Blackknight530i 987.1 to 987.2 DFI Conversion/Swap Build Thread

Hello everyone, I'm blackknight530i and I am a swap addict. I've mostly been doing swaps on several different BMW models over the years, but in September 2022, I bought my first Porsche , a 2006 Cayman S in Cobalt Blue Metallic over Stone Grey 2-tone interior with 83k miles. Please keep in mind that the below information is from when I did the swap back in February 2024, so timeline might not match up to these posts. It came with a bunch of track ready goodies on it, including 2qt LN Engineering deep sump oil pan, underdrive pulleys, Soul Performance competition exhaust with catless headers, H&R coilovers, Softronic tune and Numeric shifter cables. I picked it up in Detroit and drove it home to Charlotte, NC. I got about 3 months of driving it before I was seeing a lot more smoke that I would have expected/liked and I would get a slight tapping sound from the driver side. I suspected it might have bore score and so I would drive it less and less, but still loved the car. At one point, it had an issue that I thought might be related to bore scoring, but logically it didn't seem like it. It would have a serious vibration at certain RPMs (2500, 5000, etc.) and I thought it was so bad that I didn't end up driving it for about 5-6 months. I ended up doing some additional research on that and determined that it might be a bad flywheel. I decided to go ahead and change the clutch and flywheel, even though I had records of the clutch being changed from the PO about 20k miles prior, but it didn't appear they changed the flywheel at the time. That turned out to be a completely seized dual mass flywheel. Once replaced, the engine ran super smooth, but still had the same smoking and tapping. I decided it was time to pull the sump and borescope the cylinders to know for sure if it had bore scoring. 5 cylinders looked pretty much like this: Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18 Show Content Cylinder 5 looked like this though: Well, that was back in March of 2023 and I once again decided not to drive the car much. I have changed all of the fuel injectors, vacuum hoses/valves, spark plugs, coils, MAF, air filter, etc. to make sure I have the best air/fuel mixture to try to keep it from getting worse or affecting other cylinders, but I had to look at options for what to do with the engine/car. I started looking into doing a full rebuild with a 3.8 conversion with LN Engineering Nickies, track conversion parts, etc., but was looking at about $20k in just parts and machine work and that was if I built it myself, which I've never done before. I bought Jake's video series and workbook and was leaning towards doing just that, but in the back of my mind, I kept thinking that this rebuilt motor is going to cost me a fortune, I can't really recoup any money from it, and could still blow up again in the future. I decided to consider another option of DFI converting my car by buying a wrecked 2009+ Cayman S and swapping it in. I tried to look for other build threads where others have done this and most focused on race car builds and didn't seem to care if everything worked as it should. I got the service manuals and wiring diagrams for both cars and compared both, along with parts diagrams to see what is the same and what is different between the 987.1 and 987.2. I reached out to a couple of companies that offered this service and was told that they stopped offering it as an option as it never really worked right. I believe the issue that they ran into was that they were trying to only swap in the engine and keep the other electrical parts original. In comparing the wiring diagrams, I can see that there are quite a few differences in the engine wiring alone, but that's not where it ends and I can see how it can quickly escalate into something that could be a lot more complicated than most would want to take on. I decided that I would look for a full donor car and at worst case, swap over everything to my car. That said, I knew there were some things that weren't specific to .1 or .2 cars, like the front control module and the rear control module as well as some of the additional wiring harnesses going to the rear hatch and such. I happened to look on the IAA auctions and found a 2009 Cayman S with 73k miles and a bunch of track parts that had been wrecked in the front and it was only about $12k. I figured I would swap over whatever was needed from it and could sell off whatever I didn't use as well as whatever came off of my 06 that was good and not needed anymore. That way, I could recoup some of my investment and might even get it to a point where I'm not into the conversion much at all. Unfortunately, the PO took off some of the track parts before it went to Auction, like racing seats, harness bar, exhaust and wheels, and it looks like the rear control module, but left the entire black interior, Nine Lives Racing Big "Wang", AST coilovers, and brand new Girodisc rotors front and back. I plan on keeping the stuff that's better than what I have on my 06 and selling whatever's left from the 06. It is a sport chrono car, but not an extended leather interior. Now, that's the backstory, here's the beginning of the swap. Last weekend, my buddies and I started stripping the panels, draining fluids, and otherwise getting the engine and transmission ready to come out of the donor. I plan on documenting everything I do as part of this build thread. My dad has been doing some filming and will be editing it as well to possibly put on YouTube as well, if that goes well. We hope to set up some GoPros this weekend when we start pulling the engine and transmission. This is going to be a big project and at a minimum, we will be swapping the entire main wiring harness, but I've been playing with PIWIS and trying to see if I can change the VIN in some of the modules so I can still get the car inspected properly and make sure that everything continues to work as it should, so stay tuned for that. As with all of my build threads, I hope this helps anyone who might be interested in doing the same, or is at least entertaining for anyone that just wants to follow along.

Yesterday, we got the engine and transmission dropped out of the car. With the prep work we had done last weekend, it was really just a matter of disconnecting the MAF, expansion tank hose, oil filler neck, starter cable, the AC lines from the body and finally, the engine and transmission mounts and it came out super smoothly. Fortunately, nothing broke during removal We even got a chance to clean the engine for likely the first time since it was new. It was filthy, especially under the intake manifold. Just an empty hole in a 987 shell Going to continue pulling the interior today.

Today, we started pulling the doors and dash to get to the main wiring harness. The doors were quite simple and weren't necessary, but did make working on the interior on the lift much easier. German beer while taking apart a German car Still have a lot to pull on this car to get the wiring harness and then we need to do all of this all over again on the blue car.

