ecu and exhaust upgrades - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

rxgolf · 08-21-2004, 06:28 PM

I have a performance question for anyone has done this. I'm looking to install a cool air intake system, ecu remapping and exhaust upgrade on my 99. I was wondering is all this worth the money or should I just buy an Boxster S. My car is paid for so I don't care about the risk if any.

Stryke · 08-21-2004, 10:32 PM

A friend of mine at Cargraphic put all that in her Boxster S and made about 300HP. She was beating out 3.4L 996's.

Alienz · 08-21-2004, 11:14 PM

I saw a video of "Porsche nuts" racing on the track few weeks ago. The guy who made it is attending RIT. Some of the ppl interviewed were from NYC. Where is that track Stryke (if you know)?

Stryke · 08-22-2004, 04:24 AM

What's the name?

Most NYC residents race at Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ.

FUHRIUS · 12-12-2004, 01:10 PM

I bought my '01 S recently with a good bit of breathing work done to it. I have a good friend with 996 3.4l and I'd say my car pulls a little better (at least it feels like that)...he even admits, begrudgingly, that he thinks my boxster is quicker. the receipts from the previous owner say that he paid about $7,500 for the work, though...that's pretty steep.

Adam · 12-12-2004, 06:05 PM

Is your warranty still good furious?

FUHRIUS · 12-12-2004, 08:05 PM

I just had the car in for a rms leak and as the service advisor explained: "if you have a problem with your exhaust, I can't warranty that (since it's a techart exhaust), but if you're starter goes bad, how can I beef you on that?"

I don't think there's a clear cut answer, but I do take it to the same Porsche / audi dealer that I took my highly modified Audi to before I got the boxster and I never had a problem...and I had that car for 6 years...they fixed everything that ever went wrong with it, no problem. The car I just bought only has until oct 05 for warranty anyway (it's got 24k miles on it).

Adam · 12-12-2004, 09:51 PM

That makes sense, but I wonder if they would have a beef on an engine problem since the upgrades affect engine output.

tqtran · 12-13-2004, 09:35 AM

DMS(http://www.dmsautomotive.com/) in Chicago IL near the Exchange can remap an 986 S ECU to 280HP(and 996 TT to 500+HP) and it will not look any different to a Porsche Dealer's computer. Can't remember but I think it runs around $5K for 986S

Adam · 12-13-2004, 01:48 PM

Has anyone out there tried out the GIAC chip that replaces the the OEM ECU? GIAC is supposed to be a reputable chip maker for many euro vehicles. I believe the chip runs approx $1,000. Heres the website www.giacusa.com/ 5k just for the remap sounds like alot even if it is undetectable.

Stryke · 12-13-2004, 03:14 PM

Magnuson-Moss act is a law that deals with warranties. They cannot deny you a warranty unless they can prove that your mods caused the failure!

FUHRIUS · 12-13-2004, 04:13 PM

I used a GIAC chip with great success on an Audi 1.8l turbo motor in the a4 I used to have. very solid product.

Adam · 12-13-2004, 04:59 PM

Good deal. Hopefully the chips box s work well too. I'm suprised that I haven't found one boxster owner with the GIAC chip yet since they do seem be held in such high asteem with the euro car community.

jfmillr · 12-13-2004, 08:54 PM

I had my ECU remapped. I looked into the GIAC. My understading is that their chip is remapped based on a stock model. Since I have many upgrades I had to have a custom tune/remap done.I spent about 1500 or a little less to have this done. I went through TTP and they used a tech from Sportech by the name Gunther. I beleive he might have changed companies in the last 6 months to a year so not sure where to find him these days. I am extremely happy with the job he did. I received about 35 more HP because of this. it is an aggressive tuning. I think some others on this board have used him at one point or another too. If I can get some info from my local shop I will try to post some more info.

Adam · 12-13-2004, 11:03 PM

^ How many dyno pulls did he have to do before he got where it needed to be?

Also, can the GIAC chip not self-adjust or be adjusted by a professional incase serious changes are made? On the website they promote using a higher flowing air intake with their chip for another 15hp or so. They never mentioned headers/cats/ cams and all that

jfmillr · 12-14-2004, 05:18 AM

Well I cant count how many Dyno pulls we did exactly. My car was on the Dyno for about 7 hours while he remapped the fuel using a modulator which he soldered to the board. After completely remapping the ECU he then burned the new program to the chip and works great. I think we ended up in the neighborhood of 20 pulls. I am sure the GIAC chip probably has some adjustment capabilities, but again thier program is really conservative. If you want max HP you need to have a custom tune/remap performed. I would be happy to pass a copy of my file along but I would not recommend using it since it is specifically disigned for my modifications.

Lux · 12-14-2004, 06:15 PM

I thought GIAC allows you to custom tune? Regardless, a custom tune on the dyno (with the a/f sensor mounted before cats) is the only way to go. I've seen too many aftermarket chips (for BMW) that are too lean up top or pig rich down low and everything in between. I'm guessing the chips for Porsche aren't much better.

Ad Sach · 12-15-2004, 03:00 AM

Boxster Racing Board generally LOVES Gunther's work.
IMO a chip by itself isn't worth the 1-3HP gain in part of the powerband. Unless you are willing to go at least intake/headers/chip you might as well spend your upgrade money on track sessions

I haven't been tempted down the upgrade path yet, but I am watching for the results of the 987 header on a 986.

jfmillr · 12-15-2004, 04:19 AM

well I had already been down a long way into the upgrade road with my 986 so remapping the ECU was a must and Gunther was the man! If anyone is interested I took a video of some of the procedures he did while remapping. If anyone is interested I can make these files available.

clubhead · 12-15-2004, 06:16 AM

What about exhaust choice? I know the talk has been about ECU mostly.

Been doing some reading and it seems the one by Fabspeed is supposed to be the one to go for. Fabspeed exhaust look awefully similar to the one offered by Evolution Motorsports (http://www.evoms.com/). I swear the pictures are identical

So my question is what's the difference between a 'free flow' and "straight through' muffler? I'm considering the Dansk sports muffler which also looks similar to the one at Fabspeed/Evolution Motorsports... Dansk claims theirs is not straight through but 'free flow'. Used to think they're the same..