Twin-Turbo LS3 V8 Makes 900 Horsepower in the Back of a Porsche 911
Much to the chagrin of the Porsche purist even the legendary 911 can benefit from an LS3 turbo kit.
Porsche 911 fans are a passionate group. And within that group is a smaller sub-group known as the purist. And these purists believe that the last ‘real’ Porsche 911 was made back in 1973. Once the impact bumper era arrived some of the diehards turned their noses up. And if that didn’t get them, Porsche did away with air-cooled engines starting with the 996 generation back in the late 1990s.
A water-cooled 911? Blasphemy. Purists revolted. But if you really want to have some fun with these people show them a Porsche 911 with an LS V8 sitting under the engine cover. It is like watching someone suffering through Delirium Tremens.
Want to take it a step further? Put a twin turbo LS3 V8 in the back of a 911. Just be sure to have medical staff close by because the 911 purist may go into shock.
The rest of us will just have a huge smile on our face. Because the flat-six engine that was originally in this 2006 911 Carrera S made a respectable 355 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. Now with the twin turbo LS3 V8 the horsepower is over 900 and torque is over 750 pound-feet.
To say that is an improvement is a massive understatement. A video of the build being wrapped up and the car tested for the first time was recently posted on the ScrapLife Garage YouTube channel. And it is worth a watch for many reasons, but for nothing else you have to hear this LS3 roar in the back of a 911. It is like your mind is playing tricks on you.
Not Easy
An LS swap is typically not overly complicated. That is one of the reasons it is so popular. But it is more unusual in a rear engine car such as the 911. And this car is not just getting an LS3. It is also getting a twin LS3 turbo kit that bring more power but more complexity.
So, considerations need to be made to handle things such as the excess heat that is going to be generated by this setup. And there are not many of these cars running around like this so there are not a lot of other vehicles to benchmark.
First Start
After all the fabrication work was done, it was finally time to fire up the LS3 for the first time and get the party started. Once it was started and we got to enjoy hearing that V8 rumble for a bit it was time for the dyno. The power numbers were certainly there.
Certainly more than 900 horsepower and 750 pound-feet of torque. The main concern at that point is the transmission as that is the weak point and will not be reliable long term with this sort of power. That will need to be upgraded. Other future plans include meth injection, larger wastegates, and a bunch of fiddling.
Roll Racing
A twin-turbo LS3 V8 making more than 900 horsepower is not something that you can fully and safely test on the street. So, the car was taken to Pocono Raceway for a bit of roll racing to see how it would do. It didn’t go as planned. The car held together and there was no catastrophic failure.
But the boost creep was not controlled, and it spiked to 19 psi which is just too much so the team shut the car down until things could be corrected. But overall this is a fascinating build. We love to see folks do something unusual with an LS and this 911 build is certainly that. Hopefully it gets fully sorted soon and the car is back out on the track for everyone (except the Porsche purist) to enjoy.
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