Brad Roberts

Thank you sir! I'll speak with Dwain later next week. I'm heading to Texas to deliver a Porsche. We are just trying to gather as much info about failures as possible! B

No :) They do not have an intermediate shaft. They utilize two chains off the front of the crank and run two cams per chain. One going to the right bank and the other going to the left bank. (from the factory book released to Porsche techs before the cars starting shipping) B

Oh.. FYI: the M97's will not see the IMS failure the early M96's have experienced. Porsche went from a 5 chain cam drive system to a 3 chain. This took some of the stress off the IMS. They also beefed up the IMS rear bearing and support. They also used much much better material for the actual shaft itself which means less twisting :) B

Here is Quinn's old Cayman engine :( I have NEVER seen a piston split like this and I have building Porsche engines for nearly 23 years now. You can see in the second pic how the rod damaged the engine case while it was being thrown around :( That is a small hole to the bottom right of the cylinder where the rod bolt exited the case. B

I have a 3.4 CaymanS apart right now (actually I have multiple M96 and M97's apart right now) You may know the engine :) It is the last one that was in Quinn's car here in SoCal. His car broke a rod bolt and let the rod cap fly around inside the engine. Now, the question is: How did that rod bolt break? I do not have access to his car, if I did, I'd check the range 2 overrevs looking for a mechanical overrev :( We do have aftermarket rods/pistons/cranks/intermediate shafts available currently (I work VERY closely with the two companies mentioned above) I received a phone call from the track within minutes of your engine expiring and I was making an effort to track you down and ask you what happened. I'm working on stocking dyno tested upgraded M96 and M97 engines for shops here in SoCal :) We are well on our way to providing people with a solid solution to these engine issues (and come in well under what the factory wants for a *questionable* replacement. Is this a BBI car or a Essa car? Or Vision? or Speed Gallery? I'd like to see it the engine apart. B

I'm on crack.. You are correct, it would cause toe out. I mis-stated that the toe links are behind axle centerline (I had the rears on my mind) The fronts are indeed ahead of axle centerline and it would cause toe out!! B

Whoa.. :lol: 60/40 60% lock on acceleration and 40% lock on decel (or whatever the ramp config is meaning that we can change the ramps in the GT3 ZF style diffs to make it 40/60 or 80/20 or 20/80) In the PRO racing world, we use the diff as a tuning tool for the driver. Some like more lock on decel, some don't! Some like 100% lock! The clutch plate ZF diffs can be fully rebuilt and basically "repacked" to achieve different amounts of "lock". It is a simple combination of friction plates and steel plates. Depending on how you stack them as you re-assemble the diff will effect the amount of lock. It goes like this: friction-steel-friction-steel-friction-steel (say this is 50% lock) If I stack them this way: friction-friction-steel-steel-friction-steel (this combo would yield 25% lock) Now throw in a different thickness on the steel plates (we call it packing the diff) now you can create more spring pressure or flip the "wave" washers over and lose compression on the frictions-steels :) I'll go into "ramps" if you like :) The picture below is what is inside your diff. Item number 6 will be the friction-steel packs. B I'm kinda bummed out.. I have pics of a ZF Cup Diff dis-assembled and laid out. I took the pics to document exactly how it came apart so we could put it back together with the exact amount of lock (we did this at the Thunderhill 25hr race a few years back) I called up Paul Guard and met him near his house to pick up new parts and rebuild our diff in the pit area :) B

If anyone needs/wants PMNA parts contact me offline :) B

Hey! I recognize two out of 4 posters :) B

In San Jose, this car belongs to some friends. I maintain it for them. These are 19's. I'm getting ready to slap 275's on it (they came with 265's) B

+1 for the H&R's :) B

Jim, it doesn't take much to knock out the alignment on the rear of the early Boxsters. The toe adjustment and camber adjustment is done on eccentrics and they are known to slip. It could also be spring sag. The ChickTronic cars came with different rear springs to compensate for the extra weight. If they sag, the car will go more negative in camber (and the toe will change causing tire wear) B

The Bilstein PSS9 kit set on full soft is softer than the stock shocks. Personally, I would take a look at your engine mount. I have yet to see a good one on a 986 (unless it has a 987 part number on it meaning it was replaced not too long ago) PM me. I ship to Europe 2-3 times a week :) B

