New to me 987.1 Cayman S Need some advice

My plan for my "new" Cayman is a lot of AutoX, a 5 or 6 short course track days (see Motorsport 4the Masses ) , and a few full track days a year at Barber, VIR, and Road Atl. From reading this thread: Buying Guide it seems like I have some work to do. I am hoping I can get it done for less than the 10k delta in 987.1 to 987.2 prices. I will be doing most of the work myself. I have been reading stuff for hours on this forum trying to figure out which versions of parts to buy from where. I know I want to add oil capacity, deal with the oil pooling in the heads, cooling the power steering pump, and the VOS issue. The clutch has 98k on it so that is up for replacement along with the flywheel. The shifter cables are original so I will be replacing them. Not decided on a short shifter but it would be nice to do at the same time the cables get replaced. Suspension feels really good on the car so it will be last on the list. I would really love to hear about 987.1's that have had any or all of these updates and where you bought your stuff from. Especially if its not been all that long ago. Thanks Matt

For the 987.1 there's an oil pickup issue under braking, especially under hard right hand turns. I saw it on the track with street tires, while actually monitoring oil pressure, saw the pressure drop under 10lbs, to 0. Suggest the 987.2 ... That $10K delta will be spent after your first oil-related failure, and then some. Mmmv, -PM.

While you are changing the flywheel and clutch do the IMS service instructions from LN Engineering IMS Upgrade Kit for MY06-08. Engine disassembly required and tool kit 106-08.21. - IMS Retrofit - IMS Bearing Kits - Products Since 2002, LN has delivered precision performance parts and services for Porsche engines including Nickies cylinder and piston sets and ims bearing kits. lnengineering.com Get a track alignment with max negative camber. As for power steering problem I found that if I checked and topped off the PS fluid after each track event I had no problems. I went thru 3 complete rack, lines and pump before I found it could be easily controlled this way. With that many track days I would switch to better performance pads for the front brakes. Don't change the rear pads from stock unless you want brake noise. And get a another set of wheels and Bridgestone RE-71R's for AX and track. You can get them as a package with free mounting, road force balancing and shipping from TireRack for around $3000.

Thanks, I will pull that grease seal and keep the PS fluid topped up. I have a little bit of left right play in the right front so I am going do tie rods. Once that is done its off to the alignment guy to see what he can do with it. I am amazed at how good the OEM shocks are after 98k. Any idea if they can be serviced? Did you do anything to address the oiling issues. I was thinking about the larger oil pan/longer pick up fix. Hard to see how an extra couple of quarts are going to hurt. Not too expensive and pretty simple to do. Just need to decide on which one. I need to do more reading about the Air Oil Separator issue and the fixes. Overall pretty impressed with the car.

You'll see how good the OEM's are or aren't once you start some performance driving. Mine hit the tires on first AX replaced with Bilstein sport shocks and H&R springs. Added deeper pan extensor on my 1st 986 , didn't on the others. AOS problems usually come hard cornering and sticky tires. If you start smoking go with the Motorsport AOS..

