[RandallNeighbour]

I am just back from the shop having Che's headers and sport exhaust installed and dyno results between the installs. Here's the details:

Are these parts cheap or good?
The quality of the parts is very high from what I could tell, but I don't examine exhaust systems for a living so I could not really be very discriminating. However, the mechanic and the shop owner stated that they thought the parts looked very well made and were impressed with the price I would have paid on Ebay for them. The parts are mandrel bent and TIG welded, and far, far lighter than OEM equipment.

Installation
The headers bolted on directly on my 97 Boxster without any modifications. There is an AC line that was zip tied off to keep it from touching the header, and it was wrapped with heat tape to keep it from melting. I am planning on buying some asbestos heat wrap stuff a friend told me about and put it around this AC line just to make sure it doesn't get too hot.

The muffler installed easily, but the holes in the bracket were a bit too far away from the center for the setup on my model year Boxster. The mechanic simply drilled a couple of new holes in the bracket and bolted it on. (I spoke to Che about this and he is going to have additional holes drilled in the bracket so it will fit any model year 986 in case you are interested in getting one some day).

Sound
I must say that I can now hear my engine's exhaust very very clearly, even with the top up or down and the stereo at full blast! It has a lovely rumble at idle, and is loudest between 2k and 3k, providing a little resonance at this RPM. It sounds like music to my ears though, but some may find this muffer a little too loud for a daily driver... I noticed people around me in medium traffic looked over when I moved through the loudest RPM range. I will post a sound clip soon.

Performance
My greatest concern with adding aftermarket headers was the potential for a gain of power in the higher RPM's at the expense of some power at the lower RPM's, which did not happen with this header or exhaust. In fact, there was an overall HP and Torque gain across the RPM range. Results are as follows:

Base WHP: 169.27 With Headers: 179.27 With Headers & Muffler: 184.24

Base Torque: 147.91 With Headers: 165.85 With Headers & Muffler: 165.92

So, by swapping out the headers and the muffler, I gained almost 15 HP and 18 pounds of torque. The "butt dyno" feels it a little, but the ears hear the rumble far more.

Che, I know you appreciate the review of your parts, but I must thank you for the exhaust, headers, and the additional free gift of the short shift kit I received today. You are quite generous, and you followed through on every single thing you said you would do, and were very available to talk on the phone numerous times. In a world of internet theives and scammers, you have shown me you are a good businessman with strong ethics.