Installed Beluga Racing Exhaust

[CraigM]

And it sounds amazing! The most surprising addition is the pops and burbles when you back off the throttle. This base 2.7 Boxster now sounds downright exotic (and I have a fair bit of experience with hearing exotics having valet parked in Laguna Beach on the PCH in college).
So basically, this is a quick write-up covering why I picked Beluga, the good, the bad, and installation tips.

WHY:
I started out looking at Top Speed - obviously loved on this forum. Frankly, I went with Beluga because I liked the tips better. Other than that the system looks similar to other systems in this price range (~$300).

GOOD:
Sounds incredible. Had it on for about 100 miles now. It still has that beautiful Boxster sound, but it is actually audible while flooring it in fourth with the top down at, ahem, freeway speeds. It is intoxicating under overpasses, and sounds very cool when you back off the throttle. I also love the look of the tips.

BAD:
There is a drone from 1800-2800, wouldn't consider it unbearable, but it is noticeable. It would get annoying in a few months. Test pipes will go on eventually.
The fitment (mostly tip positioning) went about how all these style systems seem to go from what I've seen. It took a little dremeling, some washers, and a bit of finagling with the angles of the U-pipes, but ultimately the tips are close enough to center that people don't notice unless I point it out. The tips are level to each other, which helps it look right.

INSTALLATION:
-Follow Homeboy981's excellent instructions here: Top Speed's Cat Back System Installation - they're the only directions I needed.
-Don't pull the bumper! You don't have to, and it helps so much in centering the tips. From Homeboy981's pics and writeup, it didn't look like he pulled his bumper, so I didn't touch mine. The bolts above the exhaust aren't easy to reach, but with some patience you'll get it done. As mentioned, the advantage of doing it this way is you can make adjustments to center the tips on the fly, rather than having to put the whole car back together over and over. With these affordable exhausts, this always seems to be an issue.
-Positioning the tips: I had to dremel the mounting bracket a bit to extend the holes up a quarter inch so the tips would hang low enough to not touch the bumper. I positioned the tips side to side using washers behind the bracket (a few more on one side than the other) and by adjusting the angles of the U-pipes and depth of exhaust inlets into the U-pipes to bring the tips back to center. Be careful with the washers - too many on one side and it will torque one tip higher than the other.



I picked the system up in person (they're local to me - near Dallas). I had called ahead to make sure it was in stock, they had the system up front out of the box waiting for me to inspect when I got there. They also threw in a Porsche bottle opener they're gonna start selling soon, which was nice.


All in all, I am very pleased with this system and would do it again.

[pilut2]

I just installed the same Beluga Cat back on my 1999. After a week I'm seriously thinking of putting the stock one back one. I find it really loud. Don't get me wrong- it has a beautiful sound and the pipes look great. But my ears are wringing after a few minutes, even if I let it rev and stay above the "drone zone". Others have said that you have to give it time - does the sound change, or does hearing loss make it bearable? My neighbor says that it sounds like a Harley - that's defiantly not the sound I was after. All connections are tight and there are no exhaust leaks.

[CraigM]

Haha! Mine is louder...but the volume increase wasn't as much as when I did secondary cat deletes. That got rid of my drone, but won't help on your 99 since those are your only cats.

I really doubt my volume increase was as much as you're describing. I was actually pleased that you can still have a non-yelling conversation on the freeway, top down with exhaust and deletes.

But, maybe my hearing is too damaged after 7 years of sirens day in, day out. Oh well.

Only thing I can think of is if they changed the system or if you need to double check for leaks.

Good luck!!

Also, maybe one of the PSE style stock mufflers or crios/Pedro mods would work better for you.

[mikesz]

put one on my 99 tip. Seems like at idle about the same as stock but once you get going it is louder than stock. I like to be heard. I grew up in the 60's, land of open headers and thrush mufflers

[epapp]

I put my stock pipe back on after about 6 months with the Baloooo00ga racing. Way too much drone.

Start up and rev limiter were great however..

I was always curious if a balance pipe between the two beluga racing muffler cans would help. Someone should try it.

[rontnak]

Hi,
Last week I installed the Shark Werks version and had some drone only when accelerating between 2,000-3,000 rpm. Installed a 2" x 4" motorcycle baffle only on 1-side and the drone now is completely gone with still the same sound.

[Dualist]

Hey rontnak, did you put the baffle in the exit end or in the inlet part of the exhaust box.?
Nice find btw.

[epapp]

Wow. Thats a damn great idea, why didn't I think of it???? That would definitely keep one side from resonating with the other, hence keeping it from drone-ing.

Link!

Dualist: I think the baffle would most certainly go in the inlet...my question is, how did you attach it?

[rontnak]

I placed it in the "c" pipe or "s" pipe closest to the cat converter. The thinner part slid inside the pipe closest to the cat converter. The part with the flange slipped on to the pipe on the opposite side, the same "s" pipe was used without having to cut or shorten. I then used the same original 2-slide on tube type joints that went over the baffle coupler and pipe. Used 1 3/4" C-type clamp over that. I will try and get under the car for some photos but you have to understand it is 108 degrees in Fresno today.

