I have always been of the philosophy that mods should complement a car and not try to adversely change the nature of it. To date all of my mods have been chosen carefully to reflect such a decision. Since this is a car driven and enjoyed by my wife as well, any degradation in drivability would be met with extreme prejudice and spousal anguish. I have chosen AWE as a tuner because I like their approach to tuning. Their goal is a complete balanced project while retaining stock or better than stock drivability. Onto to the review:
I:Components:
The 700 kit consists of the larger VTG turbos, larger intercooler cores, larger throttle body, larger intake plenum, headers, exhaust, and ECU programming. The craftsmanship of the components is top notch. Everything is at the level of factory finish or better. Fitment is perfect with no monkeying around. A friend of mine who is a master Porsche tech helped put in the plenum while I worked on the intercoolers and he made the unsolicited comment that the fitment of the pieces was remarkable. He is used to much "looser" tolerances in tuning products.
II:Installation:
If you can install your own exhaust you can do this whole kit. I actually installed and reinstalled the kit twice and total install time I would place at about 10 hours for 1 person. No specialty tools are required beyond some male and female torx sockets and some PB Blaster. All bolts and nuts are accessible by normal sized human hands. I would rate the procedure at about a 6/10 in the scale of difficulty. 1/10 as checking your tire pressure manually, and 10/10 being an engine rebuild.
Basic procedure involves
1)jack up car with supports
2)remove rear wheels
3)remove rear fender liners
4)remove tail lights and license plate
5)remove rear bumper
6)unbolt intercoolers with brackets as a unit
7)move heat shields out of the way to expose turbos
8)remove turbo hardlines and ducts
9)unbolt nuts from turbo to exhaust and header
10)remove headers
11)loosen exhaust
12)remove turbos - remove diverter valves and oil reservoir and swap onto new turbos
13)remove air box and filter
14)remove y-pipe and disconnect IAT sensor
15)remove throttle body
16)remove plenum
17)reinstallation in reverse of above
III:Impressions:
I have been a little bit hesistant to post my impressions because it is simply going to sound like an AWE sackride. However I will parlay the experience to date as openly as I can. Idle, throttle response is all indistinguishable from my stage II which was better than stock. There is no hesitation whatsoever, and no noticeable lag increase. Engine noise is unchanged as is the exhaust note. Throttle tip-in is all the same, so no new clutch techniques are needed. The only thing necessary is increased vigilance when mashing the throttle. My car was fast, especially with the race program with the stage II. I never felt any lack of power. This new package increases that intensity by 100% it seems. I am realizing that I have to look far ahead in traffic because your reaction time is going to be tested with this kind of power. I don't think that this car can be fully appreciated on the street at all. The boost builds so quickly that it shocks you. Full boost comes on by 2500 rpms or less it seems, but it is hard to say for sure because you don't have time to glance down at the gauge. I will get some GPS timing done soon but it does appear to be producing an appreciable jump in power from before. BTW this is all on the pump gas - I have not even tried the race mode yet!
I will be posting more installation pics later
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08 Cayenne TT
07 997 tt To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Great write up. I am getting ready to pull the trigger on the AWE sytem but I have to ask, I havnt tracked my car but intend to some day. Do you think this kit is overkill for a daily driver or completely uneccesary. Will I be able to enjoy it on the streets? I already have many mods (Exhaust, headers, GIAC remap, TA coilovers) and the car is definately fast but I always seem to want more whether I can use it or not. Thanks for any advice.
Thanks for the great narrative and anxiously looking forward to your follow-ups. I visited AWE a month ago and was extremely impressed. Got a ride in their "beast" and all I can say is - wow. I seriously considered doing this entire set-up but I think it may be overkill for my type of driving. While I bought my first Porsche in 1978 and have had about 15 different Porsches (including 3 other Turbos), I am only an aggresive (I don't mean that in a dangerous way) street driver, not a track guy. I would like to get more involved in "light" tracking and maybe go to a driving school. I also have a twenty year old and a twenty-five year old that I let drive it and every once in a while my wife will drive it. I have AWE's exhaust and will do the ecu after I have some more miles on the car. Eclou, based on this short explanation of how I use the car, what are your thoughts?
