Was really excited to purchase my first Porsche. Found a 2007 997 turbo manual with full Techart upgrades, only 24k miles and purchased it back in March. I can't leave cars alone, so since then I've been working with Sam at By Design (great guy and can only speak positively on his input response and help he's provided-highly recommend him). Installed upgraded 65mm VTG turbos, Kline Catless exhaust, Kline headers, By Design intercoolers, plenum, throttle body and Ypipe. Car already had fabspeed intake and EVOM tubes. We had everything dialed in with the tune on 93 pump gas, putting out over 600whp and 640 wtq. As my luck would have it, car was doing the final dyno runs and the dreaded P0021 hits. I'm unfamiliar with this issue but apparently the cam spun.
Now I'm faced with the decision to basically rebuild the motor. Pin all the cams, strengthen bottom and top end while I'm at it. Sending it to Sam where John Bray will be rebuilding the motor. I've got an option while I'm at it for just a little more to upgrade it to a 3.8 engine. I think I've made the decision to do it but just wanted to get the collective groups thoughts on if anyone has gone through this before and what you did.
At the end, it should be a great build and we can uograde the injectors as well for E85. I'm not looking for extreme horsepower but the car should easily put out mid 730 to 750 whp. The engine probably capable of up to 1000hp if I ever decided to go with bigger turbos, but I have no desire to go that high. I'll be without the car for a few months. Never nknew owning a Porsche could be so expensive but once I'm done with this hopefully nothing else breaks. Coolant lines have already been pinned. I also wonder whenever I go to sell the car if there's a market for this build with a 3.8 engine. Attaching couple pictures of the car and latest dyno run.

 

Wow. Sorry to hear about the bad news but like you said, once it's all sorted out, it will be bulletproof

 

Did your valves hit your pistons? It isn't so bad if you have to pull the motor and just redo the cams. It is a good idea to do rods and head studs if you are going to be making a lot of power either way.

 

I don't believe so. Will know more once we dig into. I think we are going to go ahead a reinforce the engine bottom and top end while we have it out. Also upgrade it to a 3.8 while they are at it. Would feel safer I suppose. While the engine only has 24k miles, the previous owner had a few range 5 overrevs; missed shifts I believe. Not sure if that did any damage or may have been even part cause of the cam issue. Car has 970 hours and the range 5 overrev occurre at 845 hour. Investing the peace of mind of the rebuild is worth it if I'm going to keep it for a while. Should also help when I go to resale as well; I hope.

 

Here is my .02 on the "upgrade" you are considering.

Do it as long as you know up front that you will likely never recover "most" of that investment.

If I were you, it would really depend on the delta between the two rebuild options I am facing. And of course, how long I intended on keeping the car.

There is a small audience looking for modded 6 speed Turbos, so you may get lucky.

The purists will turn their noses up at your car anyway since its been modded and the engine rebuilt.

My car had a big money shift from the PO, and a range 6 over-rev.

It was long ago, and the car passed the PPI and one year later it runs like a bat out of hell. Take a look at the mods in my signature and you will see I am essentially running most of what I can without internals and bigger turbos.

I am setup for e-85, and probably will pull the trigger knowing that my money shift may put me in the same boat as you.

Keep us posted, and good luck..

 

Insert funny here...


Couldn't resist this picture and I texted it to D but I wanted to pop my head in and share. There's a lot of opinions and there's definitely different levels of crazy. I do feel like a crack dealer at times. I have to say thank you for the kind words Daniel and I'm happy you love the car the way it was. Feel so bad the luck you had especially when it didn't happen in your hands it's a crappy feeling. My main goal will be to help you achieve the biggest smile and get to where you want to be the best way we can. I can tell you that we have built a lot of extremely fast 997VTG's where we sometimes can't sleep at night without a motor build and 3.8 991TT's based on the same turbo charger that are the fastest out there. 850/900 VTG horsepower and torque is a fun place to be. There is a recipe to it and we have a strong team. I'm here to help you proceed with whatever feels right and fully stand behind it. Whatever we do we will do it the best we can!

 

With the amount of adjustment on the Vario-Cams, they are not going to hit. Sometimes you can even have some trash in your oil that block it momentarily and you can change your oil and it will go away. Others have had luck changing the variocam solenoids that get weak/lazy.

Good luck.
DC

 

Fixing the spun camshaft and doing a motor rebuild are two very, very different things with vastly different costs. If you are wanting to just correct the camshafts permanently, that can be done for a fraction of what an engine build will cost. PM me if you like. I had that happen and got the car back good as new.

*Edited my original post. Just skimmed the OP originally and went back to read more carefully. If you are wanting to upgrade your motor, Sam and John are the guys to do it for sure.

 

I had the P0021 issue a few years ago, I went with Protomotive pinned and upgraded camshafts.

 

100% this. It could very well be the case. Don't be so quick to jump on an engine build. The motor and the cams are two totally different areas. The block is definitely tank grade in terms of strength. If all you're shooting for is 700 HP, just think about pinning the cams.

Before you go that route though, I'd swap the solenoids, change the oil and see if the problem returns. You could potentially save yourself a lot of money, lots of downtime and unnecessary work.

 

I sort of get the impression he was wanting to do a build anyway...

 

Yeah - this was always in the back of my head and this camshaft issue while not ideal made it more of an opportunity to go ahead and do it. If I'm going through the cost of taking the motor back out, shipping the car to someone I trust and having one of the best engine builders available to work on it. It would always be in the back of my mind - why don't I go ahead and take this thing to the potential it could be. I know I said I would be great with just 700 whp but the way Sam and his team are planning this build - it's going to be awesome. Probably one of the best cars I'll ever be able to own. Yes - it's costing more and some could say, pocket the money and buy another car. I'm going to have this one for some time, it's specked perfectly for my eye and capabilities. Look forward to sharing with you all the results of the build as it goes. Appreciate all the great feedback from you guys!

 

To the OP, first off that sucks and sorry to hear about your temporary set back. You have a gorgeous 911 and great choice in colour and upgrades, I might be a little bias !


If he wants just 700-750whp, that is ALOT OF coin / over kill to drop for something that can be handled with the stock mill minus some bottom end torque.


Some know for sure that they want 1000hp eventually, but even then if it was not the right time for you to build, it would still make sense just to fix the spun cam and move on as that is the difference in cost.


If you build the bottom end, I would also love to see a VTG pushed all out on our Mezger and see that killer power band / curve!!! Bottom end and mid tq that would regularly cause our stock rods to come out of the side of our block, would be insane. 700+wtq can you say at 3500rpm!

 

We should be able to see. I think we are going to upgrade the turbos while at it to 68mm VTG GT2 upgraded turbos. Should be perfect compliment to the 3.8 upgraded Metzger motor... Should be a killer power band at that point with hardly any lag...

 

Wow that sounds like a killer street set up and little more top end with the GT2 hot sides!!


Just thinking out loud the cost of doing the 68 billets and then procuring GT2 hot sides, most likely would be more then a A3071 or A3076. The 3071 would spool just as quick with a better power band (?) and the 3076 wouldn't be far off but still has a killer street power band (especially on E85) & can get you to 1000. From my research a 3076 on E85 on a build motor is a KILLER street set up that you have great spool, amazing power under the curve and able to reach 1000 mark!!


Just food for thought!