turbo upgrade / downgrade how easy

[redmill]

sorry for the lack of accuracy here, trying to ask a general question.

If a later year stock 951 makes ~ 251 hp (?)


1) what are the parts and approximate cost to get a pretty big hp bump without giving up too much reliability? (around 60+ hp)
eg bigger turbo, wastegate ?., DME flash.. ???? $$$$?

2) if adding / removing those parts something a hamfisted home mechanic can do easily one they are installed first time

just curious if you can stay stock for racing, then bolt/unbolt a few things for playtime.

Is anyone doing this, or more hassle then its worth?

[Techno Duck]

You need to look at the racing series you want to get into, be it time trial, auto-x or PCA club racing..etc. Classification is different for all of them, its very easy to bump yourself into a more competitive class where you will have a hard time keeping up with better prepared cars, people with deeper pockets and overall just cars that are a better platform than the 951.

If you are looking for a 60bhp increase this is not hard to do with the stock 26/8 turbo on the later cars. You can get in the 280whp range using that turbo by bumping the boost up to about 16psi, decent exhaust, wastegate and a good tune. This is about the limit of that turbo.. if you are looking for over 300whp you will need a bigger turbo.

My personal recipe to get the most out of the 26/8 would be a 3" exhaust with no cat, a Tial dual port wastegate, manual boost controller setup and a MAF based setup to get the tune right. All of this is installable by yourself. Mind you this is not exactly an easy setup to take on and off.

If staying in a certain class is important, best route i think would be to keep basically everything stock and go with a different DME / KLR chip that will allow for higher boost (figure 15psi). You can achieve close to the same results with only having to swap the chips out which is pretty easy.

Just my opinion.. everyone will have different suggestions.

Just remember when bumping up the boost, dont expect original 20+ year old components on the car to last.

[wild man]

If you are looking for easy, the approximate HP increase you are looking for can be had for only about 1 minute of you time. All you need to do is remove the stock banjo bolt on the charge pipe and replace it with one that has a constrictor (which typically consists of a carburetor jet) installed in it. That should up your boost by 4-5lbs (make sure the jet hole size is correct - you don't want to go higher boost than that without other supporting mods). I did this 2 days after I bought my 951S, and it definitely put a smile on my face. I ran it that way for a few months without any problems, until I upgraded to an MAF setup, and stepped up to 20 psi. With some exhaust mods, that put the engine into the 330-340hp range, which is absolute tops, for a K26/8. I have since gone well beyond that, after upgrading to a K27/8, along with additional mods.