So, I don't have a whole lot of new pictures yet for this weekend, but we got a ton done. We pulled the rest of the interior out, including the entire wiring harness and dash. We also pulled the back bumper and tail lights to sell, since they were still in great shape. And then, finally, we pulled the AST coilovers and put some old struts with some PVC pipe to simulate springs so we could roll the chassis out to the driveway and cover it up. Pretty much everything on the shell that was worth something has been removed, though we may try to get a tool to remove the windshield in case someone needs a good factory one. We had to leave the control arms, steering rack and a few other items to be able to roll the chassis around, but if anyone needs anything, reach out to me and I can see if I can pull it. The last thing we did tonight was to pull the 06 car into the garage. We will start working on pulling its powertrain next weekend. I did spend about 6-8 hours last night going through the wiring diagrams again and made a spreadsheet of how to make the existing 987.1 wiring harness work with the 987.2 DFI engine and it looks like I'll be able to do it fairly easily. A lot of the wires go directly to the DME on the EFI car, but instead go to the big 30 pin plug on the DFI car, so I'll need to add pins for those wires after cutting the old connectors off and move them to the 30 pin connector. I had already ordered the pins and I have the correct AMP crimping tools and I just bought the hopefully correct de-pinning tool for the barrel pins, so I should be able to make it look factory. There will be a few extra wires that are no longer used on the DFI engine that I'll cap off and tape over, but it should work as it would in a 987.2 . The one thing I'm not sure of is the fuel pump wiring. On the EFI cars, the fuel pump relay output goes straight to the fuel pump and powers it whenever the fuel pump relay is on, presumably whenever the key is in Run mode. On the DFI cars, however, there is a PWM controlled fuel pump controller that is powered by the fuel pump relay, but has an additional wire from the DME that controls the output, presumably, of the fuel pump , or at least the duty cycle. My understanding in how they did this on the BMW e39 M5 vs the 540i is that it's for not running the fuel pump all the time and keeping it cooler, but also for emissions, I think. My guess is that on this car, it should have no problem running with just the relay running the pump all the time, but if there is an issue, I can run that one additional wire from the DME to the fuel pump controller in the cowl area and add the controller. Everything else looks like it should work properly. I've mapped all of the wires needed for the DFI harness and there was a corresponding wire for everything, except for power from Fuse 8 on Row D. That said, I think it's mostly to power the Sports Valved Exhaust and since it is also Terminal 87, which is on Fuse 6 and 7 on the fuse panel, I should be able to grab it from there instead. I don't even have the valved exhaust anyways, so I think it will be ok. After taking apart one car so completely, I'm not really in a hurry to do the same on another, so if I can get by without it, I'll be much happier. Plus, there are some options my 06 has that the 09 didn't, so I would have had to add those harnesses anyways. I won't have TPMS unless I add it later, but I don't really care anyways. Next weekend, I hope to have the powertrains swapped at least, then I'll start on the wiring. Wish me luck!

Wow, what a busy weekend. Earlier in the week, I had took the car on its last drive with the M97 in it to my buddy's shop and had the A/C system evacuated so we could get started this past weekend on removing the engine. We started by draining the fluids, disconnecting and removing the axles, separating the hoses, cables and connectors. The engine wiring harness was pushed through the rear firewall hole. It's amazing just how long it takes to drain all of the fluids and get access to everything. I think we got about 4 gallons or so of coolant out of the system, which isn't even the full amount, but is still about the same as my Range Rover's cooling system, LOL. We were able to drop the engine and transmission using the lift table again, just as we had with the 09, and this time it went smoother since we knew what we were doing . This time, we didn't accidentally forget to disconnect the battery cable from the top of the engine, LOL. We did, however, almost forget to disconnect the engine bay exhaust fan. We were able to do some cleaning up in the engine bay. The heat shields in the back have quite a bit of Cosmoline that was very stubborn to remove, but it came out much better than it was. After we replaced a couple failed power steering hoses and a bad motor mount on the MA1 engine, we got to installing it. This was a bit more complicated than removing it, but worked in much the same way. We did find that there were a few clips and such on the firewall (for the front O2 sensor connectors to mount to) that I think are in a different location on the 987.2 and needed to be removed for clearance. We also discovered some other differences in the power steering lines and clutch lines under the middle of the car. The 987.1 uses threaded disconnects between the rear sections and front sections, while the 987.2 uses a quick disconnect fitting instead. I even bought the special tool for the quick disconnects before I realized that I didn't have those type of hoses. That said, I wasn't going to be able to connect them together, so we needed to swap the front lines from the 987.2 donor car. This was pretty simple for the power steering lines as they just unbolted from the rack easily and unclipped from the bottom of the car. The clutch line, however, was "damaged" when we were removing it from the donor car due to me not thinking I would need it and cutting it where it came through the inner fender. I need to order a new one, which at first seemed like it was going to cost a fortune at nearly $400, but after some additional searching, I was able to find it at a Las Vegas Porsche parts supplier for $160 shipped. Not bad, but could have been avoided. Ugh. The other thing we discovered is a decent bit different between the models is the parking brake cable system. On the 987.1, they are very "loose" in the corners and kind of just rest on top of the trailing arms, but on the 987.2, they have a rigid tube that they go through and they get held against the firewall tightly all the way to the corners, then have a sharper bend towards the back of the car. Unfortunately, we didn't realize this until after we had already installed the engine. I think we will be able to swap them with the engine still installed, but it's going to be tough. The last thing to mention is the DME mounting location. I knew the new DME was bigger than the old one and even knew that they used an adapter mount to rotate the DME to fit over the triangular structure in the rear of the car, but when I tried to install it, it wouldn't line up with the studs. Turns out that in the 987.2, there is a clearanced section to allow it to fit. I considered cutting that section of metal out of the donor car and welding it into the blue car, but before I went through all of that, I decided to see if a hammer would do the job well enough. It's all going to be covered with carpet anyways, so no big deal if it doesn't look perfect. Well, it worked great! 3lb hammer for the win! I may have actually clearanced it a bit more than was required, but I think the factory did as well. And here is the new MA1 engine "mechanically" installed into the car. Still have quite a bit of things left to do and I'll be working on the wiring this week most likely. I'm hoping I can get the new DME wired up and either figure out how to program it to the car myself, or maybe be able to have Porsche do it for me as a last resort. I can at a minimum use the 987.2 modules in place of my 987.1 modules, but the hardest one is the steering lock module and I'd love to not have to remove it. Ok, if anyone needs a M97.21 3.4L engine with 86k miles and a bit of bore scoring on Cylinder 5, let me know. It has brand new fuel injectors, spark plugs, coil packs, clutch, flywheel, MAF, changeover valves, main throttle body section of the intake, underdrive pulleys, and an LN Engineering 2 qt deep sump oil pan with X51 baffles. I also have the full Jake Raby M97 rebuild DVD series, workbook and torque spec books to go with it or separately. The 6-speed is also available as well and works exceptionally well.

