blackknight530i

Hello everyone, I'm blackknight530i and I am a swap addict. I've mostly been doing swaps on several different BMW models over the years, but in September 2022, I bought my first Porsche, a 2006 Cayman S in Cobalt Blue Metallic over Stone Grey 2-tone interior with 83k miles.


It came with a bunch of track ready goodies on it, including 2qt LN Engineering deep sump oil pan, underdrive pulleys, Soul Performance competition exhaust with catless headers, H&R coilovers, Softronic tune and Numeric shifter cables. I picked it up in Detroit and drove it home to Charlotte, NC.

I got about 3 months of driving it before I was seeing a lot more smoke that I would have expected/liked and I would get a slight tapping sound from the driver side. I suspected it might have bore score and so I would drive it less and less, but still loved the car. At one point, it had an issue that I thought might be related to bore scoring, but logically it didn't seem like it. It would have a serious vibration at certain RPMs (2500, 5000, etc.) and I thought it was so bad that I didn't end up driving it for about 5-6 months. I ended up doing some additional research on that and determined that it might be a bad flywheel. I decided to go ahead and change the clutch and flywheel, even though I had records of the clutch being changed from the PO about 20k miles prior, but it didn't appear they changed the flywheel at the time. That turned out to be a completely seized dual mass flywheel. Once replaced, the engine ran super smooth, but still had the same smoking and tapping. I decided it was time to pull the sump and borescope the cylinders to know for sure if it had bore scoring.

5 cylinders looked pretty much like this:


Cylinder 5 looked like this though:


Well, that was back in March of 2023 and I once again decided not to drive the car much. I have changed all of the fuel injectors, vacuum hoses/valves, spark plugs, coils, MAF, air filter, etc. to make sure I have the best air/fuel mixture to try to keep it from getting worse or affecting other cylinders, but I had to look at options for what to do with the engine/car.

I started looking into doing a full rebuild with a 3.8 conversion with LN Engineering Nickies, track conversion parts, etc., but was looking at about $20k in just parts and machine work and that was if I built it myself, which I've never done before. I bought Jake's video series and workbook and was leaning towards doing just that, but in the back of my mind, I kept thinking that this rebuilt motor is going to cost me a fortune, I can't really recoup any money from it, and could still blow up again in the future. I decided to consider another option of DFI converting my car by buying a wrecked 2009+ Cayman S and swapping it in.

I tried to look for other build threads where others have done this and most focused on race car builds and didn't seem to care if everything worked as it should. I got the service manuals and wiring diagrams for both cars and compared both, along with parts diagrams to see what is the same and what is different between the 987.1 and 987.2. I reached out to a couple of companies that offered this service and was told that they stopped offering it as an option as it never really worked right. I believe the issue that they ran into was that they were trying to only swap in the engine and keep the other electrical parts original. In comparing the wiring diagrams, I can see that there are quite a few differences in the engine wiring alone, but that's not where it ends and I can see how it can quickly escalate into something that could be a lot more complicated than most would want to take on.

I decided that I would look for a full donor car and at worst case, swap over everything to my car. That said, I knew there were some things that weren't specific to .1 or .2 cars, like the front control module and the rear control module as well as some of the additional wiring harnesses going to the rear hatch and such. I happened to look on the IAA auctions and found a 2009 Cayman S with 73k miles and a bunch of track parts that had been wrecked in the front and it was only about $12k. I figured I would swap over whatever was needed from it and could sell off whatever I didn't use as well as whatever came off of my 06 that was good and not needed anymore. That way, I could recoup some of my investment and might even get it to a point where I'm not into the conversion much at all.


Unfortunately, the PO took off some of the track parts before it went to Auction, like racing seats, harness bar, exhaust and wheels, and it looks like the rear control module, but left the entire black interior, Nine Lives Racing Big "****", AST coilovers, and brand new Girodisc rotors front and back. I plan on keeping the stuff that's better than what I have on my 06 and selling whatever's left from the 06. It is a sport chrono car, but not an extended leather interior.

Now, that's the backstory, here's the beginning of the swap.

Last weekend, my buddies and I started stripping the panels, draining fluids, and otherwise getting the engine and transmission ready to come out of the donor.


I plan on documenting everything I do as part of this build thread. My dad has been doing some filming and will be editing it as well to possibly put on YouTube as well, if that goes well. We hope to set up some GoPros this weekend when we start pulling the engine and transmission. This is going to be a big project and at a minimum, we will be swapping the entire main wiring harness, but I've been playing with PIWIS and trying to see if I can change the VIN in some of the modules so I can still get the car inspected properly and make sure that everything continues to work as it should, so stay tuned for that. As with all of my build threads, I hope this helps anyone who might be interested in doing the same, or is at least entertaining for anyone that just wants to follow along.

RennPart

This should be exciting.

My experience with trying to code anything with an aftermarket PIWIS has been marginal.

