Muffler swap...should I do it? - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

RandallNeighbour · 05-27-2005, 07:13 AM

I've found a guy who has a factory muffler that has been "gutted" and is 3x louder than stock. He'll sell it to me for $150 plus s/h.

Should I do it? Is there any potential for HP loss or fouling out 02 sensors?

Brucelee · 05-27-2005, 07:20 AM

What are you after here? In other words, what is your desire outcome?

KRZTACO · 05-27-2005, 08:39 AM

If its just the muffler you will not get a CEL.

For $150 if you don't like it you can take it off.

You may want to try out the 2ndary Cat bypass pipes from www.fabspeed.com

I am thinking about getting those for my S

KRZ

Thumper · 05-27-2005, 10:45 AM

You need to look on eBay. I found a fully polished "S" muffler for $90.

Porschekid · 05-27-2005, 10:51 AM

My guess is you will lose a smooth flow of exhuast -hp and it will sound terrible. But who knows...

Perfectlap · 05-27-2005, 11:43 AM

exhausts....very tricky. You could wind up losing oomph. Its hard to predict sometimes. Back Pressure on naturally aspirated engines can betray you. I don't have much experience with turbo exhausts.

I would avoid a loud exahust, under 3,000 RPM it might be fun. But if you drive on the highway for long stetches the dreaded "drone" could be painfull.

anyone have any experience with those Billy Boat exahusts?

RandallNeighbour · 05-27-2005, 05:43 PM

Thanks for all this input! Actually, I was just after a louder sound. But, not at the expense of even the most remote possibility of HP loss or migranes on long trips!

I'll pass on it.

IceBox · 05-27-2005, 09:51 PM

I have a 'gutted S exhaust on my 2001 and have not experienced hp loss, seat of the pants metre says. But it is VERY loud and boomy between 2000-2900 rpm. Lots of fun especially under over-passes or in tunnels but I'm gonna tire of it by the end of summer. If you want an awesome sounding exhaust that's REAL LOUD, this is the way to go. It sounds like 5 IMSA cars at 5500 rpm, which is worth the conversion, but some nights nwhen you want to relax, that booming note is hard, and with the top up, there's a pronounced boomy resonance, a droning between 2000-3000 that borders on annoying, so it's got large upsides and downsides to consider. My initial feeling is that I picked up a little omph with the new exhaust so am in no hurry to change it (though the techquipment sport exhaust is what I really wanted, but at @ $1600 that was more than I wanted to spend.) To sum up: You'll love the way it sounds at WOT and will learn to live with it in the low rpm's...or not.

Brucelee · 05-28-2005, 03:52 AM

To others on the OUTSIDE of the car, the Box sounds fine, perfectly melodious if you ask me. To make it louder does WHAT for the driver?

Gives them a headache at 60 MPH? Drowns out an already pathetic sound system?

Makes top down driving miserable?

Color me old, I like the stock exhaust.

If you want loud, go get straight pipes on your Harley and just know that all your neighbors hate you!

Adam · 05-28-2005, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KRZTACO

If its just the muffler you will not get a CEL.

For $150 if you don't like it you can take it off.

You may want to try out the 2ndary Cat bypass pipes from www.fabspeed.com

I am thinking about getting those for my S

KRZ

I was looking into these pipes as well but I'm not so sure if these are a good idea. The factory cats have "bungs" where sensors are plugged in to that relay info to the ECU. These pipes lack the bungs so I'm not sure where the sensors would go. I think I will go with the Dansk highflow cats because they have the bungs for the sensors to plug into thus resulting in fewer or no CEL lights. FAbspeed says no CEL lights with the bypass pipes but I think I would want a second opinion on that. I believe if you get the headers cat combo, the precat is eliminated on the 03/04 boxsters and you just have the one pair of high flow cats which would be much better than 4 factory cats. This may be incorrect though because I am not 100% sure. Can anyone varify or give us info that says otherwise?
Thx.

clubhead · 05-28-2005, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam

.....I believe if you get the headers cat combo, the precat is eliminated on the 03/04 boxsters and you just have the one pair of high flow cats which would be much better than 4 factory cats. This may be incorrect though because I am not 100% sure. Can anyone varify or give us info that says otherwise?
Thx.

The Dansk headers does have 'bungs' for the additional O2 sensors which 03/04 cars comes with...

clubhead · 05-28-2005, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IceBox

.... (though the techquipment sport exhaust is what I really wanted, but at @ $1600 that was more than I wanted to spend.) ...