Well, the last week or so has been quite busy and a lot of progress has been made. The main thing is that I was able to get the wiring changes for the engine harness done during the week, which involved moving some pins from one connector to another, shortening some wires and putting new connectors on them, and removing some unneeded wiring. The biggest help was having the proper de-pinning tool for the round pins used in the DME connections. It is a BMW tool and I purchased it from Global Imports BMW in Atlanta, GA. The part number of the tool is 83-30-0-495-385 and I found it at the lowest price here: https://www.atlantabmwparts.com/oem-...10-83300495385 It looks like this: The pins needed are: BMW part number 61131376202 for the smaller wires (I bought about 30 of these), and grab about 4 of these 61131376206 for the 4mm^2 wires. You will need an AMP type crimp tool for these pins and I had to search around on Ebay for a good tool for a reasonable price and found the AMP 90124-2, which worked very well, but doesn't quite crimp the sheathing completely, so I needed to use some pliers to tighten them down a bit more. Without going through a lot of money and time, I figured it was good enough. I did just order an AMP Type F 22-18 and 20-18 tool to see if they work better, so if they do, I'll update you all here. You don't necessarily "need" to buy any connectors since you're basically shortening most of the wires and/or moving them from one connector to the one next to it, but there is one you might want to buy. The white 12 pin female connector that goes from the old engine to the body harness can be cut off and used to extend the wires a bit, or you can do what I did and buy a new white connector and use some extra wire you have from various parts cars that have the same wire colors and extend them without soldering/splicing. I went to the local LKQ and cut the connector off of an e39 BMW in the e-box and got it for super cheap, but you can buy them new for about $5 as well. It is BMW part number 61131378139. Since I have not finished testing will these wiring changes and started the car, I will hold off posting the wiring change spreadsheet for now. With that done, we moved on to finishing the mechanical stuff we had left. This was installing the 987.2 axles, headers, crossmembers, reinforcement plates, etc. What we didn't expect would be a major problem, but is, is the parking brake cables. In hindsight, these are 100% meant to be installed, well the part that goes through the firewall, with the engine out of the car. We didn't even know they were going to be a problem until after we already had the engine installed and we really didn't want to pull the engine again, but really should have. First of all, I mentioned in a previous post that these are of a different design and that there is a channel made in the firewall to accommodate the metal tubes that they go through that allows them to sit further forward of the engine, which isn't on the 987.1. This is a slight issue, but can be worked around, however, it does make the cables a bit too long and they bunch up, causing the passenger side cable to rest on the catalytic converter. I am thinking I'll need to shorten the tube a bit to relieve some of that bunching. In order to swap them out, we actually had to cut the silver guide you can see in a previous picture with a sawzall because the clearance to the front of the engine is so tight. We also had to unbolt the front engine mount and transmission mounts and move the engine back about a half inch or so and remove the front crank and tensioner pulleys to get enough room. It was still a nightmare. Point is, if you're doing this swap, do it before installing the new engine. Another thing that causes some clearance issues are some studs on the firewall that were used for clips that try to push into the high pressure fuel pump on the engine and need to be cut off, as well as the coolant expansion tank pipe that goes to the center tunnel from the tank is routed differently to clear the front of the engine. The new engine just sits so much closer to the firewall, it's crazy. I'm still waiting on the replacement clutch line and brake booster hose to come in so I can button up the hoses and pipes and start filling fluids and changing oil. I was also able to start programming the car to think it is a 2009 and even got some help from my local Porsche dealership to get the immobilizer codes for both cars, but unfortunately, I was so far unsuccessful in getting the new DME changed to the old immobilizer. The first thing I had to do was code the Gateway module to be a 2009 before it would even talk to the new DME, then do a vehicle handover procedure to tell the car what all it has and update the VIN in the modules. This seemed to work, but again, without the DME having the correct immobilizer code, I don't think it will start. I haven't tried to start the car yet though, so we'll see. The good news is that I found out I can change the VIN in each of the modules, so if I need to use the 2009 modules, I should be able to make them show the correct VIN of the car so an inspection station shouldn't have any trouble with it. I also still need to swap out the PSM unit since it is throwing some error codes for it. I'll also need to wire in the newer yaw rate sensor under the center dash. I feel pretty confident I'll be able to make it work since I can talk to all of the modules in the car just fine and have very few error codes as it is. Till next weekend!

