AeroTurbo

It started almost 3 years ago with a few chats with Kevin at UMW regarding what I should do with my 2003 996 Turbo to improve performance and handling. Following Kevin’s advice I had a Europipe Stage 2 Exhaust, Bilstein PSS10s, and an UMW ECU flash installed. The car ran great and the upgraded suspension made it a totally different (and much better) handling car. I drove with these mods for 2 years and could have stopped right there and been perfectly happy.

However, I continued to read Rennlist posts about UMW Stage 2A turbo upgrades and asking Kevin more questions. Finally decided to pull the trigger and get his Stage 2A kit. Kevin lives very close to me so he did all the work himself. When it was all said and done I ended up with his Stage 2B kit and some other turbo ****:

UMW Turbos (Billet Compressor Wheel)
UMW ECU
UMW 75 mm Intake Kit
UMW Upgraded Fuel System and Injectors
Lightweight Flywheel
Lightweight Clutch Kit w/ Sachs Heavy duty Pressure Plate and GT3 clutch disk
997 GT3 Shifter (not yet installed)
A laptop with UMW Datalogger Software

While the engine was down Kevin also recommended some preventative maintenance…..new water pump, O2 sensors, coolant expansion tank, and slave cylinder. When I got the car back Kevin put me on the Break In for Dummies Plan…..aka the 40/400 plan….aka the 40 cycles and 400 miles with the ECU flashed back to semi-stock JIC plan. A “cycle” in this case being one heat up /cool down cycle on the turbos. The break in period is a painful experience, careful gear selection and staying off of boost until the turbos and clutch were broken in. This was exceeding hard to do, just driving up a slight incline and having the car in the wrong gear would generate boost. The turbos wanted to go on boost all the time! I was very careful during this break in period……it actually took me ~700-800 miles to get 40 legitimate cycles. Kevin knew my commute to work and the exact route I took so cheating was not possible

All I can say is WOW!!!! Lag is imperceptible, power is very linear with boost coming on at 2,200 rpm (yes I saw it on the datalogger!) and just keeps pulling hard all the way to redline. The torque is intoxicating, throws you back in the seat and just keeps coming. There is no comparison to stock or just a flash. Throttle response is almost immediate, literally scared the crap out me the first time I went WOT. What is really cool is that under load you can hear the turbos whining, even over the Europipe. The best feature of all is that the car drives beautifully in town….rock solid idle at 900 RPM with no hint of the car’s true performance. I can’t say enough on this point, the car just runs fantastic in stop and go traffic and around town, which is 98% of my driving anyway. I frequently call Kevin on the way home from work and tell him how great the car runs.

Another unexpected feature of this upgrade…..my car does not smoke on startup or when I hit the throttle. At the risk of another oil thread, on Kevin’s advice, I have been running Mobil 15-50 and more recently Mobil Turbo Diesel 10-40 since I bought the car with 7K miles on it. I now have 50K on the engine and it continues to be very quiet and my oil filters have always been clean enough to strain the wife’s spaghetti. Here are some pics of the turbos and car....another very happy UMW customer!

AeroTurbo

Sorry bad typing on my part....oil was Mobil 5W50, not 15W50

SSST

Cool. From everything I've read Kevin really knows how to unlock the potential of these engines.

Letmebegus

If only my stock turbos would fail, then I could follow suit.

puma

you better not wait on that, those turbos are pretty bulletproof, didn't see to many of those stock one fail.

puma

Also you did a bunch of mod at the same time, the intake kit and the flywheel certainly helped also to wake the car up.

kato1453

I just finished the stg 1 upgrade fro Kevin and I agree the break in period seemed like forever. The results were almost unbelievable. I couldn't more power than I currently have with my car. Minimal lag, 1.0 bar and the scream of the turbos! Definitely believe in Kevin! I would recommend Kevin to anyone. He also helped the install of my used EP stg2 exhaust even though he didn't sell it to me.

LVDell

Wow, those are stunning. Kevin delivers a great product!

C2 Turbo

Kevin is a real class act Few months ago when i was shopping for a 996 TT, he was kind enough to take my calls and discussed various cars with me at great length.
Unfortunately i couldn't find a 996 T and ended up buying a 997 TT other wise i too would have been driving a UMW Stage 2 turbo

UMW

z06801

what's changed from the A to B kit?

AeroTurbo

Please contact Kevin for the specific components included in the 2B kit, but its basically an upgraded fuel system and injectors.

powdrhound

What is you rev limiter set at and what is your boost limit with this kit? 1.2 bar? thx...

watsonj0

Can you post some pics of the intake kit and the fuel kit? I am curious if the intake kit is a modified stock manifold of a fabricated piece from scratch? I have seen a couple of threads with reference to the UMW intake kit on Rennlist one seemed to be a custom piece and the other the stock manifold with new ends welded on.

darth g-f

Any idea how much power that you now have?

AeroTurbo

Sorry its taken so long to get back...traveling alot these days.


Watsonj0....I don't have any pics of the kits, but I believe the intake kit is not stock but a custom build, designed to equalize the flow of air into the engine in addition to providing more volume. Nice thing is that Kevin has integrated all these mods to work together seamlessly to achieve the performance.

darthgf...I don't know the exact power of this setup. My goal was lag reduction, reliability, and street drivability. It is likely that I'm in the low to mid 500 RWH range though. Kevin will correct me if I'm wrong