Nugget

I've been meaning to post an update here but it's been tough finding the time to actually sit down and put my thoughts together. I haven't been very active on Rennlist for the past several years, but mostly that's just because things have been great with the RS, the Cayenne is holding up fine, and Equiraptor and I have been out at the track every spare moment we've had. This past January, though, I had an engine failure as I was coming off track at Texas World Speedway. Local dealer was reluctant to do anything more than just confirm the expensive-sounding clattering noises. They did observe that three spark plugs were backed out and three were fouled (not the same three). Compression test was equal on all cylinders (I don't recall the level). I wish I'd thought to take some video from the paddock, just to document the noises, but sadly I neglected to do that. Naturally, I did the only rational thing -- I shipped the car off to Sharkwerks for a complete top and bottom rebuild as a 3.9L. It's a lot easier to write that cheque when it's an upgrade and not just a repair, I suppose.




I'm not sure if Dan and Alex plan to include the car on their Project Gallery but the highlights go something like this...

Nothing was obviously ruined inside the engine, but all the components were showing significant wear. It's a 50,000 mile track car running back-to-back red and black run group sessions in the Texas heat. We're hard on the car in all the right ways. Melted heat shields, disintegrated catalytic converters. Sharkwerks never fired it up, but their theory is it was most likely one or more of the lifters, which show the most wear, coupled with some higher mile oil (whether low or just inadequate lubrication from being dirty/thin). This and/or a combination of the exhaust heat shields could've made a surprising racket, as even at idle they would be bouncing around and make some terrible sounds. He also says the cats may have finally come apart recently (which may have explained you passing emissions last year), moving around and having those pieces fluttering around could've made some bad sounds. In hindsight, I suspect that 0W40 oil is too thin for our use case. There's no such thing as winter down here in Texas, so the cold-start protection of 0W is totally meaningless for how the car is used, and the 40 part is not doing me any favors after an hour of track in the hot Texas summer. Going forward I'll be using thicker oil and religiously doing the Blackstone Labs analysis after changes. Overall though, I wasn't terribly concerned with the diagnosis since the prognosis and treatment was going to be the same no matter what.

Before...


After...


I opted for the full Monty 3.9L rebuild, swapping from titanium rods to steel in the interest of durability. My future plans for the car are to put another 50k hard track miles on it. No armchair bench racing goals, I'm just hoping to thrash the hell out of the car for many more years. Among the many upgrades they do for any 3.9L build they also recommended some fancy, high-zoot oil pump (I think it's an Auto Verdi. The crankshaft balancing effort was staggeringly precise also. Between the balancing and the lopey cams the car is transformed at idle and at redline. They also fitted their bypass exhaust (the streety one, not the mental track-only one) as well as the Bilstein clubsport dampers and springs. I chose to leave the redline at 8400 rather than bumping it up to 8800 as they usually do. Through the whole process, everyone at Sharkwerks was an absolute joy to work with. They're Porsche enthusiasts of the highest order and I feel so lucky to have had an opportunity for them to work their magic on my car.

We flew out to pick the car up last month and got in a great day of driving with SCCA up at Thunderhill. Sadly, my plans to road trip the car home were scuttled by a leaking power steering line so I ended up just having to have the car shipped back to Texas and just got it back last week. I had its Texas track debut down at MSR Houston with Chin last Saturday. Needless to say, the car is a joy to drive. Now that I've had a chance to run it at a familiar track I really have an appreciation for the amount of extra power it's delivering. In light of that, I'll be swapping to AP rotors and Ferodo DS1.11 pads when it's time to do my next brake service.



More pictures can be found over on Flickr here and also in this album here

from the archives, previous threads on the car:

• At least this hobby is cheaper than aviation
• I did a complete 180

jonwb

My hat goes off to you guys running your RS' like this. Your car looks awesome, and I think your decision to go with a Sharkwerks 3.9L was brilliant. I look forward to hearing more about your impressions of the car w/ the upgraded engine.

Spyerx

You're my inspiration :-)
How many miles on the car? Any idea how many track miles?
I'm pretty religious about oil changes and using higher quality oil. Like 5 days max and use torco sr5r (NOT CHEAP!!!). Even that oil starts to wear at that time, we will be trying the 5-50 next time and do black stone to compare. I do black stone every other Oci. My car sees 30-40 track days a year.

But hell you got an awesome upgrade as a result.

Seriously guys, when you're old and you've driven the crap out of your RS and you look back will you say "I wish I drove it less so it was worth 100k more?" Or whatever? Or will you look back at all the awesome times you had driving one of the best cars Porsche has ever made, as they intended.... Think about that!

Bloose993TT

So good. Not sure if you heard the new DWA podcast. They give your car a bunch of props!

http://shoutengine.com/DrivingWhileA...cast-156-22070

Nugget

Man, that is so true. What a great attitude!

Nugget

The whole podcast was great, I could listen to all those guys geek out about cars for hours and hours. It almost made me want to buy an Evora!

surlynkid

Now we can call "off" damage the new "patina". Love it.

BeakerGT3

Welcome to the 3.9 club. Great, innit?

Dan@SharkWerks

Thanks for posting this and as Alex said on DWA, it was a pleasure to work on your car. We were so glad to see every inch of a GT3RS having been put to use like this (as intended) and we were all excited about the potential for what the car could be when we were completed with it. It truly was one of our favorite builds.

On DWA I said something about oil and service - I just wanted to express the wonder that the Mezger is. I know the important bits on this car were always respected and even Porsche's recommendations for oil etc are insufficient for the kind of hard driving this car saw. Look at the rebuild intervals for a Cup car and this "street" GT3RS sure did a great job with its first 50k. I'm sure you have a lot of fun ahead and we're all looking forward to seeing the future of this monster.

equiraptor

No worries, Dan. Your meaning was clear (at least to me) and it was nothing you hadn't said to us before. I'm hard on cars, and the GT3 endures my driving like few cars can.

I'm eager for fall to come, when the cooler weather lets us spend more time on track. I need to get the suspension dialed in and learn where its new limits are. There are some specific turns I have in mind to test both the car and myself. In the mean time, we'll put on those new pads & rotors.

ilko

The epitome of making lemonade out of lemons. Love it! Hope you enjoy this beast for years to come!

bergx7

Nice build!

I recommend Mobil 1 5W50 and sample going forward

zumaron

Freaking stellar!!! As the great Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith said “I love it when a plan comes together.”

Rick GT3

what's the history of the orange 904?, original or Beck 904?

Dan@SharkWerks

That is a Beck 904, maybe the 12th or so 904 that Beck made. James' project car... he's built a nasty 3.6L for it but sounds like it'll have a smaller engine