2003 Porsche 911 Turb-OOOOH

So the zip tie trick has been causing me issues, it tore through the mounting point on my splitter.  Doh!  So I put on my eBay "aero" splitter and used washers to bracket the plastic mount and zip tied that.  Guess I'll see how that holds up.

I'd really like a GT2 front bumper setup but those are $7100 just for the parts, ouch!  They never, ever pop up used.  A Ruf "GT2"esque front bumper setup is $4700 just for the parts, so ouch, again!  An aftermarket GT2 bumper that's urethane like OEM from NR Auto is $2000 delivered, plus I need $1000 worth of GT2 radiator ducts, plus the body shop wants $1500 in prep, so basically almost as much as the Ruf, which comes with everything, fits like OEM and only needs $500 in body work.  Le Sigh.

Plan right now is to see if something pops up used in the next few months, if not in November I'll have the body shop just replace the front bumper with an OEM turbo one (for a bargain price of only $850!) and also repaint my rear bumper to fix a large scratch that was there when I bought the car.

In reply to docwyte :

Hey doc have you autocrossed the 996TT yet? Any advice on what to look for and/or avoid for a prospective buyer?

In reply to Javelin :

Yes I have.  You need to grab it by the scruff of the neck and throw it around the course if you want to be fast.  You also need suspension work and more negative camber than you can get stock.

As far as what to look for, nothing really these are incredibly solid cars.  It'd be nice if the coolant pipes have already been welded/pinned, if it's an early car check for 2nd gear pop out issues, that's about it.  EDIT:  Forgot about the rear wing risers, unless they've already been fixed expect them to be broken.  Sometimes you can fix it just by taking the rams out and bleeding them, other times they need to be rebuilt.  There are several shop options for rebuilding them, or just replace the deck lid entirely with a GT2 knock off with the fixed rear wing.

As with any old German car you're buying the owner more than the car, so buy one from someone who's maintained it and has the paper trail to prove that. 

If you take these to a shop and have them catch it up on deferred maintenance you can get hit with an eye watering bill, easily multiples of $10,000's...

In reply to docwyte :

Thank you! I'm realizing that high mileage, driver-quality ones are in my price range if I sell the Cayenne and Boxster. Sounds like buying any other German car. Yours seems to be super fun on track, too.

In reply to Javelin :

You're finding high mileage ones for $30k?  If you are, I'd be really, really wary of them...  They used to be that much 3 years ago, now it seems like those are $40k+ now if they're decent...

In reply to docwyte :

You started this thread 4 years ago. Can you give a brief summary of what (of anything) has broken or failed vs you upgrading by choice, how many miles you've racked up, how many track days, etc. Seems like this generation 911 turbo is pretty reliable and a riot to drive.

In reply to docwyte :

Over 100K miles for the $30-$40K ones, so real high miles not collector car "high" miles. Anything in the 50-70K mile range is still $50K.

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

I've done 8k miles I think?  Nothing has broken or failed, not a single thing, but the car only has 37k ish miles on it.  Basically everything I did, I did by choice.  I've done 3-4 track days a season and 3-4 auto-x a season too. 

Maintenance I did was spark plugs, coil packs (might as well, have to take them off to do spark plugs), replace all the filters, replaced all the oil/fluids in everything and replaced the serpentine belt.  Bear in mind that this simple maintenance, done at a shop or dealer would've cost at least $4000 or more.  Dealer charges over $1300 in just labor to change the spark plugs for instance.

In reply to Javelin :

I wouldn't buy a $30k mile 996 Turbo if it's a 6MT.  If it's that cheap there's a reason and the reason is that it's going to be totally neglected.  By the time you've gotten it where it should be, you'd have saved money buying a $40k mile example.

In reply to docwyte :

That's sage advice, thank you. And yes, 6MT only.

In reply to docwyte :

Thanks for the info. If I ever find myself in the financial position to do so, I'm gonna get one of these. ;-)

So I figured I'd do a more in depth synopsis of the my ownership experience so far....

I bought it with 29k miles on it and it'd been a garage queen for the last 6 years, previous owner (a douche to deal with buying it) had driven it 3000 miles in 6 years and had done nothing to it.  The tires were 7+ years old and it had ATE Super Blue in it, so that was at least 8 years old. 

I really wanted an X50 car and one that wasn't silver but I've had such poor experiences buying cars out of state that when this one came up ten minutes from my house I bought it.  It came with the original window sticker, a Porsche Certificate of Authenticity and most of the service records.

So to start with, nothing has broken in my ownership.  When I first bought the car it came with a bad clutch slave acccumulator and a bad microswitch on the rear wing ram.  I had the dealer replace both.  Everything I've done has either been normal maintenance or OEM+ modifications.

Ok, from there I caught it up on maintenance, so flushed the skanky brake fluid out after I freed up several blocked brake bleeders, oil change, serpentine belt change, front diff/transmission oil, spark plugs and coil packs.