You need to check out ebay. There're usually brand new ones going for about $1,200. Brandywine (www.brandywineporsche.com) has some on clearance. Call them to find out directly.

Adam · 05-29-2005, 07:36 AM

Clubehead, I know you have an 02....but do you think one pair of the factory cats is eliminated with the Dansk header/cat combo on 03/04's. If so, I think I may have to relocate one set of sensors. I did some reading on header swaps at work and it looks like it only takes an hour or so to do the job as well.....I was pleased to see that. I'm not sure about the install time on the cats though.

clubhead · 05-29-2005, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam

Clubehead, I know you have an 02....but do you think one pair of the factory cats is eliminated with the Dansk header/cat combo on 03/04's. If so, I think I may have to relocate one set of sensors. I did some reading on header swaps at work and it looks like it only takes an hour or so to do the job as well.....I was pleased to see that. I'm not sure about the install time on the cats though.

Yes, the Dansk headers will no longer have any cats on them so you get rid of the cats on the stock headers.

The header swap is pretty straight forward PROVIDED you've a manual which I know you do

If it's a tip like mine, the right cat will touch the tip gearbox and some bending & grinding will need to be done

For cats, if you've all the proper clamps, I think it'll take about an hour?

Adam · 05-29-2005, 08:13 AM

I was thinking about an hour for the cats too....just some clamps and elbow grease. I think I will just leave on the stock exhaust since there seems to be no real power gains from swapping it. Plus, I think maybe dansk headers/cats/ and muffler may be a tad too loud so leaving on the stock muffler with the other two mods will give a nice increase in sound .....but not too loud. What do you think? Also, did you say you got 238whp with just the cats and headers?

clubhead · 05-30-2005, 02:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam

.....but not too loud. What do you think? Also, did you say you got 238whp with just the cats and headers?

I hardly notice a difference in the decibels with the Dansk headers & cats

My mechanic did tell me there was a slight increase in sound though.

I'm looking through my dyno report now. I may've made a slight mistake in my report

I got my baseline dyno with the headers printed in bhp but the subsequent one with the addon cats in PS! I just need to go back to the dyno shop and have them re-print a bhp one for me.

Anyway, the max PS with the cats/headers is 239.6ps.

PS increase only happens from about 4,800rpm. There was torque loss < 4,800rpm. But both PS and torque increased after 4,800rpm.

I know this contradicts my initial report claiming there was torque/bhp increase throughout the rpm range..... I'm still trying to figure out what happened. I will amend my original post and attached a graph.

Brucelee · 05-30-2005, 06:51 AM

"PS increase only happens from about 4,800rpm. There was torque loss < 4,800rpm. But both PS and torque increased after 4,800rpm."

Am I wrong or is this a bad trade off for most street driving?

Seems more applicable to track racing.

clubhead · 05-30-2005, 08:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brucelee

"PS increase only happens from about 4,800rpm. There was torque loss < 4,800rpm. But both PS and torque increased after 4,800rpm."

Am I wrong or is this a bad trade off for most street driving?

Seems more applicable to track racing.

Yes, I would agree on the part of this being a bad trade off for most street driving. But 4,800rpm is still considered mid range, not something reserved mostly for track racing. That would be 6,000rpm and above

I take my car to about 6,000rpm once a week or when I want to feel the rush

Things would've been more acceptable if there wasn't any torque loss < 4,800rpm.

I'm still trying to figure out why I concluded there was bhp/torque increase throughout the rpm range in my dyno report on the cats back in Jan.

Adam · 05-30-2005, 03:00 PM

I can accept a small decrease in TQ below 4,800. So the dansk muffler gave you the big increase in noise level I'm guessing but it only gave you about 3 more hp if I am remembering correctly. Keep us posted. Aftermarket performance parts can be tricky as I just discovered with my horrible experience on the B&M SSK. I am starting to get an idea of the frustration that you are facing all well.

rbennett · 01-08-2006, 06:40 PM

I have a 2000 base Boxster, I purchased a factory muffler off of eBay for $200 that was removed from a 2003 Boxster S. I am perfectly happy with the looks and sounds!!

Porsche made a sound change in 2003 for the S that has a more meat'er sound and very throaty without too much resonence. Sorry for the (weird words)

It was a bolton on with no mods for my car, I urge anyone looking for an upgrade to the base to try this mod.

Regrads