markn

Has anyone installed a 3.8L kit on their 993? Was it worth it in terms of the performance increase? What kinds of supporting modifications such as head work, ecu reprogramming, and etc. are needed to install the 3.8L pistons and cylinders. I am particularly interested in feedback from people in CA with OBDII cars who have had to deal with CA smog inspections. I'd like to get a reliable, and CA smoggable, 320-330 hp if possible from my 97 3.6L.

Thanks.

Mark

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Hi Mark:

There are basically 2 way to go about this, one is just installing a set of 101mm P/C's and adding cams, a remapped chip and such.

The other way is to use the Factory 3.8 RS kit which includes P/C's, complete new big-valve heads, cams, lower intake manifolds, mufflers, single belt pulley, fan hub, and have your ECU remapped for all the changes.

This makes about 320-325 HP if the chip is done right and it will be OBDII compliant and will pass smog.

FYI, the Euro-OBD 993 3.8 RS ECU will not work (start) in OBDII cars and you must have yours modified to suit.

Hope this helps,

Pete @ Andial

Steve,
We have modifyed the RS cyl. heads in our machine shop to make them OBDII legal.
Pete.

Joe@Fabspeed

Hi Peter.....what is most power that ANDIAL can achieve when upgrading a factory Supercup 3.8Liter 993. The factory rates these cars as 315HP DIN. After you do a complete performance rebuild with a polished case, boatailing mains, radial cut the valve seats and do a better valve job and get the compression to 11.6-11.8 and do all your other proprietary performance tuning and magic--- what kind of additional and total power do you guys see out there in California on 100 unleaded gas and 110 leaded racegas? This means retaining the stock plastic intake manifolds and stock 993 cats and of course going to headers and no cats for the racegas pipes. Thanks in advance

NRK

markn:

The two previous posts come from among the best sources of information on the topic. FWIW, I drove a 3.8L recently and can tell you that not only was the performance increase significant over the 3.6, it had excellent power delivery, too. The increase in torque was felt everywhere but especially at higher revs. This car also happened to have the lightened flywheel which may not be for everybody.

As far as whether it's worth it, that depends on how much you care about OEM parts and design. Other upgrade options may get you to the same place, but they all have their costs, too.

Pete @ Andial

Sorry Joe, but we only build smog legal engines. (330 hp.)on 92 octane.

Pete,

Joe@Fabspeed

330HP is a great power # for a streetlegal engine. If you will.....when you receive a raceengine from lets say a 1996-1997 Supercup 3.8L factory racecar and the customer wants you to maximize the power during a rebuild and plans on deleting the catalytic converters......what kind of maximum power do you see? Thanks in advance and have a great day.
joe

Glen

Sorry guys I am confused. Steve says the Euro DME wont work, but Pete says he can make the RS heads OBD compliant.... Whats wrong with the heads that requires a mod? I understand the Euro box wont match up to the US wiring harness but heard someone had figured that out also... TIA
Glen

Pete911air

Glen,
The RS cyl. heads are not drilled to get fresh air into the exhaust ports. We have a complete machine shop and we drill and modify the cyl. heads to make them smog legal.
Pete.

Pete911air

[QUOTE]Originally posted by 993 RS Clubsport:
[qb]330HP is a great power # for a streetlegal engine. If you will.....when you receive a raceengine from lets say a 1996-1997 Supercup 3.8L factory racecar and the customer wants you to maximize the power during a rebuild and plans on deleting the catalytic converters......what kind of maximum power do you see? Thanks in advance and have a great day.
Joe,
If you have $65.000.00 to spare you can have the sprint engine with slide valve injection. 390 honest hp. Kind of rich but that is what it takes. ( If somebody claims more hp. they must have one hell of a dyno.)

Pete

Jean-Marc

320-330 hp? Factory supercups with no air filters and no mufflers are rated at 315hp. Can someone please explain where the eextra 5 to 15 come from on a STREET legal engine?
TIA
JM

Glen

Thanks Pete, forgot about the air injection....

Robin 993DX

Glen,

The wiring harness plug on a Euro DME is different from the US DME box. So you can not plug the Euro DME box to a US car harness, unless you change out the complete wiring harness to the Euro version with the Euro plug or use a remaped US DME box.

Joe@Fabspeed

Thanks Peter....but if someone wanted to keep their factory Supercup car appearing stock by reusing the platsic intake plenums BUT having ANDIAL massage everything and delete the cats....how much total power would you expect....340- 350-365hp? Do you guys ever convert a 993 to single turbo or dual turbos or must the customer start with a Turbo engine as a core? Within 2-3 years I will be Turboing my 1995 993 and looking for max streetable power.

Hank Cohn

Mark:

I did the 3.8L upgrade to my '96 993 using the Porsche Power kit referred to by Steve Weiner. As others have pointed out, you do have to overcome the computer reprogram issue. Steve fixed that problem for me. I have seen the kit which includes everything you need to complete the conversion list anywhere from $5200 to $9000. The good news is that you have a brand new top end when you are done. I had my crank balanced while the other work was being done and I would reccomend that as it is relatively inexpensive. Was it worth it? From a cool factor - YES! From a performance factor - Hell NO! Again, as others have pointed out you could do a lot of mods that could increase HP beyond just the Power Kit. As my car was a club racer, I did not modify the kit in any way. It was, however, a very fun project.

Let me know if I can answer any specific questions for you.

Hank