If I am not mistaken.....I think the kit was bought on eBay.

 

Stacey is right, I did not buy it from TPC. Nobody, including TPC, the seller, my install shop and me knew the kit would not fit a Targa. TPC has been very helpful and truly like to see their units installed. They are a pure racing shop. If they were closer, I would have them work on it (they offered) to get the kit installed. I still really want this kit in my car.

 

Just part of the learning curve...

You'll get it straightened out, only a temp. set-back. Does sux that you had a plan that went south.

Good luck, either way.

 

I'd also be interested to know how much you were quoted for the installation and what warranty if any does this carry from TPC? Also, will this work for a Non-S 997.1?

 

Hi,

I hope this helps:

My shop quoted and honored $1,000 for the install saying it would be about 11 hours labor. As they dug into it they felt it was a bigger job. I would estimate $1,500 to $2,000 to be safe.

I don't think there would be a warranty from TPC. The parts are all new, so you should be fine.

Yes it fits the S and non S 997.1.

I usually think used tuner parts go for about 1/2 price, I've seen them go higher on here. These are new parts and essentially selling for 1/2 price, when you factor in the flash is included in the sale. Put a bid in, you might get a heck of a deal on a new system.

 

Thanks. Everyone who had a SC on their 997 has said they are awesome. Not a single complaint from a user. I had to be the first targa owner, but I still love driving my targa. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

I'm going at it again, this time with a VF Supercharger!

I got to take a '08 C4S with a VF supercharger out for a spin yesterday afternoon and I was so impressed, I bought the company! Oh, no that's the old Remington shaver commercial!

But I was so impressed that I ordered one as soon as I got back to my office! It was just as wonderful as I have read, but not experienced: a perfect nice thick, juicy wedge of a bunch more power across the entire power band that felt like it was part of the stock engine.

Nothing rough. Nothing squirrelly. Just the additional power the car needs, filling in that "Where's the Beef?" feeling I occasionally have when I drive. The owner of the car said its like the engine was bored out, I thought it felt like the engine had two more cylinders, but still super torquey like a six.

When it gets here, I may start a different thread to share the process.

My local mechanic was sternly against it and told me "I won't install that". I looked at him and said, "I know". Once again, I searched the web for users with problems and came up empty handed. Lots more Beemer users with than Porsches and I was suprised to see R8 owners installing them too.

I'm excited!

 

[QUOTE=DoninDEN;3687860]I'm going at it again, this time with a VF Supercharger!

I got to take a '08 C4S with a VF supercharger out for a spin yesterday afternoon and I was so impressed, I bought the company! Oh, no that's the old Remington shaver commercial!

But I was so impressed that I ordered one as soon as I got back to my office! It was just as wonderful as I have read, but not experienced: a perfect nice thick, juicy wedge of a bunch more power across the entire power band that felt like it was part of the stock engine.

Nothing rough. Nothing squirrelly. Just the additional power the car needs, filling in that "Where's the Beef?" feeling I occasionally have when I drive. The owner of the car said its like the engine was bored out, I thought it felt like the engine had two more cylinders, but still super torquey like a six.

When it gets here, I may start a different thread to share the process.

My local mechanic was sternly against it and told me "I won't install that". I looked at him and said, "I know". Once again, I searched the web for users with problems and came up empty handed. Lots more Beemer users with than Porsches and I was suprised to see R8 owners installing them too.

I'm excited![/QUO




Good luck don! Install it u self Just follow stacy's install thread!!! LOL

 

Good luck with the VF setup.

Did you check out the bimmer boards as with M3 Forum and E46 Fanatics with the M3 crowd who ran their setup? Quite a few bad stories. I considered them but went with ESS' setup instead. I miss having boost and understand your excitement!

I'm curious to why you didn't go with the TPC turbo setup, especially since it's about the same money and a lot more in terms of power, especially torque?

 

I'm curious to know why your mechanic is so against the VF... what were his reasons?

 

Maybe experience with them on the E46 M3?