As far as upgrades there are *tons* of Porsche parts that bolt right on that are upgrades. 

For the brakes I used 997 Turbo larger brake rotors front/rear along with 996 GT3 6 piston front calipers and 996 GT3 front brake ducts.  I had 997 GT2RS front brake ducts but one got ripped off and at ~$200 each I decided to replace them with the $17 GT3 ones instead.

For suspension I picked up a used set of Bilstein PSS9 coilovers and the car already had a H&R rear swaybar.  I recently added 996 GT2 lower control arms to set more negative camber.

For power I put on a used AWE catted exhaust and a UMW tune.  That's about as much as I can easily do without swapping turbos, which would also mean upgrading the clutch and that turns into a rather large amount of money in just parts.

I put in a Guards rear limited slip differential this past winter and it's made a dramatic difference on track, I'm no longer spinning the inside rear wheel on corner exit.

For the interior I've installed a larger diameter rim steering wheel, a Function First shift knob, 997 GT3 shifter, a Sony Apple CarPlay stereo and a euro 996 GT3 fixed back drivers seat.

Wheels are a set of BBS RS-GT's in 18", I run the factory hollow spoke twists at the race track.

Exterior wise I removed the rear factory wing/deck lid and went with a Misha GT2 fixed wing decklid and paired that with an "aero" front lip from eBay. 

Think that's it.  I'd *love* a GT2 front bumper but they're crazy expensive, as is the Ruf version of it.  So I think I'll just replace my factory turbo rear bumper and have the rear bumper repainted at the same time to take care of a large scratch that was on it when I bought the car.  Other plans for the car are an engine out service where I either pin or weld the coolant lines, then replace every rubber or plastic bit on it.  I'd also like the add the GT3 oil dipstick so I don't have to rely on the stupid electronic one in the MFA. 

Track day!

I was helping tech cars at the track, which means I need to get my car as ready as possible before I leave.  Then a Oh dark wake up and get to the track early so I can swap wheels/tires and finish up getting ready as my run group is usually the first one out.

So up early, car ready and out on grid go to tech and start teching cars.  Last car thru has blue brake fluid.  Ummmm.....  That hasn't been sold in 8-10 years now.  Super nice guy, totally understanding that I'm gonna fail his car on that.  I get him with some people on track that have the fluid, I give him a fluid catch can and someone to help him.  He misses a session or two but we get him on track, which is great!

Holy moly was it HOT today!  Even the first session out I could feel the heat in the track.  I usually start my tire pressures about 8-9 psi lower than I want.  When I came in I had to bleed another 4 out of the rear and 3 from the front.  Came close to my PB but car was sliding around some.

Second session out it was super hot.  Tire pressures were good but I was consistently losing the rear end of the car and towards the end of the session was beginning to lose grip on the front end of the car too.  When I had to catch the car 2-3 times before I got to the apex of a corner, I called it.  Cool down lap, done.  Sadly I didn't go out after that but it's for a good reason, I'm going to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers tonight with my wife!  Needed to get the car packed up, then back home and unpacked in time for me to get cleaned up so I can go.

In other news apparently I'm getting old.  Sigh.  I used to *love* loud exhausts and I still love a good sounding exhaust but I've found that I'm much less tolerant of volume inside the cabin than I used to be.  The AWE Tuning exhaust sounds good and is much more quiet compared to the Soul Performance exhaust it replaced but it's still too loud inside the cabin for me on a freeway ride.  So when this Europipe Stage 1 exhaust popped up used I jumped on it.  These are extremely well built, supposed to make just as much power as any other exhaust on the market but be very civilized inside the cabin at cruise.  Plan is to install it this Friday and I'll swap out my track brake pads at the same time

Are those side units catalysts, mufflers, or some combo of both?

Details on the unit you're removing? A friend with a (silver) 996 TT might be interested.

In reply to Parker with too many Projects :

The first part is a cat and I think the part right after it is an expansion chamber but I'm not sure.  They're 100 cell HJS cats

In reply to dyintorace :

It's an AWE Tuning exhaust, their later single muffler design one.  Comes with 200 cell HJS cats, I never had a check engine light with this exhaust and it always passed Colorado/California style emissions here.  Sounds good, makes a noticeable difference in power.  It's off the car now.

Ok, well I decided I had a little time and I might as well swap the track brake pads for the street ones.  Then I finished that up and had the front wheels back on the car, then started thinking.  I can put the rear wheels back on and take the car off the rack, or I can leave it on the rack with the rear wheels on and just take of the rear bumper cover to start the exhaust install.  I was supposed to be going mtn biking with a friend a little while later.

Yeah, then this happened...

