Fabspeed bypass pipes - worth it??

[Banana S]

Mine is a 2002 and spent its first 6 years in Chicago, where I believe it was driven year-round. When I had the PPI done a year ago, the mechanic even said that he rarely sees Porsches with the degree of cosmetic road-salt corrosion on the bottom of the car that this car had. (Although he also told me not to worry about it, and that it should not deter me from buying the car.)

I take it you did not have the two tack-welded bolts on your car?

[2K3_Boxster_S]

Originally Posted by Banana S

Mine is a 2002 and spent its first 6 years in Chicago, where I believe it was driven year-round. When I had the PPI done a year ago, the mechanic even said that he rarely sees Porsches with the degree of cosmetic road-salt corrosion on the bottom of the car that this car had. (Although he also told me not to worry about it, and that it should not deter me from buying the car.)

I take it you did not have the two tack-welded bolts on your car?

Lol, nope. This Car started out life in FL. made its way to NJ. I picked it up from a private dealership, All Benz's on the lot except the Boxster. I guess someone traded for a Benz. The car fax was super clean. but there still something fishy about it. When I was doing the Exhaust I noticed one side of the car has brand new rear control arm and rear brace. still had parts sticker on it. Oh well. it drives fine. I think it was hit in the back. some one did a damn good job on the paint or either it was fish tailed into a curb maybe Good Luck it should sound better with those CATS gone. Next you gotta lose the front CATS.

[Daniel R]

I made my own bypass pipes from 2" stainless to match the after-market headers I put on previously. Had to modify the way it connected to my still stock muffler, we ended up making flanges for the back end of the bypass pipes and attaching it to the muffler like that rather than with the u-bolts.

The results???

Honestly, the sound is not a lot different, slightly improved but nothing dramatic. I am sure there is some extra power without the cats, they are quite restrictive components, but not enough for the butt dyno to really detect it. The weight saving is an obvious benefit, and was enough for me to justify the mod. Then again, in Australia we do not have to go through any annual compliance checks, once a car is registered it will never be inspected as long as the registration stays paid up. If I had to take them on and off every year I would not have bothered with it.

[jmatta]

Yep, some genius attached the secondary cats to the headers, then once the nuts were tight, he tack-welded the nuts to the headers.

The genius was the factory...my uppers were welded on as well.

I changed mine out at around 12k miles, so I was shocked at how easily all the hardware came apart without issue.

[Banana S]

Finished the install this morning before heading out to the Colts game. (7-0, baby! ) Add "hacksaw" to the list of tools I needed to complete the job. (I couldn't reach the top tack-welded bolt on the passenger side with the new Dremel. )

I have the "holes-drilled-into-the-muffler-chamber mod" as well, and with the secondary cats gone, the sound is PERFECT to my ears. Not loud, just a deeper rumble. I'm very pleased with the results. The car feels just a bit torquier, too. Nothing major, but definitely different.

My FVD Brombacher software should be here this week too, to complete this year's round of mods. I should get another couple weeks to enjoy it before it starts getting too cold to have fun here in central Indiana.

[yellowboxster01]

Originally Posted by Banana S

Finished the install this morning before heading out to the Colts game. (7-0, baby! ) Add "hacksaw" to the list of tools I needed to complete the job. (I couldn't reach the top tack-welded bolt on the passenger side with the new Dremel. )

Did you replace the hardware with factory nuts and bolts? Copper nuts? If not, I'd suggest that. When replacing my catalytic converter pipes with bypass pipes, the muffler shop who bolted them on used normal hardware store hardware. When I pulled them off to replace the whole thing with a Fabspeed setup, the bolts had warped and loosened themselves. Before bolting up the Fabspeed, I went down to my mechanic and paid $6 for the correct nuts and bolts.

[Banana S]

Fabspeed supplies copper nuts for the header flange bolts now. I'll re-check the tightness of all hardware after ~500 miles and will add some Loc-Tite if anything has loosened up.