F136S Powered Porsche Build Thread

10 minute(s) of a 23 minute read

So, an Update on things.

The cooling issue has been resolved. The Radiator was moved from the cage, to the rear, and I built a shroud and intake with dryer ducting to give it good fresh air. At idle and on the highway, I have yet to see the car exceed 85c!

Next item on the list was this thing.

Problem solved with this nice Moroso tank. Shit was expensive, but it sure as hell does it's job right!

Moving on, the car's new shoes are finally ready to be tossed on. 315s on all corners fit surprisingly well. Just had to hack a couple brackets up front. Fenders still need to be cut a flared, but with the suspension cranked to super stiff, they'll be fine rolling around.

The old fronts were 225. Here's what those look like compared.

Not exactly pretty, but that hardly stands out on this car.

Lastly, the exhaust. This thing has been simply obnoxious. Obnoxiously fun, yes, but really just screaming for a cop to come running. In the interest of not seeing this thing impounded and crushed, I decided to throw on some Borla Pro XS mufflers. Heres a video showing what the car sounds like at idle with them on, vs off. You'll want headphones or proper speakers to listen. The note is too low for laptop, tablet, or phone speakers to really play.

Gonna take it on the highway tomorrow to see how it is there. But I gotta say I'm quite impressed with how clean the exhaust now sounds. Less winga dinga, more rumble in your chest. In person it really does thrum in your bones. Quite impressive.

Meant to post this hours ago, but here we are. Dyno testing and tuning today. Will update as soon as we have numbers. I tried googling what the QP V made at the wheels, but only ever found crank hp numbers. Really curious to see how she does.

Number are in!

Not going to lie, I was hoping for a bit more, if just to have big numbers on a peice of paper. However, as anyone familiar with dyno tuning will tell you, don't look at the numbers, look at the curves. And damn, this girl has some killer curves!

90% of max torque is available from about 3,500 rpm all the way to 6,500 rpm, and that horsepower plateau from 5,500 to over 7,000 rpm is nothing short of drop dead GORGEOUS. No wonder so many of you Maserati guys all say that the engine is the main reason to buy this car. This thing rips!

But, even though I know better, I can't resist the urge to push the numbers around, even if they're rough. Magic Tuner Man says that he's guessing 20% drivetrain loss, and that this dyno does tend to read a little low. I was hoping for 400 at the crank, which would be 320 at the wheels (using the assumed 20% loss). My math gives this run at about 365 crank, on an engine that supposedly gave 385 crank hp when new, though this one has 96k miles on it. ~20 hp loss over 96,000 miles and 14 years? Not bad! Especially from a ~$3,000 engine literally pulled from a junkyard. (I think it was something like $2,600, but shipping was a bitch.)

And I didn't even factor in the dyno reading a bit low, because it's very difficult to put a number on that, meaning we essentially have an engine that makes roughly what it was factory rated at, a decade a half and nearly 100k miles later.

Even so, 300 hp in 2,500lbs (I think) isn't bad. Best news is, transmission seemed to survive!
P.S. We ended up with the rev limiter at 7,800 rpm. Magic Tuner Man had it at 8k, and it probably would have been fine, but we wanted a safe and survivable tune, we aren't going for maximum attainable HP (yet).

It's either been obsessively well cared for, or been partially rebuilt at some point. Taking off the manifolds and looking down onto the top of the intake valves and up the ports to the exhaust valves, they are unbelievably clean.

I've got some videos I'm trying to upload, but the internet is being wonky.

Numbers and charts are nice, but the real world application is what really matters. And the best way to show that is through first impressions.

Having party mode available whenever you like certainly doesn't hurt either.

Story time, kids!

Now that it's all back together, took the car up to JBA, a local very well regarded hotrod shop, to get it corner scaled.
Car is at 2,530 lbs. 45.3% front, 54.7% rear. So weight went up since before the engine swap from ~2,460, and we shifted the balance by about 3%. But the left/right balance is still on point. 50.5 to 49.4. I don't think there is much we can do for weight reduction short of ludicrous cutting measures. But one thing to consider would be striving to mount further additions such as the fuel cell as far forward as possible to improve the weight distribution.

The fun part was that the Porsche did its thing, even at JBA. Mind you, they were loading up cars to go 1/2 mile racing the next day, so they had some pretty serious machinery sitting in their lot. But as soon as Ol' Squonky showed up, she was the star of the show. All the techs walking over to take a look and get pictures. Typical questions about what engine, what it's from, what it put out, how did I not get pulled over, what the **** is my malfunction. They asked me to start it and rev it. Lost their minds at how quickly it gains RPM. Were even more impressed by the dyno graph. Funny how guys that build performance cars were super hyped about an engine that could put power down so consistently. Then we had a good laugh when the guy who was weighing it had to take it to the garage. I told him the clutch was aggressive as hell. People have made fun of me for the way my shifts sound in the videos. I stopped counting after this guy stalled it for the 10th time.

Anyways, car gets weighed. I'm standing outside talking with a guy who was a VW Jetta that he's wanting to throw the Audi 4.2 V8 into, and he was all about that track racing. So good fun to talk to. Mind you, he's wiping down one of their 1000hp Super Snakes that's going racing during this. After the weighing was done, the guy brought it out again. Heard it stall a few times in their shop. Gives me the key and we stand there talking a bit. He, more than anyone else was in love with the car. Kept saying how much he loved the gnarly, no-f*cks attitude. The little bit of moving he did in the car told how aggressive the thing was. Clutch aside, he said the way the engine just wants to go makes the car feel scary even at idle. Naturally, he mentioned that he'd love to go for a ride in it, which I happily agreed to. But he said he was on the clock and couldn't, but then went to ask the bossman anyways. And come on, what bossman is gonna say no to that? Car like this doesn't show up every day. So we jump in, go on to the road just outside of JBA, and I did a rolling 1-2 to redline pull. This guy, Patrick, I think. Maybe Peter. Something with a P. Dude was losing his mind. He said he's probably been in faster cars, but never anything that felt nearly as aggressive, or that pulled so consistently throughout the revs. That's high praise coming from a guy at JBA. They were drag racing yesterday and disappointed that one of their Mustangs was barely getting into the 9s. So for him to be shouting "FU*K YEAH!" at maximum hype felt damn good.

It get's everyone's attention, no matter where it goes.

If the sound and appearance don't get thier curiosity, the first glance in the engine bay immediately does. The red valve covers spark many questions.

However, we are considering painting the intake manifold. Partly, because it's what we do. Other partly, because we've had a few people take a casual glance at it and think it's an LS swap. We want to enforce the idea that this is something out of the ordinary, something worth examining. Not sure what the plan is yet, but there will be one.

Sidenote: Car got rained on while parked in the parking lot. No apparent issues. Haltech's stuff worked as advertised and is water resistant. (Not something we plan on pushing the limits of any more, however.)