[Kirk]

Originally Posted by jay3000

It does seem to be a difficult engine to get much more performance out of.

I'm not sure there's really anything in particular about this engine that makes it more "difficult". The high compression ratio is great for a naturally aspirated engine. It's only when you try some form of induction that it's a problem. The lack of improvement from headers, exhausts, and intakes on performance just tells me that Porsche makes a good, highly tuned product from the factory that is already pretty much at the peak.

The tight packaging is a bit of an issue though. Where do you even put a supercharger, turbo, or intercooler? The engine bay is really tight, which makes these issues more difficult to overcome.

But back to the engine... again I don't think it's so much "difficult" as it's just underdeveloped. If you could buy some pistons that would drop the compression ratio to 8:1, a forged crankshaft, forged connecting rods, etc., then you could rebuild the bottom end for not 4 psi of boost but more like 14 psi of boost and run that all day long with no problems. But nobody out there is really developing these kinds of parts for the Boxster engine. That's a shame... but for the same money or less people would just rather drop in a 911 engine, which makes a lot of sense.