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Duffy
09 - Cayenne Turbo S - Lava Gray
09 - SL550 - Black
08 - 997 TT - GT Silver/Cocoa, PCCBs, Dymags
07 - S550 - Flint Gray
06 - BMW M3 / 08 - BMW 335XI Coupe
Turbo hardlines and ducts removal. Use female and male torx sockets to loosen 5 hardlines from the turbo. I used a small chisel or screwdriver to help lift the flanges of these lines off the turbo. There is enough flex in the lines to push them off the body. The compressor ducts unscrew from the rear (inlet) tube and unclip from the side (outlet) tube. Careful not to hurt any of the O-rings on any of the lines. AWE very thoughtfully provided all new Viton O rings but I reused the old ones. Also remove the EGT probe with a 14mm wrench
Stock header being removed. Remove this first to allow easier turbo removal. Install new header after new turbo installation. Use liberal amounts of PB blaster for 2-3 days prior to attempt. Also, Passenger side headers is very close to the oil tank - end bolt can be accessible with a 1/4" drive 13mm socket since the 3/8" drive sockets are too wide to clear.
Header removed. Exhaust ports are exposed, as is the turbine inlet of the turbo. I used carb cleaner to remove some of the carbon to ensure a clean mating surface for the new headers. The new AWE headers are perfectly matched in size to the exhaust ports ensuring uninhibited flow.
New header installed. Beautiful contours. The primaries and collector are matched in size to the head and turbo to ensure optimal flow. Good access in maintained to all mounting bolts. Do not tighten the header in place until the turbo is fitted to the lines and exhaust - you need some play here to get the turbo flanges to fit over the studs, then tighten everything down
Diverters are removed from the stock turbo. Just unfasten 3 10mm bolts. Reassemble to new turbo with a dab of blue or green loctite
Swap out the oil reservoir. Held in place with 2 torx bolts. Replace O ring with new one thoughtfully provided in kit
Intercooler fitment - old intercooler cores are smaller than the new ones. The stock cores are recessed inside the frame of the intercooler, whereas the new ones are flush. The ducts need to be trimmed with a utility knife to allow the ducts to fit flush and clamp properly. The plastic is thin so trimming is a breeze - maybe 10 minutes
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08 Cayenne TT
07 997 tt To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
New plenum installed. Best way is to push the rubber hoses inward onto the plenum, fit it in place, the push the hoses out to place. Rotate the plenum with the throttle body flange downward to allow easier access to the vacuum hose fittings
New throttle body is significantly larger than stock
Plenum and throttle body installed. Looks completely stock
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08 Cayenne TT
07 997 tt To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
It is definitely usable power. You just don't need to put the throttle all the way down. One can easily still modulate how much power you want to have by the throttle, but just have to learn to be more judicious in the application of it. If the stock car had a "power/fun" dial that went to 5, then Stage II dial went to 8, and this is about a 12.
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08 Cayenne TT
07 997 tt To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
That sounds intense to say the least and Mike has been nothing more than great to deal with from my experience as well. I have always look at Protomotive as a source for this type of upgrade but it looks like GIAC/AWE has it down to a science as well.
I hope to have this setup by the middle of summer. I am like Duffy and several on here with the street driving more than track driving. Judicious and 700hp doesn't seem to go hand in hand
Thank you for the review and detailed pictures of the process. It is impressive when someone not only mods a car to the kind of horsepower you have but more impressive is when a person is involved personally in the installation. I am a hands on as much as I can.
Location: Jeez, it's was only 12 degrees this Morning...and it's only November!
Age: 35
Posts: 1,694
Rep Power: 75
Wow...thank you for sharing.
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07 997 Turbo
02 996 Turbo - gone, but not forgotten
"So a GTR is more than 2sec faster than a 997 turbo on a 1:40 ish lap by the same driver. Multiply that by 5, and the GTR is around 10sec faster than a turbo on the Nurb. Sounds right to me." - GT-R logic To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Just kidding.
Linear Mode
