IPD Plenum

Hi, I'm a new member and this is my first post. My car is a Porsche Cayman S 987.2 PDK , I buyed the IPD Plenum with TB 82mm, and after contacted the Softronic to reprogram the ECU but this is the softronic response: Hello, Im not sure what you would change other than catless headers that require any different tuning. We dont recommend or sell plenums with TB's as they cause CEl's etc and exhaust doesnt as a rule require tuning etc. Cold air or aka hot air intakes dont work. Best, Scott Is this true? what's CEI? Regards

Check Engine light. My personal opinion on the best sequence for increasing performance (ie., there's alot of different opinions on this out there) is do the headers , then the intake, then the tune. And yes, the intake ducting efforts don't do much -- maybe better sound. Good luck! Joe Henley

If I was going to mod my car I'd consider an underpulley if made for your model, instant power you can feel. Or this non underpulley lightweight replacement pieces, again unsure of availability for any one vehicle. https://www.ecstuning.com/b-ecs-parts/lightweight-pulley-set-black/v630vlwpskt/

Boristhespider : How many horsepower? Do you have a dyno run that can prove the increase performance?

I don't recall the claimed gain nor do I have any data to give you. These units look like pulley replacements that address weight only. Mine was was an underpulley, it changed the ratio of spin and therefore the amount of parasitic drag. Everything spins slower but there was no perception of change to the AC or water pump as it didn't overheat. The engine revs more quickly and freely and of all the tweaks I did to the 986 this one made the largest difference but it's a game of many tweaks and weight reduction that yields the gains.

The IPD plenum imo isn’t worth the money. There wasn’t really any difference…. However the throttle response might have been a tiny bit better, but as for gains, no…. Porsche doesn’t leave a lot of room for gains on these motors. Headers / exhaust and a tune 15-20hp is about all you’ll see… now the exhaust note depending on brand is amazing. I did notice better throttle response and boosted quicker on my 996TT, but that’s expected a little with turbo… metered air is metered air. You can make the inlet hole as big as you want, but the main inlet remains basically the same…

Good feedback on the IPD, searches seem to turn up exactly what you'd expect, not a lot of great info, especially given the difference between the 987.1 & 987.2 designs. I've been thinking about doing one on my car, but for ~$1200, thats a lot of money for improved sound. The response from softtronic is also interesting, I was just on their site the other day and there was a customer review raving about the tune, to which was coupled with plenum and GT3 TB...hmmmm

I would add that in a 987.1 S, the old Softronics, race manafold with a 78MM throttle body is a good fit with both his ECU flash and long tube catless Soul headers . The idea here is to respect the 7000 RPM shifting point. The 987.2 9A1 S engine has a higher RPM red line, so an extra 500 to 800 rpm can be used where, the larger IDP 82mm throttle body would add a few HP. What the issue is that the larger throttle body also slighly removes some mid level torque, so driveability is reduced for the street. I really like the mid level torque thrust Scott gets out of his old system. He no longer sells it as the market has moved away form this item, except for DUNDON Motorsports turned intake and exhaust for the 3.4 and 3.8 motors. The wave pulse is turned from the intake to the 4 pipe exhaust headers ,. Its a great setup and sound. Not sure Dundon sells the 3.4 setup any longer as their business is now more GT2's, GT3 's as well as GT4 's.

This is a picture of Dundon 4 pipe GT4 981 Race headers that add 41 hp to the rear wheels. You can google Dundon 981 GT4 Race Headers and see the data and the application results. They also develped the top end (intake manifold) as well which are tuned together for best results. This result is based on a 3.8. Not sure the headers or the intake would fit the 9A1 engine OP is asking about. I know they produced a 3.4 system a couple of years ago, bottom picture. Together, the intake runners, their tune and 4 pipe race exhaust will produce almost 50 HP more hp than OEM at the rear wheels. Unless you are really serious with racing, the cash for this upgrade is questionable. Especially if you are outside of the US. I would discount the actual RWHP to your local tuner depending on that tuner's machine, the outside temp and humidity. The good news is no turbo to deal with but in most cases, you will never recover the actual install costs on resale.

