlet cams and a full re-map. It still only gives +25BHP. Even with the kit fitted there have been mixed reviews regarding how much (if any) real-world performance increase it brings. Extracting twice this increase from a couple of bolt-on silencers and some dodgy software is just never going to happen, period. Even Manthey Racing who regularly extract well over 420BHP from GT3s state quite categorically that they can only get +15BHP from the Carrera engine using 100-cell cats and high-flow silencers with a properly developed re-map.

The worst case (and most likely) is you will end up with a noisier, less reliable, thirstier car that is no-quicker. Its warranty will also have been invalidated and come resale time, nobody will be buying. Not the best way to blow several grand!!

If you forget the performance angle however, then the cars really do benefit from sports silencers in that they simply sound superb.

Finally, one performance 'mod' that does work with the 3.6 engine. Use the best fuel you can. The factory mapping adjusts to better fuel and the differences are noticeable. If you aren't already, use Shell V-Power. Once you've filled up with it for the second time (makes sure all traces of lesser fuel are out of the system) reset your ECU (disconnect the battery for a half hour or so). Once reconnected, the control unit defaults to the 'base' factory map and re-calibrates itself. The better the fuel you use, the less it backs off the settings to adapt and the more oomph you have. After about 20 miles of driving your car will be running better than ever.

 

[pwafer]

I had a CATBACK Miltek on the S4 and it made very little difference to the power. Like Ian_W said, without changing to SPORT 100CELL CATS and a rolling road remap specific to your car, +50bhp is the absolute maximum that could be gain out of the 4.2 V8 in the S4 (and Audi are VERY reserved compared to Porsche maps)

Good luck anyway

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