Verus-Eric

Here is a picture of the 3D printed prototype parts in car.

3D Printed Prototype Test Fit

I also found a home for the pump and created a quick weldment from scrap parts we had laying around. No holes cut so far.

Pump Weldment

As you can see I started running the lines as well. I have to figure out how I want to trigger the pump still, but we're getting there.

Verus-Eric

The sheet metal came in and I've been working on the project after hours. Please keep in mind I'm very much an engineer, not a fabricator. I can make things work but this is not a final product by any means. This is only for us.


Flat Pieces from Waterjet

Fan Shroud Bent Up Ready for Welding

OE Duct to Oil Cooler Bent Up

Fan Shroud Welded Up

Checking Fan Still Lines Up with Pem Nuts

Unit Assembled Ready to Go In Car

I've performed another string alignment on the car, just waiting to finish this all up so we can test again .

Soul Performance

Looks pretty good for an engineer and not a fabricator Eric haha. Love this idea, very interested to see how the testing turns out

Best regards,
John Gaydos

Verus-Eric

Thanks John!

More updates! Below are photos of the cooler in the car as well as the pump mounted. No holes have been drilled in the chassis and the pump with lines actually fit really well. The car has roughly 2 qts more fluid volume for gear oil now, as opposed to just over 3qts from the factory. Still on the docket is the wiring, which I have a neat, non-invasive idea for testing before I make it more permanent... maybe. It may just stay non-invasive and I use it like that.


Gear Cooler Nestled into Place with Fan


Cooler In Place from Bottom with Hoses Attached


Pump with Lines and Filter in Center Valley

Verus-Eric

Finished up the wiring and buttoning up the car over the weekend.

Wiring is using the cigarette lighter for power and ground, haha. This will allow us to easy toggle power on and off for the pump as the pump does not always need to run, only at the track realistically. It also seemed like a quick and easy solution that is fused from the factory, so no power wires to the battery or a relay or adding fuses, just plug it in and go. Pretty excited to give it a shot this week and see what happens.


Wires Through OE Grommet

Slight Cut in Plastic Panel to get Wires Through

Stowed for the Drive to the Track

Performed another string alignment to dial in the new suspension. We are at -3.6 degrees of negative camber up front now, still -2.0 in the rear.

Verus-Eric

We were able to do some initial testing with the gear cooler and new suspension last week. Both additions to the car are performing well. I will add some graphs and data later this week.

Suspension:
The car is pulling higher lateral forces than before (max of 1.5G, previously it was around 1.3G) and we were able to reduce lap times by another second. We contribute this primarily to the improvement in front end aero performance as the car was more balanced and did not want to understeer as much as before. The front splitter's performance is dictated by ride height and keeping the car flatter throughout a turn improves the downforce the front splitter produces ultimately. The high speed understeer was no longer there.

Gear Cooler:
Each time we test the 987, everything is fully warm as it is a 30-minute drive from the shop to the track. Generally speaking, we take 5-6 easy laps to get heat in the tires and brakes and ensure everything feels alright. After that, we go out with data acquisition recording and gather data for our testing needs. The time between track outings is roughly 5 minutes, long enough to set tire pressures and torque the wheels, then we're back on track.

Before the gear cooler; we were only able to stay on track 8-10 minutes after the first warm-up session, which is about 5-6 laps before the ECU would lock us in gear and force an end of the session. Coolant was creeping up at this time from 210 to 215-220 depending on ambient temps. As mentioned previously, our gear oil temp only read 180 on track but as we pulled into the garages, it would peak above 210. We felt the oil was not circulating to the temp probe as it was in a fitting where the drain is typically.

After the gear cooler, we were able to stay on track two full 15-minute sessions after the typical warm-up session with no PDK gearbox issues, while running quicker than we have ever before! Coolant also was staying steady at 210F. On track, gear oil remained at 180-185 degrees consistently then peaked at 190 as we pulled into the garages. Once the engine bay fan kicked on, gear oil temps would plummet to 160-170 in the ~5 minutes we stay in the garage. We are really happy with the improvement and plan to test longer next time out. We also plan to 3D print an inlet duct to improve flow to the cooler at speed. Just as BGB suggested in the thread posted early, it is not so much a PDK oil cooling issue but a gearbox oil issue. It may ultimately have something to do with the diff, or the lack of fluid volume in the gearbox, or maybe the gear oil is actually supplementing the PDK cooling at this point.

We still have a lot of work to do to dial in the car completely but this checks off a very large box for the project overall and we are really happy to move on to dialing in the suspension and aero. Still a lot to do this year; we are hopeful to get most everything finished and tested though!

Verus-Eric

As promised, I bring data.

We are fighting AIM software right now as far as setting legends the way we want but I can at least share some info right now. The below graph has a new legend (difference max and min ride height compared to previous data). This shows how much the ride heights are changing around the track. A drastic reduction in body roll and pitch which is allowing the car to perform better.


