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On a more "Obtanium" note, this is what I have so far-
Down-pipes I completed a while back. 304ss for the flanges and downpipe and 321ss for the bellows and dump tube. I'm not a great welder but I tried to use the right materials and process and I think everything will hold up fine. I use pie cuts for few reasons. I am not a fan of them. They take quadruple the welding vs. a mandrel bend which is more consumables, like argon. Unless you run a very expensive chop saw blade the pie pieces take a lot of work to dress up which is very consuming when you make 100 or more. I'm not blessed with a band saw More welding means more distortion and hitting the target becomes exponentially more difficult. Alas pie cuts are much much much cheaper, and infinitly versatile. More welds means more points for failure particularly on the 304ss. On the flip side mandrel bends are very expensive. 321ss even more so. Shipping is expensive and quality bends aren't everywhere. Mandrel bends are hard to set up in a chop saw and make a perfect cut in the bend. when you cut a mandrel bend in the radius of the bend the outside of the bend is always thinner, and it varies. Conversly the inside is thicker.
Completed mid pipe from flex couplings to the real muffler area.
The beast has been running/driving for a while now. I'm super happy with the performance on a stock tune. Absolutely zero issues with my custom cold air intakes and MAF placement/behaviour. I have the external gates being controlled thru the bottom port and the stock boost control system. I am using an .8 bar spring in the the gates. Everything is working absolutely great and the spool is damn near instant. I'm not burning ANY OIL. No piston slap even when very cold. And all my intake piping is free of oil and residue! Can't wait to get it turned up!
Awesome progress. Really look forward to more updates. Love your DIY trailblazing.
On a related note (but semi threadjack nonetheless) , I recently bought 997TT with bigger injectors and an E85 tune. Impressed with the power my 997 makes, I've been doing a little experimenting with an E85 mix in the CTT. I put 8 gals of E85 (in a 26 gallon tank), so I believe I'm running ~E30 blend right now. I have to say the CTT seems to love it - - smoother and more low end torque. I have a Softronic tune and my prior LTFTs were pretty negative (-10); with the e85 blend LTFTs are close to zero and no STFTs wider than +/-10 under transients, and near zero under steady state, so the tune seems to be be managing fine. Reading the interwebs, the STi and 335i guys have long-run experience without issue, but the only other guy to have experimented with E85 in a CTT is you.
So the question is, do you think your E85 experiments contributed to the cracked valve that fragged your engine? Or was it merely an unlucky coincidence? My view is the latter but would appreciate your thoughts.
Awesome progress. Really look forward to more updates. Love your DIY trailblazing.
On a related note (but semi threadjack nonetheless) , I recently bought 997TT with bigger injectors and an E85 tune. Impressed with the power my 997 makes, I've been doing a little experimenting with an E85 mix in the CTT. I put 8 gals of E85 (in a 26 gallon tank), so I believe I'm running ~E30 blend right now. I have to say the CTT seems to love it - - smoother and more low end torque. I have a Softronic tune and my prior LTFTs were pretty negative (-10); with the e85 blend LTFTs are close to zero and no STFTs wider than +/-10 under transients, and near zero under steady state, so the tune seems to be be managing fine. Reading the interwebs, the STi and 335i guys have long-run experience without issue, but the only other guy to have experimented with E85 in a CTT is you.
So the question is, do you think your E85 experiments contributed to the cracked valve that fragged your engine? Or was it merely an unlucky coincidence? My view is the latter but would appreciate your thoughts.
I don't think the E had anything to do with it. I experimented with a range of 20-30% and of course the Cayenne loves the octane. I ran my car hard and the exhaust side was just plain wore out. My results were similar to yours.
I purposely searched for a tuner that would tune for e85.
I picked up a Plex Pro boost controller. It has a couple cool features that will help with tuning and the E. I can hook up a flex fuel content sensor to it and display that percentage in real time. I can also hook up an AEM fuel pressure sensor @ the fuel rail and monitor that. The only problem I see with E in the Cayenne , other than the normal things that a user needs to be aware of, is effects on the fuel pumps themselves. Time will tell.
Thanks and agreed on the uncertainty around fuel system robustness with E85. Lots of opinions, with many recent ones suggesting that most fuel systems designed since 2000 should have no issues with it.
Honestly though, unless the pump life is incredibly shortened, the cheap performance benefits of E85 would likely offset the cost of more frequent pump replacement cycle (or upgrading to aftermarket pumps).