So for autocross, know the rules where you want to play and modify according to what makes your car faster. Track days are totally different as you will need different tires that provide longer high G forces in the turns and stopping. This is where the deep sump with windage plate and a X-51 baffle system to help control the oil slosh up the side walls of the sump becomes necessary. We have no oil pressure or oil temp gauges to alert you to any trends that maybe happening, so these should be on your list. I have found that the OEM AOS is not adequate for the amount of oil that will be sloshed around, even with the windage plate and X-51 baffles. So a 987.1 Porsche MotorSports AOS version will be required. Many have tried other variants like the 996 Motorsports AOS, but have found the the 987.1 the best at pulling vacuum without being destroyed by oil from the sump. You will need that vacuum to suck the frothy oil from your heads as we only have two oil extraction pumps in our heads rather than 4 in the 9A1 motor. LN suggests a straight tube from the top of the sump to the windage plate rather than an oil/aeration down tube to help any head oil get back to the windage plate without swirl pot impedance, so that is what they sell with their 2 qt deep sump/windage tray/X51 baffle. Brakes need more cooling, so I have found that the 996 Cup GT3 front brake ducts work best. I also have Gt2 brake ducts strapped to the rear LCAs to help cool the rear calipers. As Augie suggests, you may find your springs not up to the task of keeping the wide tires from hitting the wheelwell lips. OEM springs are not manufactured for this task. I use Ohlin R&T coilovers, 400 lbs/in f and 458 lbs/in r spring rate to keep the tires on the track and away from the fender lips. The dual flow technology of the Ohlin shock allows 20 clicks of adjustment focused 60% on rebound vs compression (spring rate comes in here for compression). They are excellent for all around driving, autocross and track. Your track days will eat your outside front tire shoulders as we can only get -1.5 camber without either camber plates or GT3 LCA's. I use additional frame slotted upper f shock mounting holes and Tarett Cup LCA's to provide -2.9 f and -2.5 r camber. The center of the LCA's resides the Red solid thrust bushing, which allows for castor and wheelbase adjustments as well as no movement forward of aft. This really help turn in. Mid corner throttle response is also helped by the sealed monoball bearings both inside and outside. Adjustable swaybars are necessary to help change the balance for all your activities. Each set of wheels/tires will change the roll center f & r depending on the your tires grip rating and tire patch, (wider is better). So you will need both f and r. I use Tarett GT bars. Once you get a feel for your needs, you will find a sweet spot for that set of wheels and tires. Yes, running in the rain does change this setting, so that is an option. I also installed a 996 oil/water heat exchanger, twice the volume of the OEM exchanger to help cool the oil. You will need a center radiator, with a vent upwards to reduce the amount of hot air under your car. I would look at running a 5W-50 oil, like AMS or Mobil 1 that keeps the pressure up during the 30 minute track time. This is extremely important as our #6 rod bearing is oiled through the rear main bearing which really heats up the oil to that bearing. Many blowups happen near the end of the 30 minutes due to #6 rod bear scarring from oil film protection breakdown. Your oil needs to have anti frothing agents to protect against oil shaving cream consistency in the heads. So, keeping the oil cool and thick enough without aeration (oil pressure) to do the job is important. Look at a oil blog called RAT/540 for engine oil wear protection. LN suggests XP 90 10W-40 for race days. I ran it once but found that it will only last 600 miles, so I am using a longer term oil, 3500 miles change interval. Take a look at Jake Raby video on bore scoring as well as oil wear protection. Lake Speed from LN also has a couple of videos that explain the difference between oils for the M97 engine and the 9A1 engines. You need to know this difference before choosing a race oil. Engine and transaxle mounts should be replaced if you want to control your engine weight from moving side to side. I'm using Function First Orange engine mount insert and their transaxle mounts as well. I have experienced a little more NVH than oem, but the effects of these mounts really add to the Kart feeling.

Thank you for taking the time to put that together. I will spend more time with it tonight.

Updates to the car so far: 987 Motorsport AOS with new piping. WEVO Semi-Solid Racing Transmission Mounts AASCO motorsports lwfw Sachs performance clutch LN Engineering deep sump kit A lot of maintenance stuff like the water pump, shift cables, filters, belt, etc. Every fluid in the car has been or will be replaced. Went to 5W-50 motor oil. I did a drive last night taking it easy on the new clutch. Here are some preliminary observations: Definitely more transmission noise inside the car. Not objectionable but there for sure. I didn't notice a lot more in the way of vibration in the cabin. I had to rev the car a bit more to start and rev matching on downshifts. The car feels like it builds revs much quicker and has a lot less resistance to slowing down. The back end feels more stable and planted. This is interesting as I thought it felt really good before. I attribute this to the transmission mounts. I think I will have to be a bit more careful applying power on turn exit as the car wants to rev so fast. I won't know until I get a few hundred miles on it to break in the clutch so I can get on the gas harder. Now its on to updating the suspension. I will do another post on that journey.

So my right front strut bit the dust on a mountain drive. Went from feeling pretty good to pretty horrible. Time for doing the suspension. You mention the Bilstein shocks and H&R springs. Looks like Bilstein has a " B12 (PRO-KIT)" that is the B8 struts and "Eibach Pro-Kit application-specific progressive rate performance springs". TireRack has the set on closeout for $1399. Seems reasonable. How do you like your setup? Would you buy it again?

Many track oriented owners have started with H&R springs, but soon found them too weak to prevent body roll. Adjustable Swaybars are important as well, but the spring rate of the springs are king here. You may find that a good set of coilovers are well worth the dollars as the rear end takes time to install. Ohlins, while much more expensive than B12's kit, offer 400 lb/in f and 458 lb/in r spring rates. Arcflash-(Josh) makes a track version with a much higher spring rates and shock valving to match. That would be the direction I would take. JRZ, Moton, MCS and KW also make coilovers, but the questions is can you make them work for your applications. Ohlins seem to be able to the job and do it well. Yes, they only have one control knob to adjust rebound 60% and compression 40% rato, but that valve is connected to the DFV (dual flow valves) to dampen both high and low speed shaft speeds. Coilovers also allow you to set your own ride height and also cross corner balance your final ride heights. This process is highly recommended.