Yes!!! I have seen those pieces… now this makes sense, but I’d agree unless you competing and or always high in the rpm range… it’s gotta be 10-15k. You can buy a 991 n/a motor for a little more… and no turbo… as I’ve said if you want a turbo just get a TT motor From 996/997/991 and do it right

Hi,in the next days I"ll install the Plenum in my car following carefully the instruction sent to me from IPD, but differently from alleged engineers, sensitives and wizards, I'll do dyno run before in stock mode and afte with the Plenum Thank to Greg for support from IPD. Stay tuned...

Be sure to post your results, as mentioned above, I have an identical car to yours, 987.2 PDK . I am very interested the Plenum/Software combo, which I may end up making headers at some point, which could be a fun added bonus!

There are videos before/after dyno..

Lots of them. And they all show the same thing. A plenum/TB change on its own accomplishes zero, and many cases the car will actually lose HP and torque, and there are multiple dyno plots that show this. The only people that claim huge gains are the people that sell it. Even with a custom tune, you will only see single digit HP gains over and above what the tune will do on its own, and only up in the 7K range where no one drives unless its a track car only. These engines are not air starved on the intake side. The best bang for your buck is headers with high flow cats and a custom tune on these engines. The gains are much higher on the Dundon combo, but ONLY on the 3.8 GT4 engine, and only when used in conjunction with their intake runners that were redesigned to make it work. Thats a 12K setup, and the same intake runner combo for the 3.4 produced far less gains, actually hurting the low end power and torque needed for the street under the entire curve, as it shifted the power much higher up on the RPM scale where a stock car tends to fall off. Might be useful for a track car, but going backward on a street car. The IPD is not even of value on a similar yet even bigger displacement engine such as this 997 3.6L motor, much less a smaller 3.4. Check the very controlled test that was done on this car testing both aftermarket air filters and the IPD plenum . Skip to 5 minutes for the IPD test

Sadly, I’m telling ya to save your money. Save it for suspension, coilovers or springs…. I have everything already minus the plenum (because I already know it’s not worth the money) and I might have gained 15-20hp 6k and higher… Porsche doesn’t leave a lot on the table for improvements…

I've see that video, but that is a 997.1 911 , so with the air filter and cold/hot air intake its certainly not apples/apples. The plenum design is very different from a 987.1 to 987.2 , if @Ypsilon already has the plenum and plans to install it, there is no harm in encouraging him to document and share his results.

Yep, I would love to see his results as there are several 3.4 dyno runs from actual customers that show the exact same results. Here is just one example from doing it on a 3.4. The car lost HP and torque after adding the plenum/TB mod, and the gains under the curve are so small they wouldn't even be noticed anyway. That was even with the Cobb stage 2 tune that is designed to go with it! This mod has been around long before tunes, and they claim ridiculous values doing nothing at all but bolting it on to a fully stock car. It took a custom dyno tune to reclaim that power and get a bit more power all the way up at the top that is less than half of what they claim it will do on its own. I've yet to see any actual customer dynos that show anything different. One has to determine if that little bit way up top is worth the cost and trouble of the mod and expensive custom tune for gains that they will likely never notice on the street

Relax

I’d be willing to bet intake temps are way better on a 911 vs a heat soaked cayman bay

Just to clarify, is this the only mod that will be done to your car? You're not adding headers or any sort of tune at the same time are you? The results won't be valid if you change more than one thing at a time, which is what commonly happens. Most will do multiple mods at once and then come show big gains over stock. It's already well established that headers and custom tune on their own can get a 3.4 to 360-370 crank HP, and that is why many dont bother with anything more as the cost/gain ratio starts to go off the cliff at that point. I really want this mod to be good as I had the parts in hand myself at one point, but there just isnt any real data out there that shows it does, so I returned the items. I would do it in a heartbeat if I thought it would help, and Ive been looking for data that shows otherwise from actual customers for years now Good luck with the install, and looking forward to your results!

There is only a 5HP factory difference between the 987.2 and 981 engine. Softronic says 350+ for the 987.2 3.4 with tune alone, so should be close, especially with headers .

