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YOUR RESEARCH996 Performance Mods - Need suggestions
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Install complete exhaust system (headers, hi-flow cats, mufflers)
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We have several 996 owners that have installed our complete exhaust system (headers, hi-flow cats, mufflers) with our Softronic tune that are extremely pleased with the performance gain and improved sound.
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Suggestion
New to the list and also to the 996, recently aquired a 99 in very decent shape with 67k, local indy shop went through it with a few items to fix, but overall a clean bill of health.
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I'm also partial to Softronics as you can reverse the tune or have your map changed via your own computer without having to send out your ecu.
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New to the list and also to the 996, recently aquired a 99 in very decent shape with 67k, local indy shop went through it with a few items to fix, but overall a clean bill of health.
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I think we need to recommend these guys one of the spatula varieties.
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Wait, I thought you weren't supposed to change the crush ring unless you were a virgin.
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Suggestion
New to the list and also to the 996, recently aquired a 99 in very decent shape with 67k, local indy shop went through it with a few items to fix, but overall a clean bill of health.
Install complete exhaust system (headers, hi-flow cats, mufflers)
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We have several 996 owners that have installed our complete exhaust system (headers, hi-flow cats, mufflers) with our Softronic tune that are extremely pleased with the performance gain and improved sound.
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I recently purchased a 2003 996. Needless to say I'm loving it, but now it's time to start doing some performance mods. Those of you who have been long time 996 owners - what do you recommend as the top 3 initial performance upgrades I should make? I'm mainly looking to boost the horsepower and torque.
Please make some recommendations. Thanks.
I purchased my 996 five years ago and since that time I have added the following mods:
After-market wheels 19" (GT955 black centers)
Bridgestone Potenza REO50A Tires
Painted calipers (speed yellow)
Sachs Stage I clutch kit
LuK dual mass flywheel
K & N Cold Air Intake
Fister D Titanium Sport mufflers
Speed Venture X Pipe with 200 cell high flow cats
Yellow DPS Coilover suspension
B&M Short Shifter installed
IPD Plenum
Pick and choose my friend, we all like different things. Enjoy your Porsche
There are not a ton of bolt-on mods that will net appreciable results. You may find that you'll spend a TON of money for minimal gains. So, that's the disclaimer.
1) Intake/Exhaust. There are tons of options, and most of them will make the car sound awesome but will not affect (or may negatively affect) power. This setup has several believers, and 26HP - about 10% - is significant:
http://www.fabspeed.com/porsche-996-...mance-package/
2) Underdrive pulley - the best bang-for-the-buck mod IMO. This does not increase HP, but it does free up power that would otherwise be spent driving all of the accessories run by the serpentine belt. If you do opt for an underdrive pulley, buy one of the more stout/substantial versions. The very nicely designed ones with a lot of material removed have a tendency to shear, which is a big drag.
Note that you will get lots of comments saying that you need to spend your money on a performance driving class because the car is better than you are, blah blah blah. Good advice, but tiresome and a little smug.
Also keep in mind that some mods may have unintended consequences - for example, lightweight flywheels may contribute to crankshaft failure; deleting the cats may result in failed emissions tests; awesomely loud mufflers may cause you to exceed noise limits at some tracks. Do your research before you buy, and ask who is running the mod you're interested in and what their opinions are.
Have fun spending the dough and personalizing your 996...putting your own touches on a new car is always a blast.
Exterior:
GT3 style factory aerokit
Clear side markers
BBS 2-piece factory option wheels
Interior:
GMG Roll bar
Engine:
EVOMS Intake
Performance headers
Fabspeed Cat bypass pipes
B&B Mufflers
X51 oil pan with magnetic drain plug
Third radiator
RSS underdrive pulley
Transmission:
Shaft and main seals recently replaced
Shaft bearings recently replaced
2nd gear pop-out fix
OS Giken LSD
New Sachs Clutch
AASCO Light-weight flywheel
Brakes:
StopTech Steel-spun brake lines
Sebro slotted rotors
PFC 08/06 pads
Suspension:
GT3 shocks
Tarret front camber plate / monoball
GT3 sway bars with new bushings
Tarrett drop links
GT3 alignment and corner balance
RSS Rear Dog Bones
RSS Rear Toe Steer Kit
Other:
Escort 9500ci integrated radar detector / laser jammers
This car is crazy modded yet you would never blink an eye at it... till I turn the key!
Before you mod it drive it... then join a club and drive it at some events. I love my Autocross courses in the Chicago land area. Learn the car first then figure out what you need to do to it.
