Fleabay cat back muffler?
 

Hey Guys,

I'm thinking of adding this El Cheapo muffler to my 1998 base Boxster..... But am worried about the dreaded drone between 2000-3000 RPM (I know a Boxster should NEVER be driven below 3000 RPM!) I have read that some fellas have had good luck putting motorcycle Baffles in one or both muffler intakes....

I really just want a bit more sound.... And have desnorkled.... And was considering the Crios mod..... But kinda want to leave it in stock shape.... I figure for a $250 gamble life won't end if I don't like it..... But will the baffle idea work? Is it a bad idea?

Thanks!
Fred

https://www.amazon.com/Porsche-Boxster-Catback-Muffler-Cat-back/dp/B0042LLELW/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1512653177&sr=8-5&keywords=Stainless+cat+back+exhaust+Boxster

This muffler is sold under several different brand names around the interwebs, and yes, some owners have reported droning (mostly while cruising at freeway speeds). Do a search, there are a lot of posts and several different approaches to reducing or eliminating the drone.

Whether any particular drone "fix" will work for you is impossible to know because everyone has a different perception of drone and what level is acceptable and/or bothersome. This is an instance where "your mileage may vary" is a truism.

If you can afford a $250 gamble that might not pay off, then I'd say go for it because the exhaust will sound 100% better.

Hey Guys!

I think I am going to try one of these.... But I think a motorcycle baffle (or two)
May be the ticket to nice sound... But no drone.....

Does anyone know what size pipes the inlets are on the fleabay mufflers????

This is the kind of baffles I am thinking of trying....

https://www.denniskirk.com/khrome-werks/2-in-hp-plus-drag-pipe-baffles-202032.ph44563.prd/H44563.sku

i'm not sure why there's different reports.....from no drone to unbearable. I know everyones definition and tolerance is different but still.
2.7 engine 2ndary cats delete pipe and ebay 200 buck exhaust and I don't have any drone. It's a little louder than stock but nothing obnoxious. I wish it was more high pitched but it is what it is.

It seems like people that did the muffler only have drone but one's that did 2ndary cat delete combined with the muffler have no drone...just what i've observed

I just, last week, purchased the exact muffler but will install only in the spring. Please let me know what you did to alleviate the drone. The pipes are 5.5cm. I don’t know if I while have any or not, but knowing what you dud might be of help. Thank you!

I did the motorcycle baffle in a GHL boxster exhaust. It did help the drone that was really bad.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1512791942.jpghttp://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1512791977.jpg

Just my .02. IMHO I think it is counterproductive to purchase a free flowing exhaust only to restrict it with baffles. I'm by no means an expert but I did some research on the issue while trying to quiet high compression big block engines. The drone these things made was crisp, high pitch and ear bleed loud at cruising speed, at 6500 rpm? Glorious. Even 70 series Flowmasters designed to quiet motorhomes wouldn't help.
What I found is that drone is caused by the uneven firing order between banks causing unequal pressure pulses in a true dual exhaust that creates a harmonic distortion kinda like "clipping speakers" to your ears. To address this there are balance tubes and the Gas X crossovers that even out those pressure pulses between banks. This is not possible in these cars and is why the stock muffler has the balance tube inside it. But yes it's heavy. We really need someone to think outside the box and come up with some sort of crossover for these cars, but the additional pipe may negate the weight savings. Otherwise it's modifying the stock muffler although I think as bypasses get larger then drone will also start to increase. Porsche created the PSE so it can be loud when mashing the pedal and quiet when cruising, but it's even heavier with the additional piping and valves. Good Luck.

Oh Yeah in case you were wondering what happened to the noise of the big blocks? With the simple addition of the balance tube the sound went from the ear bleed loud to a nice mellow rumble. It was truly remarkable.

Thanks guys!

I almost wonder if a bypass pipe run pre muffler.... Would work best to tame the drone in these Chineasium mufflers. I'm also Not sure if motorcycle baffles would work best upstream of the muffler, or down stream in a conventional "tailpipe" location.

I guess I will have to get the muffler in figure out what size baffle to get.....

03S..... Do you recall what size you used?

(Thanks for posting your picture.....makes me think I'm on the right track!)
Maybe I should just "cool my jets" until I get my muffler installed.... And then see how they sound.....

Fred, please let me know what you find out in terms of droning (if any), and if so, if you remedy it with baffles, which ones you used, and where you positioned them for best effect.

As mentioned, while I received the muffler, the Pcar is stored for the winter so I can’t install it until April. But i’d like to be all ready.

I’ll have it install on the same pcar as yours, btw: 1999 base.

Incidentally, i inspected the muffler when I received it last week and was happily satisfied with the workmanship (same exact one as from your link, from same vendor). Very nice and solid welds, if that is any comfort to you. Looks good too (nice and polished).

