Boxster S (2004 3.2) tuning

Rikki

Rikki

Rikki

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Joined
1 Dec 2004
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Glasgow, Scotland
Greetings OC'ers.

Ive had my car a year now and Im proud to say I havent gone Halfords daft and chav'd it up in the slightest :D ... but ...

The exhaust system on it has seen better days and instead of replacing it with an OE system I can get one of the best metalwork/fab/welders in the country to build me a custom one with new manifolds, sports cars, rear boxes and tip.

With regard to quality he's one of the best in the business having worked on the late Colin McRae's classic rally cars, Keith Cowie's R32 Skyline and a ton of other serious metal - so theres no worries it will be a bad job.

What I was wondering is what expectations I should have on completion of the job as far as performance gains. When we looked under the car he pointed out the factory headers were quite wimpy and a gain could be had there to start with.

Many thanks folks :)

R
 
Rikki said:
Greetings OC'ers.

Ive had my car a year now and Im proud to say I havent gone Halfords daft and chav'd it up in the slightest :D ... but ...

The exhaust system on it has seen better days and instead of replacing it with an OE system I can get one of the best metalwork/fab/welders in the country to build me a custom one with new manifolds, sports cars, rear boxes and tip.

With regard to quality he's one of the best in the business having worked on the late Colin McRae's classic rally cars, Keith Cowie's R32 Skyline and a ton of other serious metal - so theres no worries it will be a bad job.

What I was wondering is what expectations I should have on completion of the job as far as performance gains. When we looked under the car he pointed out the factory headers were quite wimpy and a gain could be had there to start with.

Many thanks folks :)

R
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Unfortunatly you are unlikely to see any gains at all. :( At best you might see 1 or 2 hp.
 
Rikki said:
The aftermarket exhausts on porscheshop etc all say 10+ ?
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They are all way over estimated. Get yourself over to boxa.net there is a guy that done loads, fly wheel, engine work, exhaust and a remap got him around 5bhp and a bit more torque on the rollers.

Somebody may correct me but I also had a 986 3.2s and did my research, as I understand it the n/a engines just don't respond well to tuning, worse they are also known for being difficult to map. On the plus side a decent exhaust can make them sound great even if you don't get much more power.
 
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Interesting stuff! Will defo look more into this. I'd seen some dyno sheets that showed improvements and thought even a 1400cc engine gets an easier time breathing with an exhaust so a 3.2 thats been somewhat detuned to deanger 911 owners might get a bit of help.

I know tuning my MR2 turbo was a piece of cake though - something I do miss about turbo ownership :D
 
As a Boxster S owner all I can say is don't go modding the car in the hope of betting any extra power. Most of the stuff like exhaust and breathing parts are already as good as you will get at doing their jobs.

A 1.4 hatchback has an air filter and exhaust designed to be cheap to build and fit. The Boxster S already has totally bespoke stuff and Porsche know much better than the internets and exhaust makers that do exhausts for any car on the market.
 
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Not really worth modding for anything other than sound and looks, you won't get anything out of a Boxster S without spending mad money on FI.
 
Thanks for the info folks, really surprised that things are like that, especially on the exhaust side. I thought freeing up the exhaust system would help a bit as the stock system is super quiet and the headers dont appear to be tuned length.

Every day is a school day though, thats for sure :)
 
I changed the exhaust on my Boxster to a Remus and I don't know whether it gave more BHP but it really helped throttle response and was much smoother top end too - felt like it allowed the engine to breathe properly. (I'm sure I don't have to tell you that it sounded MUCH better too)

Downside was that stupid Porsche buyers were put off because it wasn't the crappy Porsche sports exhaust, they'd much rather have an inferior product just because it has Porsche written on the side
 
Am thinking of a full system headers back for my Carrera, quoted figures are +10-20bhp I expect to see no real gain just a better sound. :)
 
Peerzy said:
As a Boxster S owner all I can say is don't go modding the car in the hope of betting any extra power. Most of the stuff like exhaust and breathing parts are already as good as you will get at doing their jobs.

A 1.4 hatchback has an air filter and exhaust designed to be cheap to build and fit. The Boxster S already has totally bespoke stuff and Porsche know much better than the internets and exhaust makers that do exhausts for any car on the market.
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Peerzy

Is yours a gen1 or gen2 Boxster, stock power 300 or 320BHP?

The Gen1 Boxster S and Cayman S tune superbly well. If you did the following:-
BMC Panel Filter - £60
GT3 throttlebody - £200
IPD Plenum - £500 (Maybe not required)
Sportback exhaust (200 cel cats) - £1000-£1500
Softronic or other remap - £500

The above would get a gen1 Boxster S and Cayman S in the 340-350BHP region, I know a couple of people who have done the above and both were circa 345BHP with impressive gains on Vbox acceleration times too. :)
 
VinceB1 said:
Am thinking of a full system headers back for my Carrera, quoted figures are +10-20bhp I expect to see no real gain just a better sound. :)
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Manifolders, mufflers will give you 5BHP maximum at top-end, but you may see great improvements mid-range!

However if you fit high-flow cats and preferably in the form of an X-pipe you can gain as much as 20BHP. :)
 
Gibbo said:
Peerzy

Is yours a gen1 or gen2 Boxster, stock power 300 or 320BHP?
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Erm, no idea what you count as gen1 or gen2.

It's a 2007 987 Boxster S with the 3.4l engine (290bhp standard if I remember correctly but it got 298bhp at Powerstation).

It was one of the first to get the 3.4l as anything older than mine has the 3.2l.
 
Peerzy said:
Erm, no idea what you count as gen1 or gen2.

It's a 2007 987 Boxster S with the 3.4l engine (290bhp standard if I remember correctly but it got 298bhp at Powerstation).

It was one of the first to get the 3.4l as anything older than mine has the 3.2l.
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Its a Gen1 then.

Gen2 if the DFI model with 320BHP and better MPG's.

Yours is very tunable mate! :)

A Gen1 Boxster S with 340-350BHP is a rapid machine, though your warranty would be gone, unless of course they never spotted the bits, though a Boxster is not as easy as a 911 to work on.
 
So the newer Boxsters do take to a bit of mild bolt on tuning but the 986's are guff - looks like I bought the Cyrix :(

LOL
 
Gibbo said:
Its a Gen1 then.

Gen2 if the DFI model with 320BHP and better MPG's.

Yours is very tunable mate! :)

A Gen1 Boxster S with 340-350BHP is a rapid machine, though your warranty would be gone, unless of course they never spotted the bits, though a Boxster is not as easy as a 911 to work on.
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100% need to keep the warranty, if I didn't have the warranty for piece of mind I wouldn't have the car.

I'm happy with its performance as is, I never find it 'not quick enough' and I'll only look to change when I want something different.

I'm all for modding cars for performance and would get a remap in a heartbeat on anything with FI and without a warranty.
 
Peerzy said:
As a Boxster S owner all I can say is don't go modding the car in the hope of betting any extra power. Most of the stuff like exhaust and breathing parts are already as good as you will get at doing their jobs.

A 1.4 hatchback has an air filter and exhaust designed to be cheap to build and fit. The Boxster S already has totally bespoke stuff and Porsche know much better than the internets and exhaust makers that do exhausts for any car on the market.
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What he said..But theres always people out there who are capable of spending time making small improvements.. Hence theres a tuning scene for porsche and other super cars..
 
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