--Aaron

blackknight530i

Good to know. It did work doing a vehicle handover when my garage door opener stopped working, so I'm hoping it can do what's needed. If not, it's not the end of the world. I can swap everything over.

RennPart

I have run into needed "codes" from Porsche for things pertaining to tuning the ECU to ROW etc. There are some really good PIWIS guru's on here that might be able to help but I've never tried to change VIN numbers on modules etc.

I know of one NASA racer that has done the conversion, he is in the VA beach area. I know it took him a good while but I've seen the car running at VIR so it can be done.

--Aaron

jennetic

It breaks my heart to see my old 987 turned into a parts car but I’m glad it’s going towards a good cause. The brakes and control arms are upgraded too. You’re basically getting everything i couldn’t strip or forgot to strip in the 2-3 hours the insurance gave me before they sent it to the auction. if you would like the buckets, cage and full soul performance competition exhaust they are sitting in my parts room and I’ll sell them to you for a reasonable price.
I drove across the country in that cayman.
I picked it up from a guy in Idaho who bought it bone stock and spent a year or so building it only to never drive it. I had a track day planned as soon as I had him back in Miami but god had other plans. we went from Coeur d’Elane in Idaho to Seattle to Napa to LA across the desert to barber and to the tail of the dragon then finally Savannah and Miami together with no cats, no tags, bucket seats and no radio. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. It was devastating to watch him go to a classic Miami traffic scammer. Here’s some pictures from the trip and from the little time we had together here. When I say we i really do just mean the car and myself as it was totally full of it’s own interior during this trip, it was mostly stripped when I drove it. It was my 4th 987 and my third 987.2 but it was definitely the nicest one I’ve had so far. Even better than my old spyder. I can’t express how frustrating it was to see such a wonderful car totalled.

if you look in the glovebox you’ll find a message from me


Crater lake Oregon

A canyon road somewhere in napa

Big sur

Angeles crest

A random diner on route 66

Just outside of barber motorsports park (we didn’t get to go on track but the car wanted to go that way and before I knew it I saw the sign to go in and said why not)

(Cherohala skyway? I can’t remember right now)

Definitely cherohala skyway

jennetic

I should add that i also have brand new FBO and numeric shifter I never got around to installing on it if you’re interested in any of it as well as the forged wheels and an alcantara shift **** that were on it before

Zepper

Well.....dibs on the wing, obviously. Its gonna look great on my boxster.

G0ingnowherefast

Following, and wow crazy you found the owner here. Also 2x I will buy the wing lol

RJ80

Yours is the first black/gray 987 interior I've seen besides my own, I don't think many cars were ordered like that. Best of luck with the swap!

blackknight530i

I am so happy you found this thread and reached out. I read the note and thought it was so cool that you did that. I honestly wasn't sure if it was from the last owner or not, but I love that you posted the pictures here as well. While the car is being stripped, I plan to put everything good from it into my beautiful 2006 that I was so disheartened to hear had bore scoring after such a short time of owning, so I can sympathize.

It's funny, on your trip, you went by several of the places that I've lived and visited and drove on some of my favorite roads (Cherohala Skyway and Tail of the Dragon).

I'm not sure I want to go with the buckets and cage, but I may be interested in the Soul exhaust. I just bought some used catted manifolds as I still need to pass emissions for a couple of years, but I was hoping to modify my 987.1 Soul exhaust to work with them. If I can get your 987.2 exhaust for a decent price, that may make it easier and I can swap to the competition headers once I no longer need to pass emissions in a couple of years. Message me directly if you have a price in mind.

I may also be interested in the shifter and shift ****, so let me know what you want for those as well. Not sure what FBO is.

blackknight530i

Yeah, I've found mine is pretty well optioned and I actually love the Stone Gray/Black two-tone. I wish the soft touch parts weren't so scratched, but if I can find a good trim paint in the same color, I may remove the soft touch and paint them so they'll look great for a long time.

A432

Cool project. Do know John Tecce at BGB and Vision Motorsports have each done at least one so if you run into roadblocks, they might be good resources.

blackknight530i

I actually reached out to BGB and they were the ones that said they don't offer the swaps anymore due to things not working 100%. They did give me a few ideas, but I'll reach out to them again if I run into anything I get stuck on.

Zach L

Awesome build, and super excited to see this documented! Cobalt is an amazing color, especially paired with the unique interior. I'll be keeping watch

BGB used an adapter harness to make the job as easily as possible, which is why things may have not worked. The Vision cars I believe have just swapped everything over, but I could be wrong.

A432

The Vision car I know works (Duane's) went deep deep 987.2, lol, with a 6sp.- PDK swap on top of the DFI swap
so it definitely required even more complete swap parts since the PDK/controller needs significant, specific feedback.
I never talked to them about any other cars, but if JT was having issues, Vision is probably who to talk to.