Chipped away at a bunch of smaller items over the last few days, mostly today though since I had the day off. First, I got the clutch hydraulic line changed out on the front end going to the cowl area with the 2009 version. Of course things are different. I had to get a step bit and drill the hole to the wheel well to 22mm as it was too small for the larger quick disconnect fitting to fit through. I used the grommet from the 2009, which fit perfectly: Then it was putting the rear section going to the slave cylinder, which was very tight to do while the engine was in the car, but doable. Next I needed to figure out a solution to the parking brake cables as they still weren't fitting right. The issue was that the rigid section of the cables were slightly too long and would bow towards the catalytic converters. This is because the tubes aren't as flush to the firewall as they would be on a later car that has the channels shaped into it. My solution was to pull the cables out and use a dremel to cut about 3/4" or so (I did each one individually by putting the cable next to the tube and seeing where it naturally would sit), then cut that off the metal tube section. This allowed the rigid parts of the cables to sit much more natural and now they stay on top of the trailing arms and don't bow towards the cats. In this picture above, there was a panel below the exhaust fan that was pushing up against the passenger side head and needed to be removed. It is not on the 2009 and once I removed it, it allowed me to swap the expansion tank hose that goes from the center tunnel to the tank and routes around the side further away from the engine than the old one. It's crazy how many parts I have needed from the donor car. This would have been a nightmare without a donor car. Then I installed the stock exhaust I got from a local member on Facebook Marketplace. I'll work on finding a fabricator to rework my Soul exhaust later, but for now, this was cheap and will get the job done. I can even swap my Soul tips to it if I really wanted to I did a bit of wiring changes on the PSM. I decided that instead of swapping the entire PSM module with the hydraulic unit, I would just swap the electronic module, since from what I can tell, the hydraulic parts are identical. This also meant changing the yaw rate (lateral acceleration) sensor mounted behind the center console center stack on the floor and rewiring it. Fortunately, the wiring all goes from the sensor to the PSM module on both for power and ground, but on the new sensor, the data wires go to the CAN bus instead of directly to the PSM. I decided that since the PSM also connects to the same CAN bus wires, that I would use the wires already going there and splice them into the CAN wires on the PSM connector. Then I had to de-pin and move the pins over to a 4 pin version of the connector for the sensor instead of the 6 pin version the old sensor used. Fortunately, I had a bunch of these connectors lying around. It is the same connector as the one going to the Homelink module, which I stole from the parts car. The pins fit just fine, so no cutting/splicing needed to be done in such a tight area. Ground goes to pin 1, CAN low goes to pin 2, CAN high goes to pin 3 and power goes to pin 4. After doing all of this, the only error I'm getting from the PSM module is steering angle sensor needs to be initialized. For some reason I can't figure out how to do this in PIWIS. It keeps asking for a code that I don't have. I've never had that issue with the BMWs I've dealt with, so if anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Also got the O2 sensors installed. The clips on the rear crossmember worked fine for the post-cat O2 sensor connectors, but unfortunately, for the pre-cat sensors, the plastic holders are relocated to the side sills a bit under where the parking brake cables are shown above and there are no studs for them to mount. I'm not sure yet what I want to do here. I could just zip tie them to something solid, but I'd rather do rivnuts or something. I just can't get in there to do that. Might be able to weld some studs, but again, it's very tight and I'm not that great of a welder. I'm getting very close to trying to start the car, but I don't think it's going to work until I figure out the immobilizer issue on the DME, or swap the immobilizer, and steering lock.

Got a few more things knocked out this weekend, though didn't work on it Saturday due to an event I went to. Got the oil changed, power steering fluid filled, carpets cleaned and seats installed, along with all of the panels and carpet sections that we had removed. Leaving the top panel open so we can fill the coolant using an airvac system. Also, was able to start the engine for about 2 seconds, telling me the immobilizer is killing it. It runs great for those 2 seconds though, LOL. I think the issue I'm running into with programming the DME is that even though I have the correct codes from Porsche , my PIWIS is not connected to their database and I assume that it needs to verify the codes, which is why I keep getting a "security access denied" message when trying to change the immobilizer code. I suspect that I will need to take the car when done to Porsche and have them do it there. That said, I went ahead and taped up all of the wiring harnesses I modified in the back so they look OE again. I think it came out pretty good: Not much left to go on the car. Need to fill the coolant, mount the O2 sensor connector things, install a missing seal on the clutch line fitting under the car, and finish swapping the front rotors to the Girodisc ones once I get the new spacers today. Somehow, we ended up losing the two spacers from one of the calipers needed for the larger Girodisc rotors. I bought some 1/2" thick 1/2" ID x 1" OD 304 Stainless spacers from EXTSW.com, same as I've bought for my M5 when I put Porsche rear Brembos on the rear of it and they worked great. They seem to be about the same size as the two I still have, but I bought 4 anyways so they'll be the same. It's been only 5 weekends since we started this project and that included stripping the donor car completely, so I think we're doing pretty good on time. I suspect another weekend of work and a trip to the dealer and it should be good to go, so long as no big hurdles come out of nowhere. Again, worst case scenario, I can still swap the immobilizer and steering column lock and use the other keys, but I'm really hoping I don't have to. If this works, it will make it a lot easier for others in the future to do the same, which given the failure rates of M97s lately, I would think might happen a good bit more.

Well, everyone, I honestly can't believe it, but I got to, because I'm looking right at it. I found out I was using the wrong procedure in PIWIS to change the immobilizer code in the DME and once I found the right one and changed it (super easy), it started right up and it's running beautifully so far. I'll have to do some more checks on it once I can drive it out of the garage, but the only code I'm seeing so far is for the PSM saying the steering angle sensor needs to be initialized, which should clear once I drive it down the driveway. Once I have confirmed everything works as it should and drive it down the road, I'll post the procedure instructions from PIWIS on how to do it. You only need the immobilizer codes from the old and new car, so reaching out to your local Porsche dealership should work fine. I only needed to give them the two VIN numbers. I'm not done yet with the car, but so far, it looks like the swap/conversion is a success!

