951 Mods Continued

Weather has really killed our progress on the 951 project! Atlanta got hit with a huge snow storm which slowed down our MAF shipment, and then we have been getting nailed with snow over the last few weeks as well, which means no road testing 🙁 I thought we had the car ready to leave the other day, when we discovered a fuel leak at the jumper line to the damper (Porsche recalled this line on all 951’s, but it appears this car never had it done). LUCKILY we caught it idling in the driveway as the owner was picking it up! More than likely the cold weather was the final straw as the car had sat outside overnight for the first time in about a month. So she has to stay with me for a few more days!

I’m not even sure where we left off last.  Fabspeed exhaust, 2 piece crossover pipe, and Tial wastegate are on.  The EVC-S electronic boost controller is on.  Motor mounts were replaced.  Axle boots replaced.  Last week our MAF showed up from John at Vitesse Racing.  We wanted to get rid of the stock AFM barn door meter and update the system to something with much better throttle response, and current technology.  The car drives much better with the new set up.  Along with the MAF, you must install larger injectors as well as the DME chip board for the programming.  John provides a great kit and has arguably the best customer service in the industry.

Opening up the DME. You can see the old chip with a white tag on it. This is obviously not the original chip, and I am not sure whose chip it was, but I am glad to get it the heck out of there!

The new Vitesse Racing chipboard in place.

Goodbye stock airbox and AFM!

Pulling everything apart.

Getting the new MAF setup in place.

There we go. A much cleaner setup.

Next up was to install the 3 bar fuel pressure regulator and larger injectors.

Almost complete….or so I thought.

The car had an exhaust leak at the headers when it came in, but it would seal up after the car idled for about 30 seconds. We found out that when the car sat outside overnight, it took a lot longer for it to seal up, and I wasn’t real happy with that, so I pulled the headers and put in a used set I had. Turns out the exhaust flange on the #2 and #3 header were loose and leaking. Easiest way to check headers off the car is to do a water test. Tape up one end with duct tape, fill the header with water, and look for leaks. The OEM headers are covered with a heat shield, so you can’t see the cracks unless you can catch it from the inside of the header. With the water test, I had water pouring out between the header pipe and the mounting flange.

Bottom flange of 6 bolts.

And the replacement headers in place. Hopefully this will buy us some time. In reality, all of the OEM headers are going to crack eventually on the 944T’s. It can be a bear to get headers swapped on the 951, but doable if you pull a few studs out.

944951HeadersMAFMass Air FlowPorscheVitesse Racing

More from the Blog

7 Comments

Leave a comment
Tyler cox

March 4, 2011 at 7:29 PM

Hi doc! I actually found you through the German car enthusiast forum and just wanted to ask you a few questions.. Can a 951 handle 400 hp on stock internals? If so what turbo kit would you suggest?… And what all mods would I need to achieve this? Estimated cost? Thanks for your time man!

    porschedoc

    March 4, 2011 at 9:31 PM

    Sure, 400 hp isn’t a problem as long as you don’t do things like clutch drops, etc. It isn’t a drag racer.

    Best turbo kits on the market are from John at Vitesse Racing. He can get you to what hp you want.

Tyler cox

March 4, 2011 at 11:26 PM

Great thanks for the reply! Where are you located? I probly plan on doing this myself but not really sure yet. I actually don’t even own a 951 yet but I have owned a really really nice 944 for about 5 years now and plan to sell it within the next year and a half to help start this 951 project. I’d really like 450hp at the wheels and no I never and I mean never dump the clutch. That’s a wallet buster! Do you have any idea what a kit to do this would cost roughly? If not thats ok and thanks again for your time

    porschedoc

    March 5, 2011 at 3:01 PM

    I am in the Kansas City area. 450whp is a lot different than 400hp, so at that point you need to go in to strengthen the internals and such. A kit putting you over 400whp is going to run 6-8k by the time you have everything done (turbo, MAF, exhaust, wastegate, etc).

Tyler cox

March 5, 2011 at 10:05 PM

Ah ok well 400 would be plenty enough for me. I checked out vitesse racing and that’s deff who I’m gonna go with when I ready so thanks again for pointing me there! Vary few places sell performance parts for this car and they seem way mor reasonable than some like Lindsay racing that seem really high priced just cause it’s a Porsche. Any exhaust suggestions that aren’t ricey? I see people running L.R. Exhaust with like magna flow mufflers and such. What sounds the best?

richard

October 28, 2012 at 3:33 PM

HI, i am wondering about taking the stock rods out and putting in the shorter rods that make it a stroker (2.8 i think) what are the horse power gains from that? im thinking about new turbo and exaust and porting the head with a maf system, also who make the better maf and why? iv looked a linsey racing and vitesse racing but not sure which one is better? thanks

    porschedoc

    October 28, 2012 at 6:03 PM

    The way to build a proper 2.8L stroker is to use a 3.0L crank from a 968 or 944S2, stock rods, and custom pistons with relocated wrist pins, and bore the block to 100.5mm. Even the incorrect way of using shorter rods and stock pistons still require a 3.0L crank. This will mean a full motor build either way. Horsepower gains really depend on what turbo setup you are going to go with, but typically the hp gains are not that great when compared to a 2.5L, but the torque increase is substantial. The 2.8L also has a tendency to blow up much easier than the 2.5L.

    I ALWAYS use Vitesse for MAF and tuning setups on 951’s. He costs more for a reason, the product is better, and his customer service is the best in the business.

Leave a Reply to richard Cancel reply