Don’t believe that… so the tune is altering fuel and timing for what reason? Nothing was added to need a MAP reflash. If you did headers/exhaust and maybe the intake/plenum then the reflash might support 25hp, but that seems a stretch

Both Softronic and FVD are the ones that dont play games with crazy claims like others may do. FVD for example has been doing this for years in Germany and does the tunes for the Porsche cup cars. They have a little bit of experience in this field, and a reputation to maintain in the Porsche world, and they make the same claims as Softronic . 352HP with a tune alone and aftermarket filters which we know is little to nothing for the filters themselves. There is more than just fuel trim that is changed with a tune. Its known that the TB opening is also limited on the Boxster and Cayman engines to keep the power under the 911 values, and this restriction is also removed in the tune. And again, there have been many that have demonstrated that the values are really there, but I get it. Its good to be skeptical until proven otherwise

I hear ya… they are reputable, but I am skeptical without anything done

I had a blast modding my 986 , including headers , a Dansk SS muffler, intake mods and the under pulley. It was a lot of fun but I have to say buying the engine you want from Porsche is IMO the better way to go. I have plenty of right foot motivation now right from Germany.

Agree… with these motors getting old a 991 Carrera S motor is a good way to go… there plentiful now… they cost about the same or less than rebuild… I wouldn’t rebuild an M97 Motor now

ICNU: just to be clear, I'm italian maybe you missunderstood me, Plenum will be the only mod and again we are talking about Cayman S 987.2 PDK and not 981 not 987.1 (another engine) not 997 . Dyno run must be done at the same temperature, umidity, fuel type etc etc, later with Greg (IPD) authorization I'll post the mail receveid from him. Porsche08 : I read accurately your posts and I thing that you have no idea how an aspirated engine works.

I know exactly how it works… I’m trying to tell you that your expecting a gain, your not going to see much of anything… and your not listening to me… the plenum is a waste of a thousand dollars… I have owned all these parts and your all expecting big changes and I’m here to tell you it was 15-20hp for all of it… intake/plenum/ headers and exhaust with reflash. I think if I can make an MR2 and an RX-7 run mid 9’s in the 1/4 mile, I have a pretty good understanding of how it works

Porsche08 : In which Porsche model do You have installed the IPD Plenum with 82mm TB ?

German engineers are funny about this - it seems they don't just leave HP laying around on the table waiting for someone in his shop or garage to come along and pick it up and eventually sell it. I've seen the exact same thing with BMWs, and particularly BMW motorcycles where at one time I was involved with some articles involving lots of back to back dyno runs - effectively showing there wasn't anything on the table for the aftermarket to grab and use. A more typical result was 1-2 HP (if you believe the dyno is this consistent, and I don't) gain near max engine RPM, but often accompanied by a gutting of the midrange power, where power is useable. More than one person was delighted with the results of un-installing the "improved" intake/exhaust crappola and putting the stock stuff back on.

997.2 GT3 , 08 Cayman 3.8…. Had a 996TT

Ypsilon, When can we see the demonstrated HP gain on a your local dyno's graph. My hope is you are correct showing some benefit by using an IDP dyno protocol.

Think of it as an air pump. Where's the tightest restriction/constraint, outlet pipe ( exhaust ). The next worse, pump (engine tune). The least bad, inlet pipe (intake manifold/TB). Fix the pump and/or the inlet pipe, you get meager results. Fix the outlet pipe and you get good results. Fix all three and you get great results. That's why you read lots of articles about why exhaust headers help alot, and intake plenums don't. Truth is they all help alot if done in the right sequence. Joe Henley

My bucket list dream was to balance and blueprint an engine with a fund to upgrade mechanicals where applicable for longevity and performance. Polish the ports and run it. There were lots of free donor engines in my HS years but I couldn't work, go to school and work on my engine (at least I didn't think so at the time)

I wouldn’t give much thought to what softronic says. That guys a real asshole. No, the plenum and 82mm throttle body won’t give you much noticeable gain. I do have them along with a complete soul exhaust system on my cayman. The plenum and throttle body does give you better throttle response though. Probably a good filter, exhaust and a tune from someone that will actually give you a tune for YOUR cayman is where you will notice a good difference

Its what I’ve been saying all along… thanks for thats!! But according to the OP I don’t have a clue about N/A engines… I tried all these mods so I know what works and what I wouldn’t buy again

So is that to say that 987.2 plenum and throttle body mods provide less gains than race headers ?