What year did the base Cayman get a DFI engine? I know the S got it in 2009, but at that time the base Cayman was apparently MPFI. When was the switch made?

 

The base went to DFI with the new model 981 this year. Displacement went down from 2.9 to 2.7l, but DFI compensated to keep hp about the same.

 

Thanks, Zedcat! It's not always easy to find year-by-year changes for older models. I was hoping they'd snuck a DFI modification in later Gen II base 987s.

 

FWIW, the 2.9 is a great little engine. It is what all of the ST class Caymans in Continental Tire SC are running.

 

Agree. I had an '09 2.9L 6speed with SC (and PASM). Put it in Sport, keep the revs up, great fun car.

 

The 2.9 has been less problem stricken than the DFI variants of the 9a1 so far.

 

What sort of problems have the DFI 9A1s been seeing?

 

I agree that the 2.9 is a great engine and while not DFI it does have the improved oiling system of the DFI engines

 

Jake I was reading some of the information you posted on one of the other threads regarding DFI engines and the comment about having more issues than the IMS based engines. What's odd is that you don't read much about people having problems with these engines on forums thus far. The 09's are now old enough that if there were consistent issues they would be at well known by now but I know I'm not seeing it. Are you implying they are all ticking time bombs and or can you put some actual numbers behind the number of failures your seeing and for what years?

 

Its not odd at all... For the first 5-6 years the M96 issues didn't pop up on forums either. Just like the M96 shops outside of ours are not learning about these engines, so when they have an issue they go back to a dealer. Remember, most cars are at worst two years out of warranty at this point, and anything that happens under warranty won't be divulged.

And, of course, forums aren't everything. I can't think of a customer that we have had in the past 2-3 years thats a forum poster.

We have yet to see massive trends with the failures, though I have been documenting them since 2010 here. A huge part of our experience with these engines came from building them info race engines, and buying brand new cars (like Cayman X) and taking the engine apart for no reason.

Once some things start to surface I'll begin to share what we've learned, till then, let's just leave that sleeping bear alone- he doesn't need to get poked.

 

Also, the barber called, and he says you need a haircut.

 

Jake, are you saying that you don't remember any of your customers in the past 2-3 years being forum posters? Or are you talking strictly about DFI engine customers?

Because I know of at least 2 posters on another forum who are your recent customers (M97). Now that I think about it, there's at least 1 poster on yet another forum who had a 3.4 L DFI engine and was your customer (this engine had not failed but was getting a displacement increase). I'm slightly confused.

 

The 9A1 has been around for a while now in 987.2, 997.2, 991 and 981. It has been raced extensively in basically stock trim. It is the basis of all flat 6 engines for production Porsches.

Sorry, but it sounds like someone is trying to drum up business by alarming people. If there is a serious problem, we would have heard something by now.

 

The biggest issues that we have found are not catalyzed by track activities, in fact, going to the track helps to avoid the issues. Low speed applications is where the issues have stemmed from.

That began only this year, until then the GT3 and Turbo were still based on the prior designs.

No, because of where the cars are going when they need to be repaired. This year I have been in front of several hundred Porsche Technicians from Florida to Vancouver Canada and I have yet to have met one of them who has been inside the cam covers of an engine. They are sending the engines back to dealers.

Just like the M96, shops are afraid of these engines at the present, it'll take 3-5 more years before they are willing to start taking risks by going inside. The tools to work with the engine are super expensive, which doesn't help.

My 9a1 engine classes has been a sell out thus far.

I am trying to share what we have learned for working with these engines from the time they were released. That includes pulling engines apart with as little as 11 miles on them and dealing with failures that occurred as early as 4,165 miles. Here's that damage, the engine never went to the track, and never even had its first oil change. It had zero over revs in the ECU and was down 25HP before we pulled it apart. It was an elective procedure, a 3.4 to 4.2L build, it just happened to be broken when we tore into it.



No, because the issues at this point have been variable in their conditions and not repeatable, at least to this point.

 

The biggest issues that we have found are not catalyzed by track activities, in fact, going to the track helps to avoid the issues. Low speed applications is where the issues have stemmed from.

That began only this year, until then the GT3 and Turbo were still based on the prior designs.

No, because of where the cars are going when they need to be repaired. This year I have been in front of several hundred Porsche Technicians from Florida to Vancouver Canada and I have yet to have met one of them who has been inside the cam covers of an engine. They are sending the engines back to dealers.

Just like the M96, shops are afraid of these engines at the present, it'll take 3-5 more years before they are willing to start taking risks by going inside. The tools to work with the engine are super expensive, which doesn't help.

My 9a1 engine classes has been a sell out thus far.

I am trying to share what we have learned for working with these engines from the time they were released. That includes pulling engines apart with as little as 11 miles on them and dealing with failures that occurred as early as 4,165 miles. Here's that damage, the engine never went to the track, and never even had its first oil change. It had zero over revs in the ECU and was down 25HP before we pulled it apart. It was an elective procedure, a 3.4 to 4.2L build, it just happened to be broken when we tore into it.



No, because the issues at this point have been variable in their conditions and not repeatable, at least to this point.