aussie jimmy

this motor in mooty's stripper or similar spec 6, would tear most 7.2's ***.
that's the attraction.

Porsche917K

I agree with you 100%. My only concern is that with constant track duty, these motors will all need a rebuild eventually. What does a stock rebuild run? I have no idea but I'm sure it is at least $10k if not a fair bit more. I'm really curious what the price difference is between this and a 3.9 conversion.

eshaun

Thanks for the shout guys...cant wait to see the feature!

ace996

So is it $30K? Could it possibly be $10K for every 100cc of displacement increase?
That can't be...

ukrbmw

Seriously - question has been asked several times in the thread, is it really that big of a secret???

Serge944

A LOT of it is labor hours. The pistons/sleeves/pins aren't expensive and available from numerous sources. Doing a 4.0 is even more time intensive as you have to split the case and machine the cylinders/case.

ace996

Man, one thing I'm gonna miss about the C5Z is the power/$ ratio of the mods. My Z had a head/cam and 477rwhp. Blow that motor up and then have VetteDoctors or ECS build a monster 500rwhp/500rwtq for about the same as a 100cc increase in the GT3. Meh...for $30K I'd have an LS7 installed in the rear-seat area of the GT3. That'd solve the RMS issues...

ace996

A LOT means different things to different people. What's A LOT of labor? Cost/hr of that labor?

AllanJ

The price will vary based on the condition of the engine the work is being done on. No firm pricing can be set.

ukrbmw

But one can conceivably set a range, right?


Ace - LS7 in a GT3? Community would pretty much disown you, but you might be on to something there!

Dan@SharkWerks

Hi guys,
Sorry I meant to reply to this again but it's been pretty busy here lately.

To answer some of your questions, we had not intended this upgrade for everyone and we originally designed / planned the 3.9L for the 997 GT3 cars, which if you're calculating bang-for-the-buck, the same priced upgrades on a 997 GT3 would be a better value simply because those cars are still selling for a bit more at this point. There are surely non-Porsche motors that are cheaper than our cost to upgrade to 3.9, I imagine you can even buy a V8 for these cars for the price of a stock clutch+flywheel.

None of this is worth the money, IMO -- it's more about having the most N/A power without replacing your car, the only other N/A Porsches I'm aware of that have more power are the recently announced $185K 4.0 special edition GT3 or a Carrera GT.

But as far as I know, no other 3.9L N/A Porsche motor upgrade for these cars on the market makes the same horsepower/tq as the 3.9L we put in our cars, and the most affordable competitor was charging upwards of 26,000+ Euros ($37,700 USD or ~$30k for parts only) last time I looked, not including a tb/plenum, camshafts or case work (and we throw in a free rubber shark and t shirt! ). Considering that, I do believe our pricing was fair, though it's up to the owners of these cars to determine what is worth it / fair value, I certainly WOULD NOT buy a 3.9L if I owned a 997 GT3/996 GT3 myself, I'd stick with the 3.6 though strictly out of budget (the 3.9L is good fun if I could personally afford it... Alex, can you give me a raise? ).

Currently I estimate the cost for our 3.9L builds at $25k to $29k USD depending on what is replaced and changed in the process, what is already on the car, etc. Yes the parts are expensive (price out rod bolts for a GT3 for example), and the process takes 60-75 hours (generally we allocate 4-5 weeks of time to be sure we can complete and test the car thoroughly before delivering to our customers). Our price includes the removal of the engine/trans from the GT3, tearing it down to a case (more labor involved if we are replacing the rod bearings and bolts which is recommended for most ~20k mile+ cars, this requires splitting the case and removing the crankshaft etc.), replacing the pistons and liners, camshafts, all gaskets and several OEM bolts/hardware components, flywheel, clutch, software, 997 GT3 throttle body, IPD competition Plenum, and exhaust. Then reinstalling everything, break-in and testing and the first oil change.

Again, comparing 997 GT3 to 996, but some GT3 owners spend $12,000 on an exhaust alone for very small power gains -- nothing like the gains seen with this kind of upgrade we do, for anyone it's relative and in this case I think there's no way to make more power for the same money, except perhaps converting your 996 GT3 to a 996 Turbo motor... but that's a different beast.

I think a factory refresh is around $25,000 (someone can confirm this possibly) which includes the new top end and labor, so if you're heading that route the bump in displacement seems like a good alternative.

P.J.S.

so when is the group buy?

cfjan

Sounds like a good "while you are in it" kind of upgrade.. i.e., when it is time to re-build the engine, then bump up the displacement..

JG 996T

I saw the piece in Total 911, didn't put 2 + 2 together until I saw this thread.

Good work!

ukrbmw

Thanks Dan - that is pretty much what I personally wanted to know. And you're right, once the motor begins to drop off and you feel a rebuild is coming on for a similar type of money this is a good upgrade!