Interested to see where peak torque lands with this setup. The plenum/intake manifold does favor the higher engine speeds compared to the factory 997.1 turbo setup but it may end up being a reasonable trade off. Looking forward to see header primary diameter selection, that's another **** to tune the curve.

 

Not to play too much spoiler but it hits in the 3800rpm range and peak torque isn't much past that.

 

Very very close to exact same motor John built for me, Steve said it makes awesome power. Glad to see it up and running! Hope to have mine on the dyno next week.

 

Reasonable for street then ; ) I need to save my pennies and buy a terminator van myself to haul long blocks around lol.

Awesome thread I appreciate you sharing the information

 

Two things I learned from this thread:
1. I need to make more $$
2. I like my exhaust loud


Seriously, congrats on a epic build and can't wait to see what she is going to do!

 

Backing up a bit, I had shipped mock-up turbos, my exhaust, and some other parts to a vendor in approximately February 2016. The goal was to fabricate headers, turbo outlet pipe to my BBi exhaust, Air/Water intercooler kit, and all appropriate intercooler piping and Y-Pipe.

The mock up turbos consist of turbine housing, empty bearing cartridge with no compressor/turbine wheel or bearings/shaft, and compressor housing. It was done this way because I didn't want to send finished turbos that far ahead, and I didn't know exactly which wheels I was going go with but had the housings/family narrowed down.


Mock up turbos, check out those wastegate actuators!

Unfortunately come October of 2016 I still did not have all of the parts, the mockups, or the exhaust back. I piggy backed a quick flight out to the shop to attempt to get my parts back onto a business trip and found that a lot of the work had never been done. That ordeal put me behind by several more months unfortunately, but it did work out for the best I believe.

I now needed to figure out the intercoolers, piping, headers, exhaust work, etc. again and I knew that in order to get things done the way I wanted them it was going to take some time.

I got in touch with Chris @ Unobtainium and told him the dilemma with the headers and he literally sprung into action. Of all the vendors I worked with on this project Unobtainium was definitely one of the best. Great communication, sent me tons of pictures as things were being made, and kept me up to date with what was going on. It was a nice experience after waiting for things for months from multiple vendors. When there was a delay, Chris texted me and let me know. That's priceless right there. Bad news about your project is fine -- and usually expected when you get into the world of high end custom hand made parts. What's really bad news is no news - because you know nothing is being done on your project.

So I commissioned a set of inconel headers from Unobtainium. They were to be setup for TiAL V-Band flanges for my turbos, and internally gated so they did not require wastegate mounts. I really feel like internally gated turbos are the only way to go unless it's an all out racecar setup for 2000whp+.

While that project was kicking off my engine was at T1 Race Development (Thanks Tony). The plan was to do the final assembly mock ups there for the intake manifold and fuel system parts, then bring the engine down to Cobb Tuning in Plano, TX for installation. However, due to the additional fabrication that was left to be done, and the incompleteness of the engine I really needed more work to be done.

 

So will this be the first internally gated big build?

I'm liking the pace of this thread, like a tv series

 

Pace of this thread?!?! I can totally see Rix sitting back lightly tapping his fingers together and saying," That's all for now puppets!" "Mu ha ha."

 

The problem is it is exactly like a tv series, as he has filmed what he is revealing to us since last year!!!

Exactly!! He has the final episode filmed already with 1200+dynos, street masicures...heck he probably even has his second build on the way with sequential, 1600whp capable Turbos filmed for season two already!!

 

I only get to work on this when everyone is home asleep, and all of my other work is done. I'm actually just taking a break from some work I didn't get finished this week to check the thread.

Like I said in the first post, I didn't want to sit back and talk about what I was going to do. I wanted to talk about what I had done. It would have been more painful to document the whole process over the 1.5 years. People would have gotten bored. The trick is I have to remember all the details, so I have been sifting through spreadsheets, photos, emails etc. I should have gotten a head start on writing it but it wasn't very high on the priority list I'm afraid.

 

I'll show some pictures in the next post, but the center section (plenum?) welds to the end-tanks. Since the GT style manifold has separate uppers/lowers, we're using the ISC billet lowers that support dual injectors/cylinder. It uses a rubber hose to connect the upper/lower sections together. I was skeptical of this at first, but they have a groove in the rubber that locks everything together. Steve @ Driversource boost leak checked it to 55psi+ and it's solid.

