Progress continued tonight with reinstallation of the front fender liners and test fitting g of the new wheels. They're 22"x12" with 315/30-22 tires and the same et50 as the OEM GTS/Turbo S wheels, so I knew I'd need at least a 25mm spacer to create the same inboard clearance as the stock setup. That combination puts me within 1% of the stock rolling circumference for no ABS OR PSM issues.

I first test fit the 30mm but unloaded, it looked like it was going to have too much poke for my taste, so pulled that off and installed the 25mm spacer and that looks to be just right - tucked inside the flares at the top and just out a little half way down and below.

​​​Unloaded there aren't any clearance issues at full lock in either direction (sway bar is the closest thing when turned full in and is still about 10mm away, and the fender liner is the closest thing when turned all the way out with about 8mm clearance).

When I get the rear put back together tomorrow, I'll drop it down to sport suspension height and check everything again before doing any driving.

 

Work continues. Clearbra'd the front bumper, mirrors, door sills, and top of rear bumper. Ran out of material so the flares will be done next weekend.

Finished installing the wheels and replaced the rear brake pads, which were almost to the wear sensor. Wheels/tires are flush at the top of each flare measured with a straight edge across the face of the wheel.

Shampood all the carpeting, and cleaned and conditioned all the leather surfaces, then installed the Autopreme floor mats, which fit and look awesome and completely protect the carpeting.

Also added the front and rear emblems.

I'm not going to drive it until the flares are protected, but here is the current photo set with the hood closed sitting at Normal level ride height the way it came off the jacks.

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Last night I refitted the custom painted Yakima Skybox with the new T-bolt in the crossbar channel mounting method. The purpose of this was to allow the Pano roof to open with the skybox installed, primarily to avoid any chance of someone turning the **** and shattering the glass roof from contact with the normal clamps, but also because the cross bars are really too large for the clamps to fit around them properly. Previously I had reversed the rear set so that both sets were grabbing the bars from the outside, making it impossible for the box to shift under heavy acceleration or braking. I'm going to get a 1.5" wide aluminum bar for each side to further reinforce the attachment inside the box due to the speed capability of the Cayenne - probably overkill, but better safe than sorry.

Car is sitting at Sport height in these pics and looks even better at loading height.

 

Man...the car looks SWEET!!! very impressed with the final results and its kinda cool to know there's still more coming.

 

Thanks a lot !

 

Agreed, that is a beautiful specimen! You can see all the attention to detail.

 

Finished the clear bra today. Ended up doing:

• ​​​​​​the hood up to the character lines
• all leading surfaces on the front bumper
• the mirrors
• the complete fender flares
• the top, loading area of the rear bumper
• the insides of the wheelwells where there's white paint
• the under side of the rear bumper behind the tires where the tires may throw debris
• and the rocker panels

I added bumper welting between the rear bumper and fender line to prevent any rubbing and to make the slightly uneven gaps look perfect. Planning to do the same on the front, but will need to loosen the bumper just a little to be able to get it in - probably when I do the Ceramic brake upgrade in a month or so.

Putting in the new battery today and l the Driver's side Autopreme floor mat.

Should be on the road tomorrow and we'll see what we see, now that the boost issues should be resolved.



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Hmnmm.. guess the new brakes are needed - the red calipers look sort of lost inside the wheel.

Looking good though. I have to come over to play..

 

Took the car for it's first real drive since work on the widebody project began. I'm happy to report that the issues I discovered with the installation of the intercoolers, intake, and diverter valves resolved the performance and CEL issues, and I'm getting strong boost to the end of the gauge, but it's also hard to watch that gauge as things in front if you start happening faster and faster, so I think I'm going to have my son record some video while I focus on the driving.

The repairs also eliminated the loud whistle sound coming from the turbo on the side where the charge pipe was disconnected, so now the sound is just perfect. Under normal conditions it has a performance rumble but is still quiet enough inside the cabin where it won't compromise at all the comfort of the car for our family road trips. Under full throttle and heavy acceleration, it's a different beast with some intake noise, accompanied by more exhaust growl, and then a whoosh as the diverter valves blow off extra boost pressure on deceleration.

Now that I know I don't have any performance issues or noise concerns, today I ordered the Fabspeed tune, which should with the intake snd exhaust mods put me up around 625-650 HP with a nice torque bump as well, along with sharpening the throttle response.

I can also report that the solid aluminum 1-piece driveshaft doesn't cause any drivability issues or harshness, just a nice direct transfer of the power to the ground, and never having to worry about a cardan shaft bearing issue is nice.

Now looking forward to getting the tune installed to see what it can do for me. Prior, I'll try to do some statistics gathering via my p3 Gauge or Durametric with respect to AFRs, boost #s, and MAF readings. If i can keep the AFR #s the same with the tune as without it, that means the DME is compensating with more fuel for higher MAF values, increased which means the car will be making more power. The p3 gauge also displays a digital value for boost, vs just the OEM needle gauge.

More to come after the Fabspeed tune is installed. 👍

 

Nice to hear that the drivability of the car is not lacking. I've long considered a Cayenne as an SUV pairing for the Panamera, but not sure I'd have the dedication you have. I really admire what you've done with the car.

 

Thanks very much ! The way it turned out, the wait might have actually been worth it

 

Quick update: First Interstate trip today - car is a beast - forgot how much fun this thing is as 100 MPH flashed by pretty quickly with a couple manual downshifts and some pedal.

