Folks....

It's been a while and I've been on a long journey (not as pleasant as expected).

In short..

Got my first Porsche in 2012 - My lovely 964, rough around the edges...sketchy history, few leaks...however my first P car. I loved it!!!

Saved up a load of cash to do all the usual upgrades...KW, SS exhaust, retrim etc etc...

Just about to pull the trigger on the project and got my head turned by a 993 cab turbo conversion. All tastefully done with a "boat load" of expensive extras.

Jumped out of the 64..into 93..BIG MISTAKE!!

Learned the lesson of "Too much modding" The car was an animal and was just too savage and temperamental for my liking. Normal driving became an arduous task and was far from relaxing. If you wanted a car for a drag race..Great!!..However, any other driving was a nightmare! After 12 months the car went back to the dealer and I started the hunt again!

Now in a "STOCK" 997 TT Cab and it's amazing! Super fast, riffle bolt shifter and pinpoint steering!! That said, I do miss the rawness and intimacy of the 964! IMHO you just aren't as connected in the 997 as the 964.

I would love to add a 964 to my stable!! I have noticed that the prices on these has moved massively since 2012!!

Maybe one day I will be fortunate enough to get behind the wheel of one again!

Also...

964 Board rocks!!

 

I think I remember your switch a while back. I thought you were crazy, but that car was so unique I can understand why you had to give it a shot.

Amazing what's happened in 964 land since.
Happy hunting!

 

Hi Fella,

Sorry to hear it didn't work out! Although will be good to have you back on the 964 board. Keep your eyes pealed, when good ones come up they don't hang around!

Tell us more about the turbo? What made it so tough to live with?

Have you a link to more info would be curious to read what compression it was running and what boost it delivers???

 

That's a melancholy story.

 

Hi Frank

I am not 100% on the exact specification of the engine (all the mods were done by the previous owner – Invoices came in at 70K+!). I believe the car was set up at 1.0 bar producing 500hp. During the diagnostic and mapping works I asked the tuner to place more emphasis on smooth running rather than power.

We ended up at 0.8 bar and 450HP. That said, it didn’t really make much difference and I ended up with a car that ran far too rich and missed the emissions tests by a mile!!! Not ideal!! I believe this can be quite detrimental to the engine due to “wash” in the cylinders removing oil and causing excessive wear???

The main problems were poor running i.e. idle control, stalling issues and serious resonance (juddering) at high revs! During my 12 months of ownership the car was in at the tuners for 8 months racking up ££££'s of bills!!

The general consensus was that if you have a modified car you will have to accept compromise. I got the feeling that the car would never run correctly and that the remap work would be an ongoing R&D exercise! During the works I was told that Porsche could spend 10000 hours on an idle map alone!

Following ALL the diagnostics, remapping, tuning and fettling the car still had issues (although not as bad) with idle, stalling and juddering. In the end I decided it just wasn't for me. I had actually considered removing the turbo package and taking it back to stock. In the end it went back to the dealer.

The lesson from all this.....

This was a significant project with a serious budget and yet it still didn’t work as it should. IMHO if you carry out a conversion like this you would expect the car to run correctly with massive gains in performance and HP. From my experience the only gain was HP.

I think that the only way to get the performance without compromise would be to use a donor Turbo engine with ancillaries and ECU etc..??

Is this something you are considering??