I know Eurocar Werks in Houston (contacted for install of TPC's turbo - hopefully Q1 2013) stated TPC's product is excellent whereas others not so much. While they didn't say anything specifically about VF or AA, they said ESS' supercharger setup was on par with TPC's quality - particularly the tune.

It would be interesting to know "why" in this case, in particular since it's relatively low PSI.

 

I heard good things about both the VF S/C and TPC Turbo, but I went with the S/C because I installed a performance exhaust system that I didn't want to now take part of it out. I also did not want any lag and the VF S/C I drove yesterday was extremely smooth and amazing with no lag. I had also read there was a modification to a safety bar needed for the Turbo and the S/C didn't need it.

I did search for problems in the VF S/C and read a lot of BMW posts, none of them negative. It's been installed in a lot of cars and no complaints.

VF is claiming 510 HP on the 3.8S engine, I don't have he torque numbers in front of me, what is TPC saying?

There is another guy here in Denver has the TPC Turbo and he loves it. I guess the bottom line is I drove a car with the VF S/C and I loved the power delivery and that how smoothly that power integrated with the car.

I'm hoping it works for me this time after I couldn't get the TPC S/C to fit...

 

He's against any forced injection kit on a Porsche. He said when your engine blows up the companies that sold you the kit will run for the hills. I've heard it from other mechanics that say because of the high compression in the engine, you really are playing with dynamite and burning the candle too brightly, etc., etc.

I believe people who tune their cars are more likely be on the forums than the general owner populations and if there were problems coming out of the kits we would hear about that on the forums. Well I have searched and contacted everyone I could find that added a FI kit to their 997 and read the related threads and zero complaints for an owner. I guess I'm calling BS on the mechanic.

 

If you search both forums referenced you'll find a lot of issues, particularly with issues involving piston rings leading to worse problems, and issues with oil accumulation in their intake manifold, however, I don't recall issues with their stage I (stage 1+ uses VF's intake) or Super Street setup (used OEM airbox) which was low boost, whereas the problems occurred with their stage II. The problems and resolution thereof, as well as performance, were such that I opted for ESS' setup, which had a custom tune and didn't have the same issues.

Nonetheless, given you're running low boost I doubt you'll have issues, and I've never heard of any on the 997. Granted, any boost is going to impact the life of the engine, but for what it's worth I had 50k+ miles on mine when I installed it and put over 30K with it any never an issues. The E46 M3 S54 engine is as high strung as the 997's.


With respect to TPC's setup and removal of the crash bar, this has been resolved as they reengineered the exhaust to not have to remove it. For Tiptronic cars they redesigned the cooler so the turbo doesn't have to share the same cooling for the Tiptronic, important in hot climates. The redesign now has a stacked cooler setup (still upfront) with the Tiptronic in the back, the turbo cooling up front.

The power delivery, in particular the torque of the turbo is superior to the supercharger. The Vortech .2 supercharger VF uses isn't known for torque, although it's very linear and has a nice power output - but at the end of the day you're running ~6 psi ( I suspect or slightly less) on the VF setup. I know the ASA blower used by ESS had a significantly higher torque output and was better in the low to mid range (turbo like performance which is what attracted me to it), whereas the Vortech excelled at the top end of the RPM range.

However, on just power alone the turbo output for the 3.6L is 520, and the 3.8L 550 - pretty much for the same money as the supercharger.

In any case, I think what you experienced in your test drive is something you'll just love in your car. Boost is very addicting. I had the my car with the supercharger setup for a little over 2 years and it was an absolute thrill to drive, and even though I wasn't always thrashing it, it was really nice knowing I had it on tap anytime I needed it! Congrats as I know you're going to love it.

For what it's worth, and not that it matters (perhaps for others?) since you've bought the VF setup, not sure if you've seen TPC's video on their turbo conversion:


Congrats again!

 

By the way, have you had your oil analyzed? $25 from Blackstone Labs - good to know what the internals look like if not.

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/