Boost is actually pinning at the end of the gauge, well beyond the 0.8 bar last line and staying there. I'm going to put my p3 Gauge into boost mode to see what the car thinks it's seeing through the ECU, but it looks from the gauge that I might be seeing closer to 1 bar (10 pounds). This is before capturing the current stock tune & sending it for Fabspeed for the upgrade, which I'm hoping to do this coming week.

 

Did my first Cayenne oil change yesterday. Although the car only has about 2,600 miles since I bought it, figured due to the length of time it sat in the body shop and since I don't know what oil was in it or when it was last changed, that it was probably a good idea to put in some fresh high-quality oil. I run Driven DT40 in all my Porsches that require a 5W/40 weight (and DT50 in my others that need the heavier weight). I'll work my way through the other fluids as time permits - transmission, differentials, etc.

All in all, not too bad, having to get the PDCC lines out of the way to access the filter cap is a bit of a pain, but not terrible. I used a long bendy transmission funnel to be able to catch the oil when I opened the cap and route it a few inches over to the drain pan under the car on the lift.

I never liked the idea of plastic components around motor oil so upon reassembly, I used the aluminum filter cap from ECS tuning. Plastic can dry out / fatigue over time with multiple head cycles and as it loses its esters to the atmosphere - just look at the cracked and brittle Cayenne intake plenums as an example (I have an ipd one installled) and use LN Engineering's spin-on filter adapter and canister oil filter on my 997s eliminating the plastic filter housing on those cars as well.

This aluminum cap is a high-quality piece that fits perfectly and has a simpler 19mm end nut for ease of removal and installation without needing a special filter tool. No drips or leaks post-installation. The center piece from the OEM cap just pulls out and then snaps into the ECS cap. Looks like it's purpose is to center the filter in the housing and cap and maybe has a bypass valve built into it.

https://www.ecstuning.com/News/Porsc...011_2012_2013/




I had opened the drain plug before going to bed on Saturday night so it drained all night. Took about 8.75 quarts to be just below the "X" in MAX when cold and above and at the full line when warmed up, then checked 3 minutes later. I'll be sending a sample of the oil I pulled over to Blackstone for analysis just to see what was in there and how it looked. I installed the LN Engineering magnetic drain plug as well for extra protection and feel better about the lower 19 ft.lbs. torque spec it requires as well - the OEM plug was really in there and the 8mm hex head was starting to round the corners as well, so probably needed replacing anyway.

The car is running great though - drove it about 200 miles over the weekend. My p3 gauge went as high as 13.9 set on boost, which seems impossible, so maybe boost sent through the ECU to the digital gauge isn't as accurate and the vacuum line run to the OEM gauge, but the car will go well past the 0.8 bar and pin at the end of the gauge for as long as I leave my foot in it, so mechanically, looks like everything is pretty great.

I just sent my ECU file off to Fabspeed this morning so they could write the custom tune so looking forward to getting that installed and seeing what differences I can feel, but the car is so strong now it seems hard to believe it's going to get even better - can't wait.

 

Awesome work, thanks for keeping us all informed. Allot of god info!

If you have a moment, can you elaborate more on one piece drive shaft? The feel/characteristics vs stock?

Thanks much.

 

Thank you.

I've made so many changes at once it's hard to discern exactly which component resulted in what difference, but honestly, I'm not sure there's much difference from the aluminum one piece driveshaft. I installed it exclusively to eliminate a potential failure point of the original design because this vehicle will be the one we take on family vacation trips - MI, FL, VA, etc and though the cardan shaft support usually last many tens of thousands of miles and I'm only at about 28,500 would have gone a long time, I try to upgrade whatever weaker links I feel that a vehicle may have, especially if it's one that will be many hours from home with my family in it, where I can't just put it up on the lift and repair it myself. It probably would have been less expensive just to make myself a Jimi-Fix care package with pre-cut rubber hoses, wire ties, etc and put it into one of the rear storage compartments, but figured while I was doing the rest of it, why not, and I actually sold my perfect OEM cardan shaft for a few hundred dollars which helped make the purchase cost more palatable, so doing it preemptively, rather than after failure had an advantage.

I can tell you that the car still drives very smoothly when you drive it that way, so I'm glad I didn't pay the additional cost for the CF version that is supposed to be smoother because of it's lower torsion coefficient, as the directness of the aluminum one is just fine and now I don't have to worry about two different materials bonded together, CF possibly becoming brittle over time, or other issues that might crop up.

Installing the 1-piece driveshaft I did learn something about the design of the Cayenne though and it's that the reason the original driveshaft has that center bearing and bearing support is because over the length of the rear cardan shaft there is about a 1.5" offset to the front vs rear attachment point and that's the reason for the extra coupling. If you decide to order one, it would be a good idea to provide the dimension from the front coupling to where the center bearing support is located to the guys at driveshaftshop.com so they can make sure not to affix any of the balancing weights at that location. My weights were actually right there which meant I had to shift things slightly more that I would have if the weights were positioned just a few inches differently. I was able to loosen and reposition the rear sub-frame 2mm in one direction and the transmission cross member 1.5mm in the opposite direction to allow for enough clearance for the driveshaft and weights. It still runs through that center tunnel on a slight angle, but now does not interfere with anything (like the center bearing support that's no longer being used), but works fine because of the joints at each end.

Next time it's up on the lift, I'll take a photo and post it here so you can see what I'm talking about. Hope that helps.