 

With the engine at T1 for assembly I really started to see how much work was left to be done, and it was a lot more than originally planned. When I started the project I was planning on using my 68mm VTGs and upgrading at the end of the year, but now it was the end of the year so I decided I'd just do (mostly) everything at once.


Thanks to Tony and the crew at T1 for putting up with me while I was trying to finalize the engine assembly.


Test-fitting the manifold parts on the engine to check throttle body placement, fitment, etc.


This view shows the large GT3RS 4.0 upper manifolds. This view also gives a good view of the rubber connector hoses between the upper and lower. They seal better than you would think. It's expensive to get the factory parts for this (about $200 for 6) but worth it in my view.


Fitment was very good, only some minor accommodations were required with some of the lines, and the fuel cooler setup needed some modifications. I'll show some pictures of this later.


This is where the upper and lower manifold connect. I attempted to use the fancy clamps but they were too wide for the rubber hose connectors. We ended up using factory Porsche clamps. You can also see the secondary wiring harness that Wayne from ISC built for the additional 6 injectors, sensors, etc. You may have to squint a bit to find it because Wayne's work is OEM quality.


Since my original ID1300 injectors had been in the car for a while with E85 we decided to give them a quick flow check/cleaning. Of course Injector Dynamics HQ happens to have a bunch of toys for this.

Once everything was fitted and confirmed Wade from T1 set about doing the welding. This was not a simple job because the center plenum is not an exact fit for the GT3RS 4.0 end tanks we were using. I think this is because there are quite a few combinations/possibilities of parts, but if I had any complaints here it would be that since it's a billet CNC part it could have fit a little easier. Wade to the rescue on this part though. I was "On a boat" for a week around this time visiting the a Lonely Island or something. Wade sent me a couple progress pictures of the welding while I was busting five knots, wind whipping out my coat.


After finding the best angle and position for everything he tacked everything together then begin filling it in.


Wade welding... Like a Boss!


Wade sent me some more shots while I was on the boat showing how everything came together.


I was a little concerned about throttle body positioning with this setup, being that it's a very non-standard combination of parts I had my doubts that an off the shelf Y-Pipe would fit.


Around this time the clutch showed up. After many months of waiting I finally decided to just go ahead and do the smart thing. Pucker up and buy a Tilton. Thanks to John Bray @ Evospec for this, and supplying the heavy flywheel option.


Yes, I went with the triple carbon clutch. It's all boring on the front, but business in the back. I wanted the heavy flywheel for ease of driving purposes. Light flywheels are great until you try to drive them to the grocery store. I was pretty awestruck by the Tilton clutch. I knew it would be pretty but it just made me giggle a little when I saw it. I had bought one for my old DSM but never took it out of the box and sold it. It's probably for the best because if I'd seen it I doubt I would have been able to part ways with it.


The blow off valves also showed up. I must confess I really wanted purple ones, but Amber @ Forced Performance would NOT let me order them. Seriously, I tried. She knows what color my car is and flatly said you can't use purple on a red car. I think they look good in red too though.

While working on this with Wayne we really discovered a lot of little things that were going to need to be done. The turbocharger oil/water line modifications, fuel cooler modifications, miscellaneous re-routing necessary for the dual injector installation, turbo hanger brackets to protect the headers from the weight of the turbos, fabricate mid-pipes between the turbos and the BBi exhaust, fabricate the Y-pipe and intercooler piping, fabricate turbo compressor inlet pipes, additional wiring harness for all of the new sensors, secure mounting & installation of all the new sensors, etc. It was around this time that I realized I really needed to take the car from Cobb Tuning Plano, which was going to re-install the engine for me. The scope of the project had changed, and the complexity had changed dramatically. I also needed help with some of these solutions, and someone with the attention to detail and patience for a project like this. After consulting with Wayne and John Bray from EvoSpec I decided to take the car to Steve at DriverSource. This would end up being one of the best single decisions I made in the entire project.


Here's the poor old girl at Cobb Plano. The guys there were very nice to me and can't thank them enough for taking good care of the car during the whole ordeal.

So, at this point I realized I had another great opportunity to make more bad decisions! I had quasi recently bought a GMC Yukon, and one of the major features was the ~9000lbs towing capacity. This meant that I could choose to drive the car to Houston and drop it off to Steve! I worked out the details of the project with Steve, who I have come to find is one of the most knowledgeable automotive guys I have ever met. The facilities at Driversource are also extremely good. The number of amazing cars there at any given time is completely staggering. I'm not going to get into it as I'm not sure what the privacy agreements are here, but suffice to say I've never seen anything like it.

