My adventures both on and off the race track

[Bfan]

Last spring the first racetrack opened here in Iceland, my home country. It is a club track and it is only 1700m long (little over one mile) but we are planning and funding an extension as I write this. Mine was one of the first cars on the track and there were held weekly track days, through the summer, and into late autumn.

We had all kind of adventures both on and off the track, one unlucky Lexus owner totaled his car (driver was unhurt), another car had a fire from the turbine, we had a visit from a Danish race instructor, local TV-station came on visit and even interviewed me briefly.........my 3.6 engine broke down on my first day on Hoosier slicks.......it is in my garage, being rebuilt to 3.8 as I write this. I luckily had my old 3.2 as a spare, to quickly drop in.

I gradually rebuilt my car for track duty. I have been letting my fellow countrymen and friends follow my adventures both on the track and in my garage on a Facebook page, that is dedicated to the car. It is written in Icelandic (sorry about that), but there are some nice pictures of the both the car and the atmosphere, both on and off the track. A link to the Facebook page is here .

My brothers in arms quickly gave the car a name and called it "The Time machine" and it stuck to it.
It had a 3.6 engine and it has PSS9, 997 plenum, headers, Cayman airbox, GT3 brake airscoops, not to mention modified GT2 front bumper (yet to be painted), and 996 RS rear wing. I even fitted SQS sequential shifter to it. I run 245x18 front and 275x18 rear tires, with fenders that I have rolled. Some of these changes are less tasteful than others but they all have one thing in common, they make the car go faster.

I am building the 3.8 engine right now, hoping to be ready before the track opens in April, using Carrillo rods, all ARP bolts, Accusump and horizontally baffled deep sump. I am also considering putting a pair of extra scavenge pumps on the heads to work together with the OM pumps in the same way that the very expensive tandem pumps do, but using electric oil pumps as substitute for the tandem pumps as a cheaper solution. The mechanical OM style tandem pumps cost at least $ 4000 for the pair. I intend to install oil pressure gauge that I hope will help me monitor if all is working as it should, and hope that the engine will hold up to its duty next time around. Even though the electric pump brakes down, the OM scavenge pumps should be doing their job as intended.

[Racer Boy]

That is awesome! I would imagine that it is a challenge to not only own a Porsche in Iceland, because of it's relative isolation, but to actually track a Porsche in Iceland has got to be even more challenging.

What is the name of the track, and where is it located? I want to look at it on Google Earth!

I've been to Iceland numerous times, but unfortunately only at the airport. One of thee times I'm going to spend a few days there and check out your beautiful country.

[Bfan]

The club already had a quartermile stripe, so the only name for the place so far, and what it is called on Google Earth is Kvartmilubraut Kvartmiluklbbsins".
If you decide to stop over on one of your flight's, we should get together over a bear or two.

Google has an awfully bad photo of the place, but here is one a friend took with a drone this summer:

[Lemming]

Nice. Where is the track located? I managed to spend a few days in Iceland (Reykjavik and Akureyri) on my way to, and from, Greenland many years ago. Fantastic sights, but beer was overpriced

[Bfan]

Lemming, here is a link to Google maps where you can see the track. If it works you should be able to zoom in and out.

https://www.google.is/maps/@64.0364708,-22.0257569,1230m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

[Lemming]

Convenient to Reykjavik.

Was your 3.6 properly baffled with respect to the oil pickup?

[Bfan]

I just had standard LN eng deep sump with extention under the OM baffels that were bought new for the build. The oil pickup was extended down into the deep sump. This was doen before the newest horisontally baffled deep sumps came on the market. I did not have X-51 steel baffles, but then again Mantis who make one of the new type baffles swear to the OM plastic baffles in theyr "system". And when I dismantled the broken engine, there was nothing wrong with the baffles. I belive the problem is in the heads, not the sump, see my thread on the subject her:
Oil system mods for Track

Picture of the LN-engineering deep sump




The Mantis horizontally baffled deep sump:

[Bfan]

Here are some pictures from my 3.8 build that I just started on. First I did some work on the heads. They are intended for 3.4 engine by Porsche and obviously need to flow somewhat better to count for the bigger bore. So I did some mild porting or rather "flow optimizing" on them. The head in the picture is indeed from 3.4 engine I got these as substitutes after the heads from my 3.2 engine got a "bang" when the piston broke last summer. The only difference between these and the OM Boxster S 3.2 heads is that these are drilled in different pattern for the intake manifold. This enables me to run the somewhat bigger manifold from a 3.4 996 on my build.
I once ran manifold from 997 3.8 on my old now broken 3.6 engine but it was really tight fit in the engine bay. Not only was it to hitting the hatch at the top, it was also to wide and I had to move the engine a few mm back and down to make it fit, which I did not like at all and went back to the OM 3.2 manifold after a while. So this time around I am going with 3.4 manifold that somehow fell into my lap. I must admit it is tempting to go back to the 3.8 manifold but I would have to find a way to make the engine bay bigger....


