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Hello,
Can some 997 experts tell me if the 3.8 emblem on the 997.1 or 997.2 air boxes are separate items? So the aluminum strip shown here in this photo, is it just glued onto the airbox lid, or is it molded in? I believe the 3.8 on the 997.2 is a separate item, and not part of a strip. I’m looking for a smaller 3.8 badge and would like to try and create one from an air box lid. If you have a wrecked 997 or spare airbox cover laying around, let me know, I’d love to buy this part. Thanks
I ended up making my own. It really bugged me that the original air box badge said "3.8" after my engine was rebuilt as a 4.0 liter. The aluminum blank was purchased as an aluminum strip from Lowes, shaped on a special routing fixture I made, then laser engraved. I also had the badge covered in PPF before installing it with a special double-sided tape. It's been in place securely for 4 years. BTW, the original was also installed with a double-stick tape and can be popped off carefully with a flat strip of steel like a really thin putty knife.
I experimented with several different media: brushed aluminum, Cherry, Walnut, Sapele, polished aluminum. Original badge at the bottom. Completed updated (brushed aluminum) air badge.
Last edited by JustinCase; 03-28-2024 at 06:39 PM.
Really nice work, it looks beautiful. The original looks to have a raised profile to the letters and numbers, can you confirm that? Thanks for sharing, I’ll likely end up making something myself.
Here is the article about this project as I wrote and had published in "Solid Gold," the monthly publication of the Musik Stadt PCA club (Nashville):
OEM or OCD?
by Carl W. Spencer
We Porsche enthusiasts are obsessed with details. Everything about our cars must be just right: the right model and year, the right color, the right tune, the right stance, the right tires, the right wing, the right suspension, and the most appropriate mods for our driving styles.
Take my air box badge. I spent a lot of time and money having my 3.8-liter 997.1 engine rebuilt with increased 4.0-liter displacement. Yet every time I opened the engine lid there it was, taunting me: the badge still said “Porsche 3.8.”
So, I slapped a piece of blue painter’s tape over the “3.8,” wrote “4.0” on it with a Sharpie and rode that way until my tacky-meter went off. I knew I had to do better.
Rather than risking my original air box with experiments, I picked up a used air box off eBay from a parted-out 3.6-liter engine. While there are some assembly differences, the injection-molded plastic air box top is identical to my original except for the displacement number on the Porsche badge.
The OEM air box badge appears to be anodized aluminum with a stamped raised field with raised letters. Since I don’t keep a hydraulic metal press and the appropriate set of proprietary custom Porsche dies in my cabinet shop, I am limited to badge materials and methods I am able to fabricate with common woodworking tools. Once the basic badge blank was properly shaped, I planned to laser engrave the graphics on it.
I chose three species of wood (Cherry, African Mahogany, and Walnut) for my initial trials, largely because I had plenty on hand in my shop. If they worked well, I could always obtain and use rare (and expensive) Makassar Ebony to match my steering wheel and the other exotic wood trim inside my car. I planed and sanded the wood blanks down to 3/32” in preparation.
Just in case a wood badge might look a little out of place (!) on a modern internal combustion engine, I picked up a 12” x 24” piece of 0.025” bright silver anodized aluminum from JDS Industries (Sioux Falls, SD) that looks quite similar to the background of the OEM badge. For good measure, I also bought a 1.5” x 48” strip of .0625” raw aluminum from our local Lowe’s. But I wasn’t sure either one would laser engrave well with the 60-watt CO2 laser equipment I had on hand.
With all these material options at my disposal, I decided to make a hand router jig so I could accurately cut out any number of badge blanks from a variety of test materials. The following series of photos documents how I made the jig, how I repeatedly cut out perfect-fitting badge blanks, and how I permanently installed the winning badge on the original air box in my car.
You can skip the router jig building process if all you care about is making a single badge, but it is definitely harder to saw and shape a single copy of the final material to nearly perfect specifications. Also, you have to start all over again if you make a mistake, either in fabricating the blank or laser engraving it. With the routing jig, I had the ability to duplicate any number of perfect blanks and experiment with several different materials and different laser engraver settings.
Along the way, I discovered I could laser-engrave aluminum after a fashion using an expensive “metal marking” spray coating. The thicker piece of raw aluminum from Lowe’s worked the best and looked far more “OEM” than all the other materials I tried -- the clear winner!
Somehow, my Porsche world feels back in harmony once again.
Interesting... i never advertised that I made this for a customer and listed on site. Didn't expect much interest to make more of them worth it. its raised shiny letters not flat laser etched.
@JustinCase - if you want me to offer them as another style (laser engraved) let me know. I offered it to the customer but they didn't bite they wanted raised shinny letter . If I get a customer who wants to pay less for just laser engraved - I'll reach out (if you are interested.)
03-26-2024, 08:22 PM
Question on 997 Airbox Emblem