I set to work finding a trailer to borrow, a come-along to get the car on the trailer, a trailer hitch, light adapters -- I basically had to go get everything as I had nothing.


Trailer acquired! Thanks to my friend Amir F.

The basic plan was to pick up the trailer, drop it at Cobb Plano, drive out to T1, and pick up the engine. Then come back to Cobb, re-attach the trailer, and load the car. This seemed like the best approach given the time restraints since T1 actually closes at a respectable hour. You can always tell a shop that has its act together when they close on time. Cobb was having a monthly get together that evening so they would be open late.


Of course nothing is ever as easy as you'd think it would be. The engine was about 2-3" too tall with everything on it so I had to take a bunch of stuff off the top to make it fit in the Yukon. I sent this pic to Steve and John trying to figure out how to disconnect T2...

I wish I had more pictures of just how loaded down the Yukon was, it was completely packed. It was so packed I had passenger seat full of parts too. The frunk of the porsche, and all available interior space in the car was packed with boxes and (clean) parts as well. Once I had everything I came home and picked up what parts were still at the house due to my relatively poor planning skills. At this point I had been working pretty much all day acquiring the trailer, driving around, picking things up, etc. Mrs. Rix (strangely) insisted that I take a shower. I guess I smelled bad.


All loaded up (I thought so at the time anyway) and heading to Houston with my car! Note that the front wheels aren't quite straight on the trailer though.

I was extremely excited at this point. It really felt like everything was coming together, the car could be ready in a month or two if I was lucky! I was pretty motivated to get to Houston, but I was leaving really late at night. I made a few stops along the way to check the positioning of the car on the trailer and to make sure it wasn't moving around. I think I actually got there around 1am. It was a pretty uneventful drive, other than a Mercedes going about 120mph almost plowing into the back of me. I think he missed the trailer by about 3 feet swerving out of my lane. Marriott was again sponsoring my journey (points) so I booked a room at the Marriott Energy Corridor near the Driversource location.


Photo of the car/trailer at the hotel. From my room. I backed it up to the pole in an attempt to keep someone from trying to steal it since I couldn't lock it.

Couldn't lock it you may ask? Why couldn't I lock it? Because when Mrs. Rix -- who to be fair was looking out for me because I looked exhausted before I even left -- suggested that I take a shower she also emptied the pockets to my pants and put everything on the counter. Then, as fate would have it I must have knocked something over covering the key to the 911 or just plain forgot them. Suffice to say that when I arrived in Houston with the car on the trailer I had no keys for it. After some panic, thoughts about having American Airlines sponsor my wife for a flight to Houston to bring the keys (miles), using a courier service, buying a new key at the dealership (too slow), etc. Steve from DriveSource came to the rescue.


That front wheel not being straight really caused us a problem. We couldn't just back the car straight off the trailer because the wheel was turned slightly.


Steve procured some skates for the front wheels so we could get the car off the trailer and move it around. Success!

We then set about unloading the car, and putting together an inventory of all of the parts that I brought with me. This is when I really started to figure out just how good Steve was. He was picking up bolts and saying "3 throttle body bolts" and dropping them in his cart, and marking them down on the inventory. He literally knew every single bolt, nut, screw, or part. He put together an extensive 4 page inventory of everything and gave me a copy so we could reconcile everything at the end of the project. I thought this was a great touch and really made me feel comfortable with leaving everything with him.


Steve's cart full of parts.


It was a tighter fit getting this in the Yukon with the Forklift than you'd think. It would be easy if you took the rear hatch off, but the forklift can't get too close to the truck so it's tough.


Transmission in the back of the Yukon too! It was completely packed to the brim. So full in fact that when opening the rear a few things spilled out.

Once everything was unloaded, and the general plan confirmed it was back to Dallas for me. But of course not without first admiring what was in the DriverSource shop first.


Yes please.

Now it's going to start getting interesting. More to come.

 

Great write-up!! Fun to read. Your humor adds a nice touch!

 

Just reading this I am getting excited for you my friend!

 

Thanks Ken. I figure if I'm not having fun with it I'm doing something wrong.

Thanks Bobby! It really came together at the end.