What's the best mod path for me?
 

I currently own a 997.1 Turbo with a 2.75" Kline exhaust w/100 cell cats, Fabspeed intake, and FVD tune. For the near future, i was thinking a Sachs 2.5, cat deletes, turbo inlet hoses, and 997.2 (or budget aftermarket) intercoolers. Then maybe a year after that a set of 65mm turbo's and Cobb with custom tune. My original intuition is that's a bit quick to be upgrading turbo's but from what i hear, some 65mm turbos will spool quicker than stock, so then why not? Otherwise i'll just keep the turbo's out of the equation. If you noticed a trend here, it's bang for the buck since budget is an issue. What do you guys think?

Find out how much power you want, and for how long, then put a budget ... Keep mind the duty cycle you intend to put the car through ...

There is no one right way to do it ... Some find the stock car more than enough, for others 800whp is not enough .....

If you track then build the car up from the suspension ... I find the power with a nice tune and exhaust to be just fine ... Heck, even if you don't track the suspension is the weak link on the Turbos ... Enjoy - its a slippery slope

Short shift, Coilovers, sway bars, Brembos, Guards LSD, Clutch (sachs or OEM RSR) and TPC-DSC ....

As alluded to in the above posts, what is best for you may not be best for me or someone else, but if I were you, the first thing I would do would be to ditch the fabspeed intake - it is probably counter productive. Next I would add better intercoolers; then upgraded clutch. At that point, as mentioned above you have started down "the slippery slope", and you can then decide on turbos, tunes and other enhancements depending on your usage of the car.

Suspension and intercoolers next step

As others mentioned and IMHO, after owning the car for 8 years, the most glaring weakness of the Turbo is the overly soft suspension.

My vote is also for suspension, and SSK sport shifter (huge change), and if you are going to go piecemeal on the engine work, intercooler (last because at your current level of tune and until a retune IMHO you may not feel big change; when you upgrade tune/turbo, yes it will be). If budget is an issue, Sachs 2.5 only if the clutch is slipping with your current style of driving.

Thanks guys. It's a street driven vehicle. No tracks on Oahu. Suspension work is definitely planned, just not mentioned. I'm currently running Eibachs with nothing else. Leaning towards TPC DSC but considering Ohlin's R/T. Also considering GT3 front control arms for more than 1* camber up front.

Would it be silly to add 65mm turbo's with the other mods mentioned but everything else (y-pipe, throttle body, recirc valves, injectors, FPR, coil pack, etc, etc, etc) stock?

Too many track bits and it will be a rough ride in town .... Go with the DSC first, it makes a HUGE difference ... From there see if you need more

^^^ What he said.

You need to add bigger injectors in whole doing the clutch, even if you continue work the stock turbos for a while longer. Modlist looks good. Do NOT get aftermarket diverter valves. They are worse than stock and require maintenance. They can stick partially open and lead to turbo failure. The factory ones are just fine for anything you will throw at it.

+1 on the larger intercoolers and the Cobb. Both are going to be a significant upgrade and the Cobb is super versatile as well. With an added protune you'd probably pick up a good bit of power even at the stage you are now, due to its data logging feature and the ability to tune for those upgraded cats and intake.

Headers would also be a great upgrade, Sport Headers - Product Link if they aren't done already!

Please let me know if there is anything specific you need, I'd be happy to help!