After a long search I found a 997.2 GT3 3,8 engine (donor car was in an accident) with a 'few scratches' and without exhaust, intake or ecu. But the price was right :-)
Its meant to be installed in an older project car, so emissions are not a concern. Sound is a concern to some degree as I want it road legal.
This got me thinking: why not try improve the intake and exhaust with free-er flowing parts and use a stand-alone ecu? I have some experience with the latter :-)

What I however don't know is what gains can be had from the original block without changing cams or compression? As I am thinking about (tapered 51mm) individual throttle bodies for intakes and as they do cost more then an original intake (I think) and as I have no clue how efficient the original parts really are, I was hoping some of you here might know what gains are to be had by all of this. Basically: would such an intake outperform any stock (Cup) parts?

The original design of these Mezger engines seems to originate from the 962 racers, so what if you would outfit an otherwise stock 3,8 GT3 long block with ITB's and a proper header exhaust system?
How much hp would then be possible with the right tune? And how much RPM can these engines safely endure for short periods of time?
Are there any tuners/racers out there that have done this already?

Thanks in advance,
Walter

 

HP gains from tuners are modest but at least 10-15hp and TQ. For RMPs some tunes will give you 8700-8800.

 

There are definite gains to be had from these engines when improving the intake-exhaust curve, obviously along with an ECU (DME) tune. Where are you located? PM me if you'd like and we can further discuss. We've done everything from 4.15L builds to simple bolt-ons to anything in between. It all really depends what you want and how in-depth you want to go.

 

Hi MJ,
Thats good to hear! Plan is for a set of Jenvey ITB's and a good 3-1 header without cats and too much restrictions otherwise. As I don't have the ecu with the engine, I'll use an aftermarket stand-alone ECU (probably DTA) for fuel and ignition control.
What would you say the flywheel hp range could be with the above add-ons and otherwise original long block? Stock is 435 DIN hp for this ROW version afaik.

Are there any dyno results known for this engine with ITB's? Anybody done this before?

BTW, I'am located in The Netherlands, Europe :-)

 

 

So my current setup is EvoMS Headers, test pipe, RSS X pipe, EvoMS/Fabspeed Custom tune, 4.0 LWFW and BMC filter. Seems like a setup you are leanings towards, I dynoed it on a pretty modest mustang dyno and it was giving me consistent 390-400 WHP, the shop owner said on any other dyno it could be sure to reach at least 420 WHP, so give or take close to 500 crank.

As for LWFW, there is constant debate about HP gains, it will for sure feel faster but I don't think there is any hard hp gains.

 

I think you'd see some really nice gains by switching to E85 and a stand alone ECU (aem infinity) with a good tuning session. This wouldn't break the bank, either.

Ryan

 

That sounds indeed very promising!
It would almost seem that with something like headers like you haveRayan, , the Jenvey ITB's and Pipercross air filters, it should then be very possible to approach the magical 500 crank hp (4.0 territory :-)). Thats great to learn!

@Ryan, E85 is not my thing as its not readily available at the pump over here (or at all, more and more).

 

I personally wouldn't go the ITB route. Law of diminishing returns when considering the effort you'll be making to tune them correctly vs the gains over the 4.0L intake manifold which is just plug and play. What exhaust are going to use? It's key to build these as a comprehensive and well thought out project. They work/perform significantly better than if you simply buy a bunch of parts and piecemeal it. We start with our client's desired goals and reverse engineering it. As for hp gains, well there are so many factors, honestly our range is quite a bit wide. From stock everything (390ish±10) to our fully built 4.15L engines with all sorts of goodies (540ish+).

 

Thanks for these wise words MJ!
Thats interesting. What would a complete 4.0 intake manifold cost (its a dealer item I suppose)? Ball-park?