Why not try a balance pipe joining the two boxes.

So I installed mine. Easy installed but there is a strong drone (to me) between 2000 and 2900 rpm. Not at highway speed however. Super nice sound below 2000 (idle) and glorious above 3000. I have the 2.5l.

So to handle the drone, I just purchased 2 baffles and will install this weekend. Will report back. If it does not work, I’ll have to go back to the OEM muffler. I might try before a connecting pipe too.

Fred, how did it work out for you?

Cheers.

All right. So I installed 2 baffles, one In each of the intake pipes (into the fleabay mufflers). The drone is 85% gone. It seems only to exist at 2000 to 22`00 rpm (while it used to be from 2000 to 2900 rpm). So much, much better. I need to tightens the bolds more as I have a air leak.

Not sure if I will keep it, however. I might go back to OEM. Seems a little too loud for me. I’ll drive around a little more and decide. Cheers.

Update. Today I took off the aftermarket muffler and reinstalled the OEM. I am getting quite good at this. Of course I remove the bumper to make my life easier.

I did this because I was worried my neighbors were less appreciative of my new sound. My wife felt I was overreacting but I wanted peace.

So, wow, the OEM is very quiet in comparison. All and all, I would reinstall the aftermarket muffler if I decide to track it because it is more high flow and the drone is 95% gone, but will for now stay with the OEM. I tried to crios mode but could get the drill bit to bite. Oh well.

Post #307...something to consider. ;)
https://986forum.com/forums/diy-project-guides/19770-diy-exhaust-mod-%96-gain-10-hp-16.html

Local muffler shop charged me $20 to weld small plates over the shell holes.
Has a decent growl at idle up to about 2700rpm. 3000rpm and up really howls. No significant drone. Neighbors happy, wife happy, I'm happy. :D

I had the exact same experience with the ebay muffler. Ended up taking it off the same day. Sounded crazy above 3k with my cat bypass pipes but way too much drone. A short drive gave me a headache.

I had that problem too...

The drill bit caught just fine after punching a hole in the pipe first.

Boxstersteve,

Do you have a base? Because this is what I have and it seems to be a slightly different process to do the crio mode on a base, or is it?

As far as I know, the only difference is the cosmetic muffler tip.

Installed a circuit works Ebay special muffler last night. OMG :eek: the drone between 2000-3000 RPM's is insane. It sounds like I have a pipe organ playing 50HZ sitting between the roll bars. I know one of my clamps is leaking, I have some new ones on the way. I guess when they come in i'll try to throw a baffle in one side and see what happens. My wife said when I left the house this morning is wasn't too loud and sounded cool. But if she heard it in the car she would leave me lol. I hope between the new clamps and baffle it calms down a little. On my test drive there were police all over the place. I thought for sure I was going to get pulled over for no muffler.

OK I was getting sick of the drone after 2 days. So i grabbed a big breaker bar and tightened all the clamps. I was surprised how much more I was able to tighten them with more leverage. I'd say the drone is 75% gone now. It is still really noticeable between 2,800 to 3,100 RPM's. Of course that's about 65 to 75 MPH in 5th gear. My next step is to install a baffle in one side. I'm not sure where i'm going to put it yet. I have a few more day until my new clamps get here.

Just to recap. I have a 98 base. 5 speed. One pair of cats in the mid pipes. Stock exhaust manifolds.

In retrospect, maybe the stock setup would be best?

Just sayin'..............

TO

The FVD Sound version has been getting excellent reviews, saying it has no drone but beefier sound. I do not have one yet, but you would be correct if you want 100% sure no drone then stock, but in my opinion and many other others the stock muffler is lacking.

FVD Brombacher Sound Version.


Just buy one.

Yeah I get what you're saying, but I can't seem to let well enough alone. I'm sure the stock muffler will go back on after I perform an internal bypass mod on it.

+1 ^

FVD Brombacher Sound Version muffler and Top Speed (or other) secondary cat delete pipes sound amazing. No drone, louder but reasonable at idle and steady highway cruising, and pure flat 6 wail at WOT/high RPM. One of my favorite mods.

I would love to hear a really bad drone. I have a beluga on mine and I think it drones a bit between 2700 and 3000. It's really not bad and I just think of it as the car saying "Let's dance". I am just curious if what is not bad to me is bad to others.

For me I found that it reverberated at frequency that felt like it was vibrating my head. It just made my head sore. It's a really cheap system that obviously wasn't acoustically engineered lol. I mean just look at the thing.

