First off, thanks to all of you guys here that have helped our lil' place get off of the ground. Your support has been unimagineable and we feel very lucky indeed. It's because of support like that and being able to work closely with Todd/Mike/John @ EVO we're ever-so-quietely on-board with rebuilding and/or strengthening these 996TT engines now. I remember seeing Stephen @ IA post a thread like this back in the day (on rennlist I think?) but for those of us that weren't there at the time I figured I'd resurect one and give you guys somewhat of a pictorial. Stephen can go back to sleep on this one

James has built all kinds of Porsche engines in the past but doing these 996TT ones is obviously more fun. You can be safe in the knowledge that should you send your car/engine to us at SharkWerks it will be _James_ doing the building (I swing from headers and do bolt ons!). We've got some more in the coming month, ranging from 700 builds to possible a Middle Eastern 900HP request (custom, custom) which will be fun.

Yes these cars take well to mods and we can get up to 700-800 etc.. HP but it still brings us back down to Earth when we look at all the damage we've done to them. It's not just the usual thrust bearing wear, blown head gaskets (heads lifting- wee!), bent rods, charred pistons (who's running too much boost you basards!?!?) etc... you'll see from the pix that even these engines are not industructable. Bent valves, chunks missing from pistons, rods not only bending but now twisting (I don't think Chad, myself or anyone else has been guilty of the twisting part lol).

First things first. The basics... You need about $5000 worth of Porsche Tools and then some other commercially available gear. Then there's the $5000 volumes upon volumes of Porsche manuals too. You also need to pull the engine and tranny out. There are so many more parts on these than on a 930 that I helped (cough) with. Obviously off come all the underpanels, undercarriage (sub frame and so forth) and the bumper and some top-engine parts.

 

Off comes the tranny (6speed or MonkeyTronic) and you can put that aside (in the oven so to speak). Once the engine is out you really start to curse at the reason for all of the extra electronic harness, watercooling and all the fun stuff that goes with it. **** it's a bloody mess. Somewhere underneath is a short-block I promise.

 

No wonder we all run with some sort of boost leak all the time.... LOL
I suggest everyone doing a pressure test once a year...

 

Just start peeling off the myriad of hoses, lines and junk... It gets smaller and smaller. The pile of boxes gets bigger and bigger. Off come the usual alternator, hyrdualic fluid pump, y-pipe, throttlebody, fuel rails, injectors, exhaust, smog pump etc.. And those are NOT condoms over the coolant and oil lines. This engine leaks fluids like a an old dog. Coolant, oil, hyrdaulic fluid.. oh and more oil and more coolant.

 

Oh jeez there goes the AC, slave... and it's looking less cluttered again. Hmm there's even a way to make this thing AirCooled lol (or provision for a fan anyways). And you can even see the intake manifold properly (not as pretty as the silver ones on the 997S but hey). And off with the oil tank too.

 

After you've cleaned off the surrounding area around the intake manifold you can take it off and see some daylight (or rather the shiny long block). Again you still have to cut down some weeds (aka more hoses).

 

Now that we're down to the block and clear of all that mess it's time for a drink.

 

I see valves (four valves per cylinder instead of 2 for the 993TT). I see chains and boxes full of parts that came off. I see lifters. I see exhaust cams and then some crazy variocams (they are so different to the normal intake cams you see). Variable lift and those cams and lifters get controlled by our ECUs. Not sure why CJV wants to get rid of those

 

Now that you've seen them, start removing them. Remove the cam housings but check out the oil galleries/ways. Crazy and ellaborate indeed.

 

Keep pulling the assembly apart and you get to the cylinders and rod bolts, the meat and potatoes....

 

And now after some inspection comes the badness. The cracked liner is a bad sign (that one is a gooner). Then there's that valve with a chunk missing. Ouch the piston's not only been rubbed on but there goes a piece of it (we would later find this piece under the oil pump in the case). Stuff like this happens (and worse- like my own car for exapmple) folks but it is obviously fixable.

 

Hmm yes there's more. That rod is bent. But then this one is bent and twisted. These things are still pretty darn strong and it's not like some of the older SC's or 964s that I've seen rods snap/shatter and blow a hole through the case. At least these ones just bend over time

 

At least it was just a couple of valves, a liner, two rods and a piston. Could been worse! Good thing the owner went with EVO's Forged Piston kit, Carillo Rods and Rod Bolts. And yes we threw in a GT3R Oil Pump to boot (Stephen has a good comparo pic of those). I don't have pix of that stuff yet (it's on the other camera so I'll update with those later).

The casting on the stock pistons and fly cutting is not quite as impressive but the weights are roughly the same. Obviously the EVO ones are stronger amongst other beneficial properties.

 

Anyways it's back to re-assembling now with all of the EVO goodies. In go the new liners and pistons and we're using some of those Porsche tools as you can see. Although one of the most expensive tools showed up with a broken handle- the plastic cracked during shipping. Oh well there goes another $467

 

And then it's back the way we came along with plenty of red lube, stronger EVO gaskets and studs. Yes they're thicker and the compression is slightly lowered but you _can_ run more boost (except if you're me or Craig )