I have confirmed that the oil level display on the .2 cluster does work after making the required changes to the wiring behind the cluster (moving two pins and adding a new sensor ground to the existing one. That was one thing people mentioned didn't work when they did a swap like this. So far, everything seems to be functioning properly. I still need to get it hot enough to turn on the exhaust fan to make sure my wiring works there, but I suspect it will be fine. Coolant temp seems to be solid in the middle of the gauge since I vacuum filled it. I'll keep checking the fluid level to make sure I don't have any air pockets. I did fill it with 4.5 gallons of fluid and I never fully drained the radiators, so I figure that makes sense. I did have the heater on full hot and let it get to full temp, but again, until I drive it down the road to check properly, I won't really know for sure. Does anyone with a 987.2 know if there is supposed to be a rubber sleeve in the clutch line connection point under the driver seat area? I can't remember if there was one there when I disconnected it from the donor car, but when I went to install it, it isn't there and it doesn't seem like the connection is very "tight". The power steering connections do have it and there is a part number for it, but I don't know what could have happened to it. I don't want to fill the clutch fluid until I know for sure. I've got the sleeve ordered, but they haven't shipped it yet, so I doubt it will be in before this weekend.

Hey everyone, I have confirmed that the car now drives. I decided to pressure test the clutch line and see if that seal was needed and apparently, it's not. Filled the clutch line and bled it and that all works fine. Took it for a drive around the neighborhood last night and it seemed to do fine with no strange noises. Decided to take it down the road on my usual test loop and it did something crazy. Once I got to about 45 MPH or so, the instrument cluster lit up like a Christmas tree. ABS, PSM, System Fault, check engine light, spoiler control, etc. failure and speedo stopped registering. Car still seemed to be running fine, so drove it back home. Checked the codes and basically, everything seemed to be pointing to the PSM module taking down the CAN bus . Nearly every module that talks to the PSM had an error message saying PSM signal implausible and the PSM had an error for wheel speed monitoring implausible or something like that. I cleared the codes and went out for another drive and did it a few more times and every time, it seemed to do the same thing around the same speeds. This morning, I decided to check the ground wire I was using for my rate of turn sensor wiring as I kept it using the GND Out from the PSM, which doesn't actually connect directly to a body ground it seems. I added a new ground wire to the ground post and took it for another few drives and it kept doing the same thing, though this time it seemed to only throw up the PSM related lights on the dash. Not sure if that means anything or not. Since the lights went away every time the car was shut down and started back up, I figured it's nothing wrong with the actual wiring or sensors, so I decided to try putting my old PSM module in and see if it still does it. This is where things get interesting. The first thing that happens is I get a PSM failure as soon as the car starts due to the Rate of Turn sensor not being the old one wired up like the old one and steering angle sensor needing initializing. That said, no other ABS or engine lights and speedo worked fine. I took it for the same drive and had no other errors at all. I was able to drive fully up to speed and brake hard with no ABS lights, system faults, check engine lights, etc. I could "live" with this, but I'd really like to fix it and I am at the point where I think I may have a faulty 2009 PSM module. My question for everyone is, have you seen any issues like this in a non-swapped car? Does my thinking seem plausible? Can anyone think of any other differences that could be causing my issues? The only other thing I need to test is the air conditioner, but I'll need to do that once I get it filled with refrigerant again.

Well, I have excellent news everyone! I swapped the gateway module and programmed it to the car and it seems to have fixed all of the remaining codes and issues. The 2009 PSM module is fine, even with the original 2006 hydraulic unit. I even noticed that even though Sport mode would turn on before, it didn't seem to really change the throttle response before. Now, it makes a big difference. So, to break down what I needed to swap over from the old car: Engine Exhaust Transmission and transmission mounts Axles Clutch and Power Steering lines all the way from the engine to the respective units DME with bracket to mount it Underbody tray and the mounts on the reinforcement bars for just the engine (middle undertrays can stay original) Instrument Cluster PSM module Rate of Turn sensor Gateway module Parking brake cables and tubes on firewall Any non-engine related performance parts from your donor car Coding that is required (Assumed you'll change the VIN in all modules you swap): Gateway module - Have it read out the present modules and set it to the required installed list. This removes errors for things you may not have (eg. TPM, Dynamic Cornering Lights, Seat Memory, etc.). Also make sure it stays coded for a 2009+ model. PAS - Read out the serial number from the Actual Values and write this to the DME DME - Change immobilizer codes from the "Program Immobilizer Codes" section of the Maintenance Repairs section of the DFI DME Instrument Cluster - In addition to programming the VIN, you can use an Xtool X100Pro2 (use that one specifically) to adjust the mileage to your current mileage I believe that's all that was required. Wiring changes are in the PDF files attached. I wanted to post the Excel file, but this forum won't allow it, so PM me if you need an editable version. This will require a lot of going through the wiring diagrams in PIWIS to understand how things are routed, but so long as you move or change the pins from the right column (2006 connectors) to the pin number on the left column (2009 connectors). There are quite a few wires on the old DME connectors that aren't used anymore and will need to be cut and capped off with heatshrink. I bought a label maker and heatshrink that can be printed on and used that to cap the wires so I know what they are in the future. You'll also need to add one wire on the instrument cluster that splits the oil temp/pressure sensor ground to two separate pins (just splice into the existing ground and put both wires into 27 and 28 on the connector. The other wire that changes is pin 22 goes to pin 11 on the cluster. For wiring, I bought the round pins from BMW that fit in the connectors we're using and bought the AMP/Tyco tool 47566, which does AWG 20-18, and was able to do pretty much all of the wires required, but there were a couple large 4mm^2 wires that would need a bigger crimper or you can use pliers if you want. The pins I bought were BMW part numbers 61131376202 and 61131376206. I got about 32 of the 202s and 5 of the 206s to have some extras. You will also want the de-pinning tool that I bought from Global Imports BMW in Atlanta, which is part number 83-30-0-495-385 (aka Release Tool 813010). This made removing the pins so easy and most I could just depin and move from one connector to another. For the connectors, to remove the pins, you might need to remove the rear "guide" piece from the main housing. This can be a bit tricky, but look at the base of the guide for some tabs and start on the opposite end. Use a small flat blade screwdriver to pry one side's clips at a time, then go to the other side while trying to keep your first side pulled so it doesn't clip in again. Then you should be able to slide it out of the little tangs you saw initially and it should slide out over the wires. I did this for each, but I'm not sure they actually keep the pins held in, so you may be able to just use the de-pinning tool with those in place. This is mostly documenting it for me personally, but is also for anyone else considering this swap in the future. I would like to eventually do a new thread with a true HowTo guide with pictures and more descriptions, but that can wait for a while. I want to enjoy the car for a bit. I'm hoping A/C will work properly as well, no codes shown for it, but I still need to get it refilled. Hopefully this week since it's getting warmer again.