I had an Evolution Motorsports ECU flash done to my 2002 C4S. Overall, I don't think it was worth the money. I think it did improve low-end torque a little bit, but it wasn't significant. I think that a flash might be more effective when combined with an exhaust and intake modification.
If you don't mind spending the money, then a supercharger is a great way to get more power (and lots of it!).
Agreed!!!
On a serious note, there are so many options out there for you to explore. The most important thing is to make sure that you are spending your money in areas where you will get the most personal enjoyment/$ spent.
Many will say to invest the $ in performance drivings schools, as stated above. While that's great, and it is certainly going to help you exploit the car to it's fullest extent, you have to ask if that is something that will give you the most amount of joy over the biggest time frame for your $.
For me, I spend 95% of the time on the road, so I did simple bolt on upgrades that would allow me to extract more enjoyment out of that environment. Intake and exhaust are things that you will notice every time you jump in the car whether it's on the track or on the street!
At the end of the day, you have plenty of options! Take a look at Fabspeed.com for the exhaust/intake/wheels/tuning portions of your journey and congratulations on the car.
Agree with 5CHN3LL. More track time will make you a faster driver (on the track) but does not increase horsepower. Why is that always a component of the answer? You assume the OP doesn't spend time at the track, and maybe he doesn't, but it has nothing to do with the question at hand.
Also a bone of contention for me is all the recommendations without data. I wouldn't spend a dime on upgrades without something from the dyno.
Of course it's Vanilla. Not only is it the best but accommodates a wider variety of toppin's. I prefer the flavor "homemade" (even though it is not) to French Vanilla. It has a better vanilla taste and not so creamy.
996s are fairly maxed directly out of the box from Porsche. You can upgrade to a 997 short shifter and improve sound with a muffler mod. Suspension upgrade would be a huge improvement in handling.
After the above, save your money for a turbo upgrade.
And this. It's a 3.6 liter engine producing 320 hp at under 7k rpm (just shy of 90 hp/liter). There isn't any magic part (short of a supercharger) that's going to give you significant gains in output.
I think the answer to your original question of horsepower and torque is that there is a lot you can spend but little to achieve as 5CHN3LL pointed out. The rest of the mods are more aesthetic and driving enjoyment rather than power and torque. Driving lessons are also one of those things that you can do it but it may make little impact on your day-to-day driving; still won't increase horsepower or torque.
Important to note that some of these mods may not make any more peak power but some do produce more within the rev band or under the curve where it counts for a street driven vehicle. I'll leave it there as this has been discussed many times before, once again having beaten the dead horse.
My two biggest power gains on a C2 were an LS1 swap and selling the car for a Turbo.
You can make the m96 more efficient with intake/exhaust/tune and dropping weight and you will notice the gains. But the gains are not going to be significant, a stock C5 will still walk you from a roll. If you're considering boost, just sell the car and get a 996TT.
My Z3M coupe is an S52. I should have picked up an S54 version, not because I give a **** about hp/litre, but because the 80hp bump would make the car great.
Totally agree. The engine is pretty much maxed out as is and will take many $$$ to upgrade safely. Remember, its an older engine to begin with. Don't waste your money, bro!
This is a good point...300HP for 3.4L and 320HP for 3.6L. 89hp per litre either way. No efficiency, porsche had to make it bigger to get more HP.
I went with noise makers to enjoy the ride a little more, fister and CAU
Yeah, people seem to overlook the basic math. To get past 100 hp/liter on an NA engine, you have to be willing to spin the engine much faster than our cams support. We're already outside the power curve, when the engines mentioned above start producing their peak power.
Comparing hp/liter is skewed at best. Generally the Germans like to go for more broadband power and sacrifice overall peak power for better driveability and a slight hit in fuel economy while the Japanese generally like to go for peak power and gain a bit on fuel economy.
Just try driving most Japanese cars regularly, then drive any German car rated at less hp.
My civic back in the day was making 180hp at the wheels on a dynojet 246 roller dyno but it was at a peaky 8k with a gutless 110 ft/lbs. All this from a 1.6L N/A engine. You do the math.
Honda had one of the highest hp/ltr piston engines starting back in '88 as they were one of the first to market with variable cam timing prior to the S2000.
Generally all the highest hp/liter will be peaky response and lower torque with higher redline.
Of course this won't really matter as much if you're already starting high as with the Ferrari 458(125 hp/ltr) for example.