[pilut2]

I put my stock ( crios mod) exhaust back on. Beluga exhaust for sale in Central Ontario- pm me if you are interested. I'm much happier now.

[rfuerst911sc]

I have a GHL muffler with cat delete pipes that I want to tone down. I was thinking about placing resonators in the cat delete pipes if I can find some short enough. Then any additional sound tuning could be done via small inserts like the one above. Anyone else tried that ?

[Dualist]

I've finally fitted the bike baffles on mine and I can honestly say like rontnak my drone is completely gone. (thanks rontnak).

I've tried all sorts to get rid of it, cross over the pipes and modded to use the original mount but nothing works so I'm happy with this result.
Exhaust has been a test piece so has been hacked about a bit, I am poor and do my own welding
Quiet in the low revs while cruising but I get the snarl when I want it too, perfect.

Here's where I put mine...

[rontnak]

I just tried another way, only used 1 baffle on passenger side wrapped with 4-stroke motorcycle fiberglass baffle wrap. Driver side no baffle at all, which will give you a great sound with absolutely no drone. If you want super quiet exhaust use the fiberglass hi temperature baffle wrap on both sides, super quiet with no drone

[aneal000]

Hey guys, I know this is an older post, but I just bought and installed the Beluga exhaust off of eBay and the $110 headers. Both went on really easy last night, but wow... that 2000-3000RPM drone is crazy. It rattles all sorts of stuff in the car and is unbearable. I just ordered some short and long motorcycle baffles (both types show above) and some 4 stroke silencer packing and will post results. I really like the sound when you are above 3k RPM and the SOTP dyno says thumbs up and the looks are great but I don't think I could live with the sound as is.

[Finnegan]

Can someone explain what causes the 'burbles and pops' off throttle to happen? I love that! Which other exhaustss have that characteristic?

[jb92563]

I think those pops and burbles are the open exhaust valve, unburnt fuel and compression waves exploding in the first foot of exhaust pipe.

In the Boxster I'd say its contained to the cylinder/exhaust manifold since that occurring in the header cats would shorten the cat life considerably and we would be throwing codes for rich mixtures.

F1 racers are notorious for that to the extreme and frequently have flame exiting the exhaust pipe because of the short distance for the unburnt fuel to travel and then igniting.

[RandallNeighbour]

Would placing only one motorcycle baffle on the right or left not create a backpressure problem on one bank of the motor?

[RandallNeighbour]

Originally Posted by rontnak

I just tried another way, only used 1 baffle on passenger side wrapped with 4-stroke motorcycle fiberglass baffle wrap. Driver side no baffle at all, which will give you a great sound with absolutely no drone. If you want super quiet exhaust use the fiberglass hi temperature baffle wrap on both sides, super quiet with no drone

What exactly did you wrap?

[DarkStar]

I installed a complete exhaust with catless secondaries and catless headers and the beluga exhaust about 7 months ago and I won't ever remove it.

Lots of people here complaining about the drone using stock cats..... honestly what are you expecting? The drone isn't exactly caused by the muffler, the muffler just isn't containing it anymore since its more open and flowing more.

Steps I took when I did my cheap ebay exhaust. I started with headers.... Noticed an increase in air flow as the mufflers were pushing more air than the small restrictive junk that Porsche installed could muster up. Next I did the Muffler. It was nice. But that 2000 to 3000 drone was insane loud! Again, as I stated above.... Next I finished it off with 50mm (no step down in size to fit stock U Bends (why would you want such a restriction in new exhaust?)) and custom 50mm U Bends to fit the new pieces together.

Drone is almost completely gone. Sound is amazing, the way any Porsche should sound. Drone is only around 2kish at low speed in 6th, I tend to keep it in 5th gear and around 3kish and the drone dies. But even the drone now, isn't as bad as it was with just the muffler. You cannot have just the muffler and expect perfect results. The entire Porsche Boxster exhaust system is junk. I'm honestly shocked the car runs with the stock exhaust and its insane crazy restrictions.

Key things I found, 7 months later, no cracking on headers but the metal brackets that were holding the tips together did crack and fall off, which is totally fine, the small OEM Looking tips are ugly, I chose the muffler for the way the mufflers looked. I will be making my own dual tips at around 2.75" to 3" Stainless with burnt edges to replace the stock tips. And going to weld in a new bracket to hang the exhaust. As the OP Mentioned, they didn't give much here. Out of the box it sits crooked and really high. So I'm going to lower it about an inch.

Consensus... 600 dollar exhaust beats a 4000 dollar exhaust in any way you wish to compare. But then again anyone with a brain understands that 4000 dollar exhaust cost 100 bucks to create, and is only priced soo high because of the Porsche Tax.

[CraigM]

5 year update...sounded great for a year or two, then started falling apart. Now drone is very noticeable at freeway speeds, and it has an awful rattling sound from one of the cans and the welds on the mounts between the tips having broken and smacking together. Got a couple years out of it at least.