So, last Thursday I drove the car to my company's dinner event and it drove there and back beautifully, about 30 miles or so roundtrip. Then, Friday morning, when I was on my way to work, I didn't get even 1 mile down the road and the dash lit up again, same issue with the PSM and causing system electrical fault, etc. I decided against driving it to work, let alone to Raleigh for the weekend. I had already ordered a used PSM module earlier in the week and it wasn't supposed to come in until Tuesday, but it ended up coming in Saturday instead. I got home last night and installed it this afternoon and so far, it seems to be back working, with no issues. I still can't figure out why it went such a long distance last week without issues, then was instantly repeatable again the next day, but this time, I haven't been able to get it to repeat the issue. So far, it's looking like it was a bad PSM module. I also just ordered my new personalized plate. I was going for 987.1 /2, but NC requires at least one letter, so I went with 987.1 /2C. I think people who know the car will understand

Hey everyone, I'm running into another issue. I got the car filled with refrigerant for the A/C the other day, but we were unable to get the compressor to turn on to test it. I later came home and tested it by taking the wire that goes to the climate control unit and disconnecting it from the control unit and instead grounding it and the compressor came on and a/c is nice and cold. Unfortunately, the A/C off button does nothing and I'm not sure the compressor cycles this way. I know that in the 987.2 , according to the wiring diagrams, that they got rid of the A/C relay and it is no longer triggered by the DME , but I can't figure out why the compressor won't work when wired the same way as the 987.2 . I've checked the wire from the control unit and it seems to supply 12v no matter if the A/C off button is lit or not. Considering that it's a ground that makes the compressor actually turn on, I need to figure out which wire is correct. If anyone has any insight as to what wire is correct, I'm all ears. I should also mention that I've tried both the 987.1 and 987.2 climate control modules and have tried both locations for the A/C compressor voltage wire (pin 16 on red connector for 987.1 and pin 14 of black connector on 987.2 ) and both do the same thing, output 12v.

No matter what configuration of the wiring I do, the "Compressor Voltage" wire, which is the only one going to the compressor from the climate control unit, shows 12V. The other pin on the compressor is a black with gray stripe coming from the heater relay under the dash and is the same on both 987.1 and 987.2 , which is a switched 12V when car is on, so it can't be what cycles the compressor on/off. The only thing that makes sense would be that the black with white stripe wire from the climate control unit is supposed to switch from 12v to ground when it "activates", then back to 12v when it "deactivates", but it is not doing that. I did some more diagnosing today and am still no closer to getting it working, other than by connecting the climate control wire to a permanent ground, which seems to work fine, but may freeze the evaporator coils. When using the 2006 climate control unit, I get an error code for the outside air/recirc. flap motor, which does seem to be getting some clicking noises, though didn't have a problem before from what I recall. That is the only error code I'm getting though. Not sure if that would disable A/C or not, but I do get a CAN Shutdown = Yes status. Using the 2009 climate control module, I get an error message for the NTC (evaporator temperature sensor) and the seat temperature sensors (since I don't have cooled seats). This is with it coded for "external" under A/C Compressor in PIWIS . The 2006 unit can't even be set to "external". If I program the 2009 unit to "internal" like the 2006 unit, I get an A/C Handling (implausible signal) error, but the NTC error goes away. Since the 2006 doesn't seem to use an evaporator temp sensor, I'm thinking the "internal" and "external" have something to do with this. I've tried every combination I can think of with coding and moving the compressor voltage wire to the two different locations and nothing seems to make it work any differently, other than the error codes I get. I think the only thing to do at this point is to either try to wire in the NTC sensor to the existing wiring without removing the heater box, or replace the heater box entirely with the newer one and use the newer module. That is going to be a nightmare to do though as it requires pulling the entire upper dash, passenger air bag, and center tunnel frame. It also requires evacuating the R134a again and re-bleeding the coolant since the heater core has to come out as well. The good news is that since my current heater box is blowing foam at me from every vent, at least I could repair that properly at the same time.

I'm getting 12v on both sides, which doesn't turn the compressor on. I would think it would either be an open circuit or ground, which is how most any other switch works. I can't even get the output from the climate control module to change when turning the A/C off button on or off. It's like I need to wire in my own on/off switch and put it in-line between the ground and the compressor signal, but that is not very elegant. I think I'm going to try swapping the heater boxes since the later one has the hole for the evaporator temp sensor already, as well as a slightly different wire harness including that connector, plus it has good foam. I think I'm going to preventatively replace the foam on the flaps while I have it out of the car though so it doesn't fail like the one in my 2006 has. I just hope that by having the evaporator temp sensor hooked up that it allows the A/C compressor to turn on properly. I would test it by just adding the temp sensor to the existing wiring, but of course, they used a different type of connector and the pins don't fit.