Yes, after looking at the B12 kit and figuring out it wasn't height adjustable I started looking at other stuff. Most of it at least twice the price. I ran Ohlins stuff on my dirt bikes for a long time. I did web site work for the dealer so getting them re valved was not an issue. Ohlins is also 30 minutes from my house so service is available. My issue is cost / value at this point. After all the stuff I just did, I am a little short on race car money.

Take your time as your suspension is the key to a smooth adjustable handling race car. Engine protection is key, but after that, suspension is next followed by the brakes and brake cooling. By the way, does your light wt flywheel make noise at idle when in neutral, like a rattle? I had the opportunity to change to a single mass light wt flywheel a couple of months ago, when I had my Wavetrac ATB LSD installed. Cantrell Motor Sports suggested that I think about that rattle (NVH) in traffic or on the freeway in stop and go with costing in neutral as the noise is reflected off other cars. I decided against it as it only helps off the starting line or blipping in throttle matching gear down changes. Single mass flywheel is sort of like using a Sprint booster throttle controller. Neigher change the torque or hp of the engine, just in some situations, inertia is applied differently.

I raced off road dirt bikes for almost 30 years and never worried much about power, always about suspension, so I agree. I just don't really understand cars all that well so its going to take me some time to figure out what I want. I have a K swapped CRX to run ChampCar with so the Cayman is going to be 70% daily driver 30% HDPE track car. Yes, there is a rattle at idle in neutral. Also a little gear noise below 3k but I try to spend about zero time below 3k so.... Again, haven't done any full throttle work, but I really like the feel of the lighter flywheel.

I found my old receipts. It was Bilstein Sport Shocks and H&R Sport Springs that cost $1215 including $50 shipping. The only detail they give is -1" front & rear; nothing about spring rates. I wasn't doing a track car. The only reason I replaced the stock setup was the struts were bending and the tires hit them when did my first autocross. I wanted something for the street and autocross without spending a lot. The ride was fine, handling better and no tire problems. Also added OS Giken Superlock LSD when G Box remanufactured the transmission.

We have Fortune Auto Shocks on our CRX and really like them. They make a set of single adjustable struts for the 987. They are $300 more than the Bilstein 's at $1699 (on sale) with springs and they are height adjustable. The platform is modular so if I want to add more damping adjustments I can. I am leaning pretty hard that way. HPT Autosport is a dealer and they are local to me in Asheville. FortuneCoilovers.com 500 Series

The estimated suspension frequency of our cars suggest the front spring rate of 360 lb/in and 520 lbs/in r. This is from an autocross competition section in ******** from a guy who build his car for that application. Try to have those spring rates and valving to match if indeed they custom make each set to your specifications. This guy was concerned about using large spring rates on bumpy tracks, so this rate may be a little light for heavy duty track usage. Many Porsche Cayman Spec racers use the JRZ product with 700 lb/in f and 800 lb/in r. I would not advise this setup for street use. The following is from Edfish Jr post #68 in, STU 987.1 build in ******** autocross Competition section. Using the 3169 weight with 47% on the front plus a bunch of estimated unsprung weights and .96 for the motion ratios I plugged it all into my spreadsheet and got the following: Estimated suspension frequencies, original 600/700 springs: https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/********.com-vbulletin/414x163/cayman_s_old_springs_537f14454af53cb8afa3ebcca0537ade7bed61da.jpeg Estimated suspension frequencies, new springs: https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/********.com-vbulletin/373x152/cayman_s_new_springs_90f81dad7b83f7349e1cc7a2d9c1125908c4c700.jpeg Estimated suspension frequencies, correct springs: https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/********.com-vbulletin/370x149/cayman_s_correct_springs_d6069a031eddf3eb9ba77f66985339abc66b050f.jpeg The original springs were almost certainly too stiff for anything except a smooth race track, as you figured out, at least based on Dennis Grant's 2.2/2.5Hz recommendation for autocross on bumpy lots. The new springs may be a little soft but are certainly in the ball park. The springs rates that give the "correct" suspension frequencies would be 360/520. These are just estimates, of course. The .96 number is a typical one for modern struts but may not be correct for the Cayman and this number is critical. I couldn't quickly find where anyone had bothered to measure the motion ratios and publish the results. https://********.com/forums/images/statusicon/user_offline.gif https://********.com/forums/images/buttons/report.gif

That seems like a really low spring rate for the car. I will go and try to find the post. Thanks