I think a lot of the drone was due to the fact the one of my clamps between the cat and C pipe is past it's prime. I tightened it as much as I could with a 3/8 ratchet. The drone at this point was unreal. It truly sounded like a 120 decibel pipe organ playing around 50hz was behind my head. That was with the top down, up it was even louder. Since I torqued the heck out of the clamp with a 2 foot breaker bar it's much quieter now. I'm sure I could tighten it even more, but i'm scared the bolts will break.
Either way once it gets out of the drone zone it sounds awesome. I will put the new clamps on when they arrive. If that doesn't get rid of it i'll try the baffles.

OK new clamps came on Friday, so I installed them. While I had the C pipes off, I tried a baffle. On the passenger side I cut the end off one of the baffles and put it in the C pipe closest to the muffler. This cut the drone down about 75%. Today I put the other baffle in the drivers side C pipe. On this side I used the entire baffle wrapped with hi temp fiberglass. This is the way it came from Car Chemistry. This set up dropped the drone to about 99% gone. It might be too quiet now. I may open the passenger side back up and take another inch or two off that baffle. The way it is now it is basically sounding like the stock system with a crios mod at idle. WOT it is a little louder and deeper. On over run I can hear some burbles. I'll roll with it for a few weeks before i mess with it.

Anybody tried welding a pipe to unite the mufflers?

I have seen a few guys try that.....they said it doesn't work, still drones.

This looks like the right place to post some experience with the "Beluga" mufflers, from Ebay.
In another thread, I was downright insistent that mine did not drone. As a matter of fact, I suggested that others might not know what "drone" really is.

Fast-forward 2000 miles on the unit: yeah, mine began to drone. Between about 2200 rpm and 3000 rpm. It's not horrible, and certainly not "unbearable", as some report. But who knows: maybe it continues to get worse? I don't know. But it should have occurred to me that any muffler using a "packing" of any sort to attenuate sound would experience some changes as it ages.

In the meantime, however: What HAS become unbearable to me, is the rattling from inside the mufflers.

I first noticed it within about 2 weeks of installation. When I'd start the car, I'd hear a ringing-rattle from the left can. Once warm, it would diminish, or sometimes stop. But it became progressively worse. I contacted Beluga, in Galveston TX. They confirmed they have a 1-year warranty period for defects in workmanship, but they require I send the unit back to them for inspection. I decided to live with it until winter.
BUT: it kept gettting worse and worse, and eventually the right side was doing it as well. I once stuck a length of coat-hanger wire up the can, and managed to hook it on the perforated inner-pipe. Putting just the slightest tension on it made the sound go away entirely. So eventually I ran a borescope in and took a look. Sure enough: the inner, perforated steel pipe was rattling against the outer stainless housing. My guess is that they tack-weld it in place, and the welds are insufficient. That both sides did it concerns me that it may not be an isolated event.

I removed it to send back to them, since I was down and out for abit with a bad clutch. Holding it in my hands and shaking it, before I placed it int he box, I was able to reproduce the sound enough to confirm that they will be able to understand the problem when it gets back to Beluga, tomorrow.

I have no reason to expect they won't honor the warranty. I'll keep you updated.

They honored the warranty on mine, sent me a new one no hassle, after I sent the original back to them.

https://youtu.be/9t9zPeEq2jQ
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Yup! That's the sound!

Thanks that’s pretty much what I hear at idle. Otherwise I really enjoy the exhaust.

If they replace the system with the same, won't it have the defect as well? It sounds like bad assembly practices.

That's precisely my concern. But the warranty was for replacement only, not refund. So, if it happens again, I'll cut it open and fix it myself. Pfft.... I don't mind welding stainless.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

After I installed my muffler I sent Beluga an email asking about clamping suggestions to try to eliminate drone. They never responded and I gave up after a couple tries, their customer service falls a bit short. Hopefully your warranty return will go smoothly. I sold the unit to a guy who was going to track his Boxster. I don't miss it at all.

Beluga racing refused to warranty my exhaust rattle because the car changed hands despite having receipts and proof of purchase from March this year. They did however provide me a discount on a newer unit. I finally got around to installing it today, I was getting really tired of my boxster sounding like a tin of marbles.

It looks like they updated their exhaust design/ bought from a different manufacturer. You can see the old exhaust had a crossover vs the new exhaust which is more like fabspeed max flow mufflers with no crossover and they added a beluga name plate to one of the cans. I’m just hoping it lasts and the exhaust doesn’t drone too bad.

I do plan to take the old exhaust to a shop and see if they’re willing to replicate something similar but with larger diameter piping.


I’ll update with pictures later this forum isn’t super user friendly

I'll be adding them to vendors with whom I won't do business. Sounds shady. **************** those types.

Thanks for the updates apprising of the stellar customer service.

Edit: Only four letters in the ******* above.