Just the three outer.. BUT.. this causes TOE_IN which you DO not want for track use. Most of us tracking Boxster's either run zero toe or 2mm's total toe out :) On *some* of our 997 GT3CUP IMSA Challenge cars we run 4mm TOE IN, but we are compensating for the amount of movement the suspension has under braking (we want ZERO Toe under braking, makes for a more stable car) Honestly.. max out the camber and reset the toe. With stock lower control arms you will only get *maybe* -1.2 or so out of it. This is fine for the street. What 99% of the people out there don't understand: camber does not wear tires. TOE wears tires. If you do not set the toe.. it will literally SCRUB away the inside of the tires. If you'd like, I can describe how to adjust toe at home with 4 jackstands and some string or fishing line :) B

Do you have any pictures of the car you can share with us? I'd like to see the ride height :) B

Picture of the Kokeln piece :) B

This is true :( The actual intake is too low on the side of the car. We found this after running the car through CFD tests and corrected it by running a completely different setup into the trunk (race car) He may actually have a problem at speed, however?? I'd like to hear what he has for exhaust. I agree, that is probably his problem. The Kokeln/Vision piece is not expensive. I will tell you that many of us tested it, but all went and moved the air cleaner to a totally different area in the car. B

Just quick note on this: Use BOAT trailer wheel bearing grease. It will not wash off (ever) you will not need much :) B

Guess I should pre-qualify myself :lol: 21 years of Porsche wrenching from 356 to the latest Porsche Motorsports has to offer. Since 99 I have been on multiple factory backed and non factory backed GT3Cup/GT3R/RS/RSR teams competing in the ALMS and Grand Am. I work with shops and car owners.. and manufacturers all over the USA developing/installing new parts. I typically don't use the forums to find "test" people, but this is a unique situation (not everyone owns a 997 GT3 street car) oh yeah.. add in close to 18 years of computer consulting work.. I also run a couple of other Porsche related forums (on this same software) B

The bars have been tested on multiple 997 GT3 Cup cars, but we would like to get some "street" car testing in also. We will install it (factory trained Porsche tech, or your fav shop can do it) It is a DUAL BLADE adjustable bar. The CUP cars have a single blade and lack any serious adjustment in the bar. The manufacturer is WELL KNOWN throughout the Porsche community and well respected. The range of adjustment on this new setup is flat out amazing!! When the testing is done, you will be offered the bars for 50% less than what it sells for retail to the public (or we can reinstall your stock bars if you don't want the setup) I personally am eating the other 50% for testing purposes. Neither of us have a GT3 to test with (but I have easy access to 07-08 GT3 Cups) Let me know if you are interested. Driver feedback is what we are looking for. If you know you are attending a track day in CA. soon and would like to test with us, send me a PM or email. We will buy lunch/dinner whatever.. :) Here is the difference in numbers between the 3 bars: B

I have been dealing with GT3 Cup cars and street cars since the first Cup cars came over from Kadach (German firm that sells used Cup cars) Not one time have I seen a failure or heard of one (and I deal with shops and race teams 24/7) You are correct in saying: the case was never designed for that, but it was also not designed for 1000hp twin turbo setups (but they work fine) I'll see if I have a recent pick of your "Made in Spain" engine case and show you the internal webbing. You'll see quickly that is "Ok" to lift them there. Your case really isn't much different than all the cases before it (66-98) and we have been lifting 911's like this since 1966 (not me.. I was born in 70.. lol) but you get my point. Now, that being said, The tech who lifted the car should be *shown* how to use a small piece of wood in the center of the jack pad to keep this from happening.. or they need to BUY the proper pieces for their lift if they are going to TOUCH 986/996/997 chassis' I'd be miffed also B

Do you have the records on this car? It sounds like *somebody* did a cam cover reseal and didnt keep everything lined up like they were supposed too. I would'nt worry about it. B

This is becoming more and more of an issue as the TT Tip owners start increasing the HP/TQ in their cars. I'm looking for a reputable shop to rebuild/beef these tranny's up. I can handle any "code" upgrades that need to be performed, but our shop doesnt have the tools (nor the knowledge) to rebuild the Tip tranny. Can anyone out there give me some leads. From what I have gathered so far..it is a Mercedes tranny, but I have NO other solid leads. Help B

The 1998-02 Boxsters use a Violet with Green stripe. It is in the white connector on the back of the dash. We installed a AutoMeter pencil style light. Pics to come. B