Before.....


After "flow optimizing"


After .....


Yours truly at work....

The engine is built around Boxster 3.2 block that was sent to LN engineering for some Nickies and 101 mm JE pistons. I am using Carrillo rods and all ARP bolts this time around. The ARP bolts are needed for the rods and crank carrier, but not really for the head studs, but as this engine is destined for the track, it is likely that it will need a rebuild sooner or later and then the ARP bolts can be reused while the OM Porsche bolts have to be renewed each time they are torqed.


Alweys fun to get packets


All cleaned and ready for assembly


Not much space for cooling water jacket, in these big bores


A shame these beautiful pistons will be hidden inside the engine

[Bfan]

Here are some more pictures from my build. As I intend to use lightweight flywheel, I had the crankshaft / flywheel combo balanced in a shop. Pistons / rods were put on the scale and filed down so they ended with equal weight. Notice that the scale shows 0.001 gram.





This is my second M96 engine build so I have made most of the special tools that are needed for the job, most of them were made by myself. Here is a homemade tool to insert the piston bolt and circlip:


Circlip in position inside the end of the tool ready to be "spit out" inside the piston, deep inside the engine:

[Bfan]

The crank carrier with one of the rods for bank 2 installed.



Crank carrier installed into bank 1:



And both block halves joined together ready for the real fun that comes next, installation of pistons 4-6



Another homemade tool, this one for inspecting the proper installation of piston bolt and circlip.

[Bfan]

Since I last posted here, I have finished building the 3.8 bored engine and installed it in the car. As this is a big change in displacement neither the fuels system nor the engine management could copy with it. To increase the fuel pump capacity, I installed a bigger fuel pump from a 996 GT3 which is a direct fit into the Boxster fuel tank, along with bigger fuel injectors.
I also needed a new map for the ECU as the engine proved to big for the OM ECU to adjust to it. I ended up replacing the DME with a standalone DME from a local firm, to control fuel feed.
I also installed some extra electric salvage pumps to better salvage the heads to prepare the car for heavy track use. Also installed horizontal baffle deep sump and used OM plastic baffles with rubber doors, on top of the horizontal ones with improved fitment at the top of the baffles against the engine block.



New 3.8 liter engine installed




One of the extra electric salvage pumps, that I hope will help against the dreaded M96 engine oil starvation




Running in the engine on a mountain road is not the worst part of the whole project

[Bfan]

To summarize, here is the specs of my new engine.

Engine bored and sleeved by LN Engineering from 3.2 to 3.8 liters.
101 mm JE pistons and Carrillo rods.
ARP head studs, ARP rod bolts and ARP crank carrier bolts.
996 GT3 82 mm throttle body, mated to 997 plenum that has been ported to 82 mm.
997 3.8 oil cooler.
996 intake manifold.
996 GT3 fuel pump.
Horizontal baffled deep sump.
Balanced internals with lightweight single mass flywheel.
Top speed exhaust headers with opened catless exhaust.
Roughly 30% bigger fuel injectors then the OM Boxster 986 ones.

[The Radium King]

so cool! so many questions! is there enough meat on the 997 plenum to bore it out?

for your electric scavenge pumps - where are you drawing from, and where do you return to?

thanks lots; this is innovative stuff.

[truegearhead]

And here I was proud I replaced my own IMS bearing. Thanks for sharing, What an incredible build.

[Bfan]

Originally Posted by The Radium King

so cool! so many questions! is there enough meat on the 997 plenum to bore it out?

for your electric scavenge pumps - where are you drawing from, and where do you return to?

thanks lots; this is innovative stuff.

It is more question of porting of the plenum then "boring out". And yes I was satisfied with the result, although there was not much meat to spare.

I salvage from the same place in the cam covers that Porsche's double pumps salvage from and then I return the oil into the oil gallery that the OM salvage pumps use to return the oil to the deaerators in the sump.
The pumps are controlled by the new standalone computer which is programmed to run the pumps for 20 seconds after it senses wide open throttle. That means the pumps are running during cornering at the track but not running so often during normal road driving. My system has not been tested as I am still running in the engine, but I have the possibility to log everything with the new standalone ECU, and will be looking closely at oil pressure fluctuations during cornering. I will post the result as soon as I get them.
If this fails to stop the dreaded oil pressure loss during cornering, I guess I will have to fabricate a dry sump system or buy one from Chris Cervelli when he has one ready for Boxster S.




I salvage from the cam covers, the braided oil lines are not installed




The return of the oil to the oil gallery between the OM salvage pumps and the sump.




The return on the other head

[Bfan]

Here is a "bonus picture", taken yesterday while running in the 3.8 engine on a mountain road. Not the worst thing you can to do with your evening.....