Its been quite some time since I have posted anything new on my car.

The best 60-130 my car ran last year was a 5.42. At the track, I turned over a trap speed of 139.52 in the 1/4 mile set at 1.42-1.44 bar of boost on 3071 turbos with .63 ARs. On another night I turned over a 142.1 trap using my driftbox. I post these numbers for comparison purposes against my latest data.

Many of you may remember that for the longest time, I was experiencing issues where my car would trip cam actuator fault codes which caused a reduction in acceleration power. The CEL read "P0021 - cam position actuator over bank 2 - timing over advanced". When the code was present I would have intermittant power loss issues (especially below 5500 RPMS). The car wouldnt get out of its own way. I was irritated and discouraged. Power was down and the upgrades that were in place to help improve performance were worthless. I was determined to find the problem. Check engine lights linked to this fault haunted me for 1-1/2 years until we FINALLY figured out what was going wrong.

The cam fault would point most in the direction of the cam actuator but the dealer thought it was something linked to my "flashed ECU" since they never dealt with a problem of this nature previously. After months of discussion with the dealer and Todd and no difinitive solution (outside the scope of opening up the motor and hopefully finding something), Todd at Protomotive had come across some valuable information through another source that was having trouble with the exact same thing.

Long story short, we had to take apart my motor to replace the bank 2 cam (the ENTIRE cam). The sleeve inside the defective cam shifted and from the factory was supposed to be welded or fused in place, but somehow slipped blocking the oil passages responsible for triggering the cam to move back and forth from retard to advanced mode. The cam in my car was frozen in high power mode so I would only get into good HP numbers when I got my RPM up into the 5500 range or higher. Power would be really sluggish on the low end of the power band. The problem drove me nuts for a very long time. Todd from Protomotive passed along the information to David Hart at Prototech in Fort Lauderdale. From there, Prototech got my problem resolved. The guys at Prototech broke the motor down replaced the cam and reassembled everything perfectly. I havent had a problem since.

Here are some of the photos of the cam:





I made some changes to the car (few odds and ends) while it was at Prototech during the cam fix. I stepped up the power related components to a set of 3076 turbos with .63 AR's, 4.5" Proto intercoolers & 80 lb injectors. All of these components were installed at Prototech.

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Then came the tuning...
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Todd preferred to have the car in his shop in Arkansas but I wanted to avoid shipping the car out to him. Instead, he set me up so we could tune my car remotely. Through his direction, I insalled a real time diagnostic program called ScanXL on to my laptop and connected it to my OBD-II port in my car. This program captures specific information about what is happening under throttle (good or bad). It records a full range of generic diagnostics off the powertrain system and other important areas. It acts similar to that of a Porsche PWIS. It allows viewing, charting, logging and playback of diagnostic data in real time. Here are a few screen shots of what the ScanXL program looks like:






Once everything was hooked up I drove out on the road and ran a variety of full throttle runs at varying boost pressures and loads. A variety of PIDs were captured to monitor short term and long term fuel trims, Air fuel ratios, Ignition timing, MAF, Engine RPM, Load, etc. All of this data streams directly to my computer while the car is running. I also had a fuel pressure gauge run into the car to monitor fuel pressure when under higher boost pressure. This was in place to make sure we were
not running out of pump at the higher boost levels. A Profec Spec II was used to adjust and monitor boost pressure.

Each run was closely monitored to make sure everything was doing what is was supposed to. I then would send the captured data files and run parameters to Todd by email for review. Adjustments to the tuning files were then made and new files were sent back to me to retest. I then used Durametric flashing cables to flash my the ECU again using my laptop. After a few rounds of back and forth, the tuning was complete.

I now have 3 programs I can select from all sitting on my laptop:

Program 1) 93 octane file for low boost. (1.2 bar)
Program 2) MS109 file for medium boost (1.40-1.65 bar)
Program 3) MS109 file for high boost (1.65 bar+)

I then ventured out to see what the 60-130s would look like using the most aggressive program: "Program 3". I disconnected the Fuel pressure gauge, removed the laptop diagnostic equipment and set the Profec to the desired boost pressure. I then connected the Driftbox and went out to make some passes.

I only ran 6 passes and screwed up all but 3 of them. Also the car was having some boost fading issues......I felt that something in the car's transition into boost was off……it was felt like the boost was coming in a little sluggish and audibly sounded as if something was holding it back. Even though I figured this would obviously hurt my times, I still went out and made the best of it.......The 'best of it' wasnt bad at all....

Here is the best run out of the 3.



4.54 seconds 60-130mph. Starting in 3rd - 1 shift. I backed that run up with a second pass at 4.57.


I believe if the boost fade issue wasnt apparant, I may have shaved off a little more time. With that said, I'll try to get back out there after that boost issue is addressed.

As for the HP of my car, I have not dyno'd it since the latest changes. However, Todd dyno'd a 997 GT2 (stock heads cams etc) that made 822 rwhp at right about 800 TQ. This car had nearly the same configuration as my car. That GT2 ran a best of 5.3 but Im sure it could do better with those kind of power numbers.

With that said, Todd mentioned he believes my car has around 850whp maybe better...

My thanks goes out to both shops for their help in getting my car back in shape.

Let me know what you guys think.

Keith

 

Great post-- love the info which is particularly relevent to my situation.

 

Congratulations Keith!!!!!

 

That car is crazy fast, congrats

 

+1

Hope you solve your boost issue, then try to beat this record

 

Great stuff, look forward to more updates of this amazing car!

 

I did 100-200 in 6,3 on pump fuel, also my car is a cab which is heavier, not bad for a tip

 

great info. my car had the same CEL in stock. I turned it off and since have put 1000 miles on without any issues. I wonder if the P0021 is common. Did you try turning off the P0021 and did it keep coming back?

 

awesome to hear. did the car never exhibit the cam error when stock?

 

What is 100-200kmh in MPH? I think it is 62mph - 124 mph,if so 60-130mph is much different in terms of power.

 

Congratulations Keith ..

nice work <!-- google_ad_section_end -->

 

i had a bad cam also same problem its not the first one the dealer saw

 

Its not too common, but the problem is out there.

Since my car had 1500 miles on it (now has 23,000), I had issues with the P0021 Cam actuator check engine light. I would clear the code and would not see it come back for a bit. Sometimes for 1-2 months. Basically, the problem was intermittant. It would come and go and never went away completely. I must have cleared that code 20-30 times over the 2 years Ive had the problem. Once the cam was replaced, over 2 months now, the CEL hasnt come back to visit ; )

I believe what was happening was that under load the sleeve within the cam was moving around. At times the sleeve may shift and slightly block the oil passages and at other times it may shift to back open. This is what was happening to me and the cause of my fluctuating power changes. I heard that Mike at TPC racing had one that was fully shifted and thus completely blocked the opening alltogether. He claimed his car was down on power 100% of the time.

Its a Porsche warranty issue. Unfortunately, my car was modified and they didnt want to honor going into the motor under warrantly.

Keith

 

There have been dealers out there that are aware of this issue on the 997tt - you are definetely correct.

My local dealer, however was not. Also I began discussions with the dealer trying to pinpoint the issue on this predicament going back 2 years ago. This was news then. Alot of new instances have popped up since.

Keith

 

Congrats - that is an awesome time.

So this car is still a stock bottom end car - correct.