Address reliability issues before spending one dollar on performance enhancements. I see cars all the time with 5K worth of bolt on crap that come here with a failed water pump, that led to another failure that could have been avoided with a 5-600.00 preventative procedure.
+996. I see this all the time too. Another thing that doesn't make sense to me are the guys that buy mega-dollar suspension systems but run crappy tires or mismatched ones.
I did this as well, drove it around for a few months. Ended up scaring the bejeegies out of myself in a corner went back around and did a couple more times and decided it was shocks.
M030 ROW fixed it.
Some cool stuff from Forgeline and BBi Autosport on this. May be a little bit for than your initial upgrades, for sure, but might give you some ideas.
http://www.motoroso.com/collectionIt...=551b51c1f3092
1st upgrades for me - cat bypass and ECU tune, sticky tires (Yokohama AD08R), Ferodo brake pads for the track. My car came with M030 suspension but there may be a JRZ suspension in the future. Oh, yea - upgrade engine to a 997.
As other have said, not a whole lot you can do for significant HP/torque improvement, as far as I am aware.
I went with the expensive Fabspeed exhaust mod. They claim significant HP increase, but without before and after dyno on my car, who knows?
For a super cheap mode that makes the car "feel" faster, get a gundo hack mod (basically bypassing part of the muffler).
jp,
We have several 996 owners that have installed our complete exhaust system (headers, hi-flow cats, mufflers) with our Softronic tune that are extremely pleased with the performance gain and improved sound. I will say from my personal experience / observation that the car sounds perfect with this set-up and it's quicker, as well.
John's a great guy with great products. While some other's have gone the China route using revised design over time, I believe John's products are still the same as before. Correct me if I'm mistaken. I've had his muffler and headers before and were very good quality.
I'm also partial to Softronics as you can reverse the tune or have your map changed via your own computer without having to send out your ecu. The cable can also act as a obd reader(ala Durametric).
New to the list and also to the 996, recently aquired a 99 in very decent shape with 67k, local indy shop went through it with a few items to fix, but overall a clean bill of health. I too am looking for exhaust and light/ lens mods. The orange is growing on me on a silver car, I tend to think clear would make it look pale but looks great on darker cars...thoughts? Options, I need options...
Yes indeed! By far the best "performance mod" you can make to your car. That and Porsche valve stem caps. Said to add >10+ HP!! And the car just seems to run so much better. Also, a little known "speed" trick is to align your wheel crests to point exactly at the valve stem.
Well gee, I have aligned the porsche crests, upgraded to blue led valve stem caps, blue ground effects, added the silver/gray/black ghost flames on the doors, flying tiger shark teeth on the nose and the "tschuss" sticker on the back window...still seems to lag...must be the seat belts, will work on this with the wife this weekend!
(Still researching options for a daily driver exhaust upgrade...bad baffle on the drivers side)
I recently bought a 996 and have also considered what mods I might want, so I'm in the same boat as the OP. Car already has a new LN Engineering IMS bearing, new clutch, RMS, and basic maintenance up to date.
It won't primarily be a track/DE car (I have an e36 M3 for that), but I might track it some.
The "old guy" at the local Midas will do the Gundo hack exhaust for $300.
For reliability I'm considering an FVD baffled deep sump oil pan, a third radiator, low temp t-stat, new water pump, new rotors/pads, and a separate set of track wheels/tires.
I'll probably leave everything else pretty much as-is for now.
Sounds like a good list of things to tackle. I wouldn't worry about new rotors/pads right away unless the existing ones are worn more than 50%. For the track you may want to consider a set of aftermarket pads (Ferodo work well for me). The stock brake setup is really good but you may get more fade than you like with the stock pads. You could also consider GT3 brake ducts. Don't forget sticky tires. Oh yea, motor mounts too!
If you take it to the track let us know how it compares to the M3 in terms of driving experience. May be a bit of a learning curve with the engine in the rear.
Just did that a few weeks ago and it makes a little difference for lower end power, car seems to be as happy or more at higher ends, and it wasn't too hard to do.
$30 for the intake boot on ebay (it's a snug fit, but it fits).
$4 for the red stopper plug at home depot.
$4 for a 1 1/2 inch rubber pipe connector to patch up where my oil tube broke off.
I did re-use the hose clamps, but I would think we should be able to get a few re-uses out of them before they stop working.
=)
We all know those big fat tires have a lot of rolling resistance, unsprung weight, etc. So here's an awesome way to reduce that drag and get more performance:
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