Ok, figured out the issue and also how to solve it, which is what I thought it would be. I decided to go ahead and test with the evaporator temp sensor wired in temporarily and used the 2009 climate control unit, coded for "external", which I found out is for the externally controlled variable displacement compressor that is used in the later cars, while "internal" is for the internally controlled variable displacement compressor used on the earlier cars. It works as expected. That means that if I swap the heater box or retrofit the evap temp sensor into my existing box and add in the wiring, it will work. Now, I guess that means I'll be swapping the whole box over because if it has to come out to retrofit the sensor, I may as well swap the whole thing, and it should fix the issue with the foam and the outside air flap motor failing. The other thing this means is that I need to use the 2009+ climate control module, which doesn't fit in the center stack frame and is black instead of gray, so it also means I need to swap the button panel and pocket, along with the frame for the center stack. Not a huge deal though since the frame needs to come out to change the heater box anyways, but now I also need to see if I need to get a different aftermarket radio frame for the 987.2 center stack. I feel like after this is all done, I'll have swapped nearly everything over but the main wiring harness, LOL. Again, super glad I had the whole donor car to figure all this out.

So... this escalated quite quickly. I was hoping to not have to strip apart another dash, but this is what was required to swap the heater box. This is all so I can add one sensor to the front of the heater box that isn't on the older car so the A/C will work properly. It did allow me to fix the spraying foam issue that plagues these cars, so that's good. We got it all taken apart yesterday and today will be putting the new one back in. I hope I remember where the nearly 100 T20 torx screws go, LOL. At least 99% of them are identical and I know where the other 1% go. I am truly amazed at just how many of them there are though and how hidden a lot of them are.

We got most of dash put back together yesterday, but I think I'm sore in nearly every muscle, LOL. It takes a lot of contortion to get everything in there properly. Upper dash is in, but I found that you have to install it in a certain order. For example, you need to have the passenger airbag in place and plugged into the wiring harness, but not actually installed because there's a lip on the back of the upper dash that has to go over and behind it, yet the dash has to go in straight forward, so the airbag is in the way if it's installed. Of course, then there's the duct for the right side vent that is in the way of properly installing the airbag once the dash is in. We got it, but it's a pain. We also go everything under the hood buttoned up. I only lost the amount of coolant in the heater core and a small amount from the hoses, so I think bleeding it should be simple enough. I even thought of pre-filling the heater core, but figured it wasn't really worth it. As for how it compares to other cars, I've not gone quite that far into an interior before and had to re-install, but I have done plenty of dash swaps on e39 BMWs and I will say there are a ton more little t20 torx screws that hold the dash in than the BMWs. I can have a BMW e39upper dash out in probably an hour or two.

The dash is all back together and now has the black 987.2 center stack modules since I needed the newer climate control module. I did have to change the wiring for the button panel below the climate control a bit. The newer button panel uses a 20 pin connector instead of the older 16 pin. Fortunately, the pins are identical, so I bought a 20 pin connector and housing on Ebay (still not interested in cutting up the main body harness from the .2) and swapped the pins over. They all go in the same numbered positions as they were in the 16 pin connector, but pay attention to what I said. The positions physically will change since 1 row goes from 1 to 10 instead of 1 to 8, so make sure you keep the numbers the same, not the "positions". The one change that needs to be made that is for the button panel, but at the PSM module. The PSM Off light wire needs to change from pin 46 on the PSM connector to pin 38 on the .2 PSM module. Why they needed to move this wire, I don't know. Everything still functions just fine, it's just the indicator light that tells you PSM is Off. PSM Off still shows on the dash. I haven't reinstalled the panel on the driver side of the dash and the A-pillar yet because I'm still waiting for my power cord for my Valentine 1 hard wire kit to come in so I can route it up to the mirror location.

Oh, and I also attached a fast wireless charging coil and circuit board with a 60W 12v to USB-C power adapter to the bottom of the cubby in front of the shifter. I wired it into the 12v power outlet above the Bose subwoofer and it works great! Now I can just slide my phone in like I normally do and it will wireless fast charge while connected wirelessly to the Pioneer head unit for Android Auto .

Well, had the A/C recharged again last Friday and now the A/C is working perfectly. That leaves cruise control as the last thing that doesn't work on this car after the swap. Does anyone know if there is a tune that would disable cruise control? It's so weird because I'm not getting any codes for it and the green light comes on when turning cruise control on with the stalk, but none of the functions actually do anything. Tells me I didn't leave something unplugged or anything, but just curious why it doesn't work with the new DME . Unfortunately, I sold the steering control module from the donor car already, LOL. I don't really use cruise control anyways, but it would be nice to have everything function properly. Also, got the coilovers switched over to the AST 5100s from the donor car and they seem to ride a lot nicer than the H&Rs based on an initial test drive.