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to install the Europipe exhaust solo, it's a bit heavier than the AWE one and sorta awkward to do by yourself.  I decided I might as well try tho.m  Not a lot of pics of this (none, actually, haha!) as I was sort of on the struggle bus and didn't want to grab my phone to take pics.  Do yourself a favor and make sure you have the turbo heat shields hanging loosely where they should be *before* you put the exhaust up and onto the studs!  Then lift the exhaust up and rest it on the studs, then put in the primary pre cat O2 sensor.  
Then make sure that the exhaust straps are behind the tabs on the body of the car.  If not, well grab a long flat head screwdriver and move them into place, all the while trying to not pop the exhaust off the turbo flange studs or have the turbo heat shields fall off.  Because if those fall off, oh man, that'll cause a litany of swear words.  Not that I'm speaking from personal experience....

Ok, thread on some of the nuts for the studs off the turbo exit, don't forget the washers.   I used a floor jack under one side of the exhaust to hold it up into place so I could thread them all on.  The cats on this exhaust are basically the same size as the stock ones, so if you remember the struggle fest it was to get those off, lace up your boots to have some fun getting these on.  It wasn't horrible but I couldn't get any of my gear wrenches to fit.  Thankfully Europipe includes a bunch of half moon wrenches with some pipe extensions to tighten up those nuts.  It's just 1/8-1/4 turn at a time.  I couldn't get those to work on the upper right hand corner nut on the passenger side tho.  Luckily I was able to snake in a 1/4 drive rachet on some wobble extensions to do it.  See it?

Here's all the tools I used, see the little half moon wrenches and pieces of pipe to put over them to tighten the nuts?

Friend called to say it was raining and lightening, so no ride today.  Time to keep going on the exhaust.  After I got all those nuts tight I turned my attention to the straps that hold onto the mufflers.  There are barrel nuts that you have to line up and a 6mm allen bolt goes thru them.  As long as you have them lined up and you've pushed on the straps to get all the slack you can, this isn't too hard. 

I know some people put exhausts on/off without taking off the bumper but I like to remove it.  Just gives me more access and it's easy and quick to do.  Here's the car all buttoned up.

Here's outside the car cold start...

And inside the car cold start

I didn't drive the car because it's raining and I have PFC brake pad dust on my wheels.  If you get that stuff wet, and I'm not talking about when you're washing the car, it turns into cement and you'll never get it off your wheels. 

Anyways, from my very limited exposure to the exhaust so far it has a very OEM+ sound to it.  It's definitely deeper than stock and a bit louder but from inside the car it doesn't have an resonance at all.  I like the fact that there's still turbo whistle sounds I can hear.  I'm going to drive the car to work on Tuesday, then I'll get an idea of how it sounds around town and on the freeway.

Well, drove the car to work.  Really happy with this exhaust, it's OEM+.  So more power, a bit more sound when you're getting on it but totally quiet at cruise on the freeway.  Good fitment, OEM appearance so should pass a smog visual, no check engine lights, makes just as much power as my previous exhaust.  Here's a video with some in car driving.

 

Friend pinged me that he wanted to get rid of some stuff.  He has a 996 Turbo too that he tracks, he's gone further down the rabbit hole than I have, with big Xona turbo's, rwd conversion etc.  He had a set of Apex rear wheels with 315 NT01's that he wasn't using anymore.  Tires have a few days left in them, date codes are 2020.  Wheels are basically flawless, 18x12's.  Price was just a bit more than one wheel costs new, so I grabbed them.  I'll buy a set of 18x9's for the front from Apex and "retire" my stock turbo twists from track duty.

Then he had a set of 997 GT2RS intercoolers sitting on his garage floor.  Apparently they couldn't handle the 25+ psi the Xona's bang out but are fine anywhere up to

that amount.  He offered them to me for a steal, so even tho I've got a set of these installed on my car already I grabbed them as spares.

Drove the car around 100 miles today to pick up a front fender for the KTM.  Exhaust still sounds great, now the loudest noise on a freeway cruise is tire noise.

Those wheels will look fantastic!  And, just like with the corrado, the spare parts just keep accumulating!   I have the same problem.... bins of parts for my z06 that I will likely never use 

In reply to jfryjfry :

Oh, I've got nowhere near the parts stash for this car that I had for the corrado!  I had a corrado front clip in my basement, plus 2.5 sets of wheels, plus all sorts of interior plastics, starter, MAF, ECU, OBD2 conversion, on and on and on.

At this point I'll have 1 spare set of wheels (the turbo twists) and those spare GT2RS intercoolers.  Other than that I really don't have any spares for the car, other than the stock stuff I've removed when I installed OEM+ mods...

You did a RWD conversion too, right? I recall you installing the LSD but am not sure if you're still AWD or not.

In reply to dyintorace :

Nope.  I was thinking about it and have the necessary stub axles to do it, but never actually did it.  A friend of mine (same one I got the wheels/tires/intercoolers from) did lap times of 5-6 seconds faster than me and was still awd.  In fact at that point, with the exception of his $$$$$ JRZ coilovers our cars were pretty much set up the same. 

So I figured I'd stay awd until I upgraded the nut behind the wheel some more...

In reply to docwyte :

Sounds fun!  Enjoy!