Folks,

Would love the community's input on the following modification plan for my car. All work will be done at once and over winter when the car is effectively stored. My budget is $10,000 and I would love people's input on my selection of mods (both brand and mod type) based on your experiences. My goal is to achieve best bang for my buck without compromising the quality of the components I put in my car. For now, this is a Stock Turbo build with plans to upgrade turbos in 2019. The car is virgin to mods with the exception of a stage 1 OTS oobb tune. I will have PTF pro tune it post surgery. Thanks for thoughts and opinions.

Intercoolers: Markski 4.5 $2495

Exhaust: Kline $2599

Intake: IPD intake plenum $995

Clutch: Sachs 2.5 $1695

Methanol: Aquamist HSF 4 $850

Springs: H&R sport springs $334

Total $8968

Leaves me $1000 install money.

 

Need to add some do88.se turbo inlets, otherwise looks good.

 

excellent knew I forgot something. Ty.

 

Have you been regularly maintaining the car? Unexpected maintenance headaches can throw a wrench into a well thought out budget.

 

I am a the second owner. Car has 51,000km on it. Oil changes every 3,000 km. Car is immaculate. It will need brake pads shortly otherwise there should be no surprises.

 

I will also pin the coolant lines when the work is being done.

 

Nice list, if staying with stock turbos you can skip the plenum and intercoolers for now, the meth kit will provide much of the cooling.

Hfs4 is overkill for the 997.1, get the hfs3.

 

yeah not sure $1000 will cover install

But H&R springs are great - i recommend if you cant shell out for coilovers

 

+1 on the Do88's,...

And an HSF-3 will be fine. Your .1 doesn't have direct injection, so no advantage in the 4..

May want to consider a clutch slave setup. BBI or GT2. Depends on whether you like the current clutch take-up or not. The pedal will never be this light again,.. but engagement height and feel will be improved with one of these options.

Mentioning it now as it's easy to do when the engine is out.

Better double that install budget.

 

thanks for the advice on meth kits. Not familiar with HFS lines as I have been in the BMW scene with Coolingmist.

seems it's skip meth or skip IC if going meth.

ty for advice on clutch slave. I like the oem clutch throw height so I want to try and maintain that feel with what I do. Yea, the 1k will certainly not be enough for install.

 

Not the case with Aquamist systems.

Unlike stone-age Snow and other systems,... the Aquamist has a sophisticated flow sensor. If the flow is lower than expected for the current IDC (plugged nozzle, failing pump, etc),.. it interrupts the boost control circuit and your boost pressure drops to 0-4 psi.

Same thing if a hose comes off and the flow is too high.

 

Bigger inter-coolers help in more ways than just the cooling. Good ones also have less flow restriction.

The flow restriction starts to get pretty important as you get near the end of stock turbos,.. and mandatory with modded turbos.

With a meth system and a good tune,.. he'll be hitting upper 550-600 at the wheels. That's a lot of air. Will be really hard to shove that through stock coolers. And VTG's run super hot. Less restriction and more cooling is critical when you push them.

I have a pair of the GT2 RS ones for sale. Notably better flow than stock,.. but still a far cry from the ByDesignAuto or AMS ones.

Of course they're also like $550,.. and not $3,000 - $5,000

 

There will be lots of opinions OP. Sharing and learning is great but some things work differently for others. I would have a nice chat with your tuner...You could plan on some sort of bundle on a tailored set up to meet your needs. Getting everything from one place usually means more flexibility on budget and a happy tuner which is what will put everything together.

Good luck and feel free to reach out if I can help you with anything.

 

^ THAT

Your tuner is the one that's going to have to make everything work in the end.

I just had Sam tune my car,.. and I asked him and Mitch from Cobb what I should have in the car before scheduling and paying for the tune.

They had suggestions on inter-coolers, and plugs also. (I had cooler plugs in there, and on their suggestion,.. swapped them out for stock heat-range ones).

I'm a happy camper now.

Remember,... nothing is as expensive as having to do it 2-3 times. Call Sam tomorrow and listen to his suggestions. You'll have better results for less money by doing it right the first time.

 

You will most likely want new plugs and coils. I would do the water pump, and belts while the motor is out as well.

If you spend the meth money on injectors you can run an e85 tune which I assume will make more power than the meth