Just wanted to update everyone on this thread. The swap is now considered "complete". I have addressed a few things that have gotten it to this point. First is I was able to bend the parking brake cable tube a bit to get it off of the high pressure fuel pump it had been rattling against. If I were doing this swap from scratch or if I ever pull the engine again, I will graft in the 987.2 firewall sections that have reliefs for the parking brake cable tubes and this won't be an issue, but for now, it works and is quiet. Next is something that may only affect 2006 987s (2005 Boxster as well perhaps?). The two access panels to the engine bay on these early cars don't have any insulation on the engine side of them, but starting in 2007, a layer of foam was added to both panels. I decided to swap both with the 2009 panels and it has made a huge difference in quieting down the mechanical noises, particularly from the high pressure fuel pump and likely injectors as well. It sounds like a normal car inside at this point. I did find out that you can order the padding new from Porsche , but since I had the panels already, I just swapped them. Next is a pretty important detail regarding PSM. Originally, I had just swapped the electronic module from the 987.2 to my 987.1 hydraulic unit and it seemed to work just fine, but I never could get cruise control to work, nor would the parking brake light come on (I didn't even notice it at first). Well, I did some more wiring research and found out that there are 3 more wires that need to move in the connector. One is the PSM LED that comes on when PSM Off is activated (move from pin 46 to 38), another is the parking brake activation wire (move from pin 36 to pin 13), and the last one is the stop light switch (move from pin 43 to 41). Now, the interesting thing is that if I moved the stop light switch wire and drove it down the road, I got an ABS/PSM error and it shut down ABS/PSM. Checked codes and it gave me an error for some pressure sensor implausible or something. Well, when comparing the wiring diagrams for the two PSM modules, it looks like pins 42 to 46 are used for a pressure sensor. The wiring on the old 987.1 PSM module doesn't have a pressure sensor in its wiring diagram, so I thought, maybe the hydraulic units are actually different. Pulled the module back off and found out there is a black sensor with 4 wires on both modules, but one of the pins is in a different orientation where it connects to the module. So, I decided to swap the entire hydraulic unit from the 987.2 and see if it worked. Well, it did and now cruise control works... Yay!!! I don't really use it much anyway, but it's nice that it's there for long drives. I also did a full brake fluid flush at this time since I was going to lose most of the fluid anyways and bleeding it was a real process. First, you do a normal bleeding procedure, which is already involved due to two bleed screws on each caliper. Next , I found one bleed screw completely clogged up and it's a good thing I had a spare brand new one. Then I found a rounded off one and I had another spare new one to swap on. Finally, I still didn't have a proper feeling pedal and I had to use PIWIS to do an electronic bleed procedure, which involves activating the ABS valves, while using a pressure bleeder and pumping the brakes during the process. If anyone else does this job, make sure you have a lot of fluid as you'll need to constantly top up after each caliper. I decided that after the first normal bleed, all of the fluid coming out was brand new, so we just kept putting it right back into the reservoir instead of wasting expensive RBF 600 fluid. Now I have a very nice firm pedal and ABS works fine. The last thing that wasn't really swap related is I installed a 987.2 Cayenne steering wheel and airbag, as well as a 987.2 steering column control module to get working multifunction controls and added an InCarTec CAN module for the steering wheel controls to work with my Pioneer head unit . Now, basically everything drive related is completely converted to 987.2 spec. The only things that still tell you it's a 987.1 are the headlights /taillights and the bumpers.

Hey all, I just purchased a slightly damaged GT4 engine from a 2016 car and will be swapping it into my 987.1 that I already converted to a 3.4 DFI engine from a 987.2 . I'll be swapping over the cooling system components, wiring harness and any other different parts from my 3.4 to it. The MAP sensor will probably just stay in the intake to fill the hole since my wiring harness doesn't have the wiring for it and I'll be keeping my existing DME to control it and using the Softronics 3.8 conversion performance tune to take advantage of the larger displacement. So far with the engine in my garage, I can't see a whole lot of differences, but I just got it home yesterday, so I'll still need to do some more investigation. I have no doubts that I can swap over whatever I need to from my 3.4 externally to make it work without any major changes. Softronics says horsepower should go up to about 410 bhp vs the stock 320 bhp of the 3.4, so it should be a noticeable increase. I plan on also doing some supporting mods like an LSD and maybe some 997.2 front uprights and 6 piston calipers to go with my girodisc upgraded brakes. Keep an eye out for my build thread on it shortly. Not sure if I'm going to continue this one or create a new thread. Let me know what you guys would rather I do.

Here's the new GT4 engine swap thread to continue the build: https://www.planet-9.com/threads/bl...ads/blackknight530i-987-gt4-build-981-gt4-engine-swap-to-987-1-cayman-s.258304/

Hallo,Blacknighti30, mein Name ist Tom und ich lebe in Deutschland und ich verfolge deinen Umbau. Alle Achtung möchte das Ganze eventuell auch umbauen und mir ist alles soweit klar bis auf den Motorkabelbaum lässt sich der Motorkabelbaum vom Cayman GT so umbauen dass er im 987.2 funktioniert? Wie sieht es mit der Wegfahrsperre aus lässt sich das GT4 Motorsteuergerät so anlernen dass alles mit der vorhandenen Technik des 987.2 funktioniert ? Wäre super wenn du mir Info geben könntest.

Hello, I translated your message above. Regarding the GT4 engine swap, if it's a 3.8 GT4 engine out of a 981, like mine is, you would need the 981 DME to keep the original wiring harness as the DMEs are different. In theory, you could get the 981 DME to work, but things like PSM and even the cluster might have issues due to CAN bus differences and I'm not even sure the immobilizer can work with the older version. I don't know that for sure since I'm not going that route, but that's what I was told by the tuning company who will be tuning my original DME. The advantage to using the 987.2 wiring harness is that it's already wired for your car, so you just need the tune on your existing DME for the 3.8L displacement. Scott at Softronics makes a tune for this since the GT4 engine is really just a 991.1 3.8L engine with the oil filter housing routed to the other end of the engine. Basically, for someone with a 3.4L 987.2 vehicle, you could just swap the block and a few accessories in place of your original engine and tune it and you're done. My conversion is on a 987.1, which has a totally different engine/DME. I had converted mine to a 987.2 3.4L DFI engine first and am now just swapping the engine itself since the hard work was already done.