And for some reason I like the smell of moonshine at startup.
Well by federal regs there is already up to 15% ethanol in your gasoline and it's been that way for a while. The manufacturers don't want problems and systems are built accordingly these days. I don't think adding more is an issue as long as you fuel is in check. I wouldn't give to much credit to the fuel trims as your computer is trying to hit lambda for gasoline not e85 which is quite different.
I had intended to take some time and update all the in-betweens here but my graphics card crashed on my computer and I needed to get a laptop that was more compatible with using in the car. So, recovering those hard drives has been on the back burner. Promise all the details of this build will be disclosed when I have the time!
I have around 5k miles on the PIG now and I couldn't be happier. Engine is super mega healthy and burns no oil. I pulled about 10 ml out of my Radium AOS at my last oil change when I switched from dino break in oil with a ZDDP additive to Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 0w-40. Next oil change will be the first to send off for a UOA.
Spool is ridiculous for a 4.6 litre v8 with twin 60lb/min turbos. I honestly don't think a shot of NOS will be needed. Wastegate control is perfection and I have ZERO exhaust leaks. No issues with the manifolds!
Fuel system is complete consisting of:
*Goodridge 825 teflon lines
-8 feed
-6 return
Elimination of the stock in flange regulator
Elimination of the stock in flange filter
Obviously all fittings are now AN
Aeromotive external FPR
Weldon 10 micron SS external in-line filter
Flex fuel sensor in the return line (The Plex Pro EBC displays the Ethanol content.)
AEM fuel pressure sensor fed into the Plex EBC ( Will set a boost cut for safeguard)
-8an SS bung welded to the stock fuel rail
I have installed a Walbro 450 in the primary pump basket.
The factory design of the in tank guts and scavenging is unchanged with the exception of the above to reduce pumping losses through the factory regulator and filter.
I'm all about taking it slow and having safeguards in place concerning fuel delivery, pressure. Coupled with the safeguards built into the Motronic 7.1.1 ecu and a good tuner I think we r in good hands.
I'm literally a set of ID1050x Injectors and a few tunes away from having some solid numbers/results. Will tune for pump gas first and when that limit is reached it will be my daily tune.
After that its all about the E.
Every time I have an update I say a few weeks/ months but this time I think 2 months max before I can hit you guys with the shiz.
This is so cool just to follow along, as I really only understand about half (if that) of what's in your most recent post, but still digging the unbelievable talent and knowledge that has gone into this and hoping the final result is all you want it to be. Keep up the good work !
Thank you for the update. Can't wait to see and hear more. Those fuel system upgrades sound great and I bet it is looking pretty sexy with all those large AN fuel lines. Are you tuning using the stock o2 sensors, or do you have additional wideband sensors in the mix as well?
Thank you for the update. Can't wait to see and hear more. Those fuel system upgrades sound great and I bet it is looking pretty sexy with all those large AN fuel lines. Are you tuning using the stock o2 sensors, or do you have additional wideband sensors in the mix as well?
Thanks guys, I'm getting pretty ansty myself!
Of course one of the great things about the stock ECU is that it is one of the few that uses wideband sensors from the factory. I think adding an additional would be mainly for monitoring and safety. That is something that I will have to go over with the tuner when we get there because I am not sure if it is needed. The Plex EBC can display AFR's from a controller and I can set a boost cut for that as well. The Plex also has Canbus capability to display OBD PID's but I have not been able to get that function working and support for the Cayenne not listed by Plex. I took a chance. I need to contact Plex and see what they have to say. It may be a simple as a software upgrade. The build is real clean, quiet, and low key. Almost everything is buried or hidden. All the engine bay plastic fits as stock. The only giveaway to even a Cayenne owner is the FMIC and Single intake pipe. A real sleeper...
12-16-2017, 07:20 PM
More welding means more distortion and hitting the target becomes exponentially more difficult. Alas pie cuts are much much much cheaper, and infinitly versatile. More welds means more points for failure particularly on the 304ss. On the flip side mandrel bends are very expensive. 321ss even more so. Shipping is expensive and quality bends aren't everywhere. Mandrel bends are hard to set up in a chop saw and make a perfect cut in the bend. when you cut a mandrel bend in the radius of the bend the outside of the bend is always thinner, and it varies. Conversly the inside is thicker.
Stay tuned, it's about to get real.