New Suspension, New Legend

Below we have a traction circle with the new suspension. Comparing to the previous suspension, we are able to pull roughly .1 - .15G more lateral acceleration which is great news. The previous max was roughly 1.35G, and we are now hitting 1.5G max. We still need to set rebound on the dampers and we hope to further reduce lap times and increase available lateral grip through that.

Traction Circle, New Suspension

Since the track day we have been battling a pull to the right and vibration in the steering wheel, yet again. We have narrowed it down to the tires being the culprit though. The Cup 2s seem to have a manufacturing defect in them which is causing them to change the balance. Each time we take the wheels/tires to be balanced, a few are out 1oz and one of the tires is causing a vehicle pull. We confirmed this by installing a set of known good tires and the car drives straight as can be with zero vibration. We are hoping to resolve these issues soon though as we would like to get a bit more testing in this year.

olegd

Could a tire be slipping on the rim when driven hard on the track? Some wheels have knurled bead machined into the barrel to prevent that from happening.

Verus-Eric

You know, I honestly had not thought about that. The wheels that we have on the car do have that knurled feature on the barrel where the bead rides; however when I get them back from Discount Tire I will mark the rim and tire to ensure that is not what is happening. After 4 re-balances within maybe 500 miles and complaining about the pull which is getting worse the more times we track the car, they finally agreed to replace one of the front tires (they suspect RF). At this point, I am not too optimistic but at least I know for a fact the source of the vibration and pull is not suspension related but wheel/tire combo.

Ratbert

Is this something you're planning on turning into a product we can buy? If not, would you consider sharing the STL's so I could fab one up myself?

Also, I can't find your 987 flat bottom on your website. Is it available to purchase?

Ratbert

Are you planning to turn that transaxle cooler mount into a product? If not (and I would prefer you did) would you consider sharing the .STL files for it so I can fab my own without having to tear the car apart and take detailed measurements?

Also, I can't find the 987 flat floor you reference on your website. Is this a "coming soon" product?

Nice work and thanks for all the detailed data you're collecting and sharing.

Ratbert

With regards to the transaxel cooler, hypothetically, what do you think about installing an electric PS kit up front (with a small air/oil cooler), and then using the PS cooler circuit in the OEM engine oil cooler to cool the gearbox? I know this would preclude installing a larger, dedicated, engine oil cooler by deleting the PS circuit all together but it seems like that could be largely mitigated with aftermarket radiators up front combined with a deep billet engine sump exchanging more heat with the ambient airflow. It may or may not be what you want for this build, but as a practical matter have you seen anything while digging around under there that would make such a setup mechanically problematic?

Verus-Eric

We have not thought that far honestly. This winter I may look into trying a small run of them if there is enough interest. If there are any others interested, please message me or let me know. The install was not terrible but I definitely would not say enjoyable. Maybe I will make a thread regarding it here in the future?

Here is a link to the flat floor part: https://www.verus-engineering.com/pr...er-porsche-987

Thanks, it has been a fun yet frustrating build as we want to get out and track a bit more but the wheel/tire issue and the trans cooling issue sucked up a lot of our summer. The car is a blast on track with the new suspension and gets looks/thumbs up everywhere we go.

It could possibly work, it could possibly not? I do not know the ability of the power steering cooler to shed heat from the gearbox. The temperatures we are seeing on and off the track are pretty low though for the gearbox, relative to coolant temps. I think an air to air unit is probably the best bet. I need to grab some data logs from our AIM but I believe we are only seeing a max of 190 degrees Fahrenheit on our gearbox now, and our coolant is above that at 210. I do not know the coolant temperature entering the power steering cooler though so perhaps the coolant is lower. But based off our info, I would probably avoid a coolant to oil heat exchanger for the gearbox.

Please note that we do not fully understand the entirety of the situation. Is the gearbox oil temp, without a cooler, causing the PDK fluid to overheat? Is the gearbox oil, now with the cooler, supplementing the PDK fluid in extracting heat from the transmission? Is the gearbox cooler helping the coolant temps stay in check by reducing the PDK fluid temps and thus the load the PDK exchanger puts on the coolant system? All of these are questions we do not have the answer for right this moment, and we may not dive much deeper into it. It would require no less than 6 or more thermocouples and a lot of testing to fully understand. I do not think we can invest that kind of time or energy even though it interests me quite a bit. What we do know though is that we are able to stay out at least twice as long as what we were able to previously; which is fantastic.

I figured I should not make a post without a few photos! For a 2010 with 88k miles on her, she still looks good!!!


Ready to Hit the Track a Few Weeks Ago


Sunset Picture After a Track and Steak Night


Indiana Fall Weather, Blue Skys, 70s, and Sun!

gman3280

I'd be interested in the cooler parts. Car looks great! I don't see the packages on your website for the 987.2. Are they on there?

higlesias

you guys are doing a great job!

what i don't get is, how you've come this far and still haven't had the requirement to wire in a PSM disable.
I'm subscribed to this thread solely awaiting for this. And hoping that when you do it, you'll make a nice step by step so i can mimic it, lol.