Randall: your muffler? - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Rail26 · 04-22-2006, 03:55 PM

That's good to know seing as our mufflers are about 4 large! I can't believe they are so expensive.

RandallNeighbour · 04-22-2006, 07:36 PM

ok, it's installed!

I grinded and grinded and grinded some more... and then took it over to Hans, who not-so-promptly hammered away at my original exhaust to get it off and put the modified one on. Took about an hour and a half, and he's done it a bunch of times. It would have easily taken me 5 hours considering I had no idea how to do it.

Sounds about 20% louder and has a nice exhaust note. I do wish I had worked harder to put larger holes in it though... now that I have a taste I want more!

Muffler hacks = new chemical dependency problem. I just might have to take it off and do some more hole grinding to get just a little more grunt sound out of it. I'm happy for the time being though.

I recommend this for anyone who has an older boxster, little to no cash, and sense of adventure. I did not experience any power loss from the butt dyno.

Dang, I just remembered I was supposed to take pictures. I forgot. Sorry folks.

Jeph · 04-23-2006, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

Dang, I just remembered I was supposed to take pictures. I forgot. Sorry folks.

Redemption is only an audio clip away...

986Jim · 04-24-2006, 06:09 AM

OK, so what exactly is it that you did anyway? I thought you were going to have the pipes welded from the inlet before the muffler to the tip like the ones on ebay from germany. Its seems from your post that you only drilled holes in the muffler or something?

RandallNeighbour · 04-24-2006, 07:05 AM

I discovered bypass pipes could earn me a trip to the muffler shop once a year to put the factory one back on to pass inspection. Soooo, I decided to just drill a hole inside a factory muffler to see if it made for better sound and it did.

I used a long-nose, electric die grinder and some 1.5 x 1/4 inch grinding wheels I purchased from Ace Hardware (Home Depot and Lowe's don't carry them, so don't go there to look as I've already done it!)

This way, you get the benefits of a bypass but not the visual pipes themselves and it's far harder to nail you for a mod they can't see. Moreover, it's not really loud enough at idle for them to figure out either.

But I can now hear the exhaust with the stereo up and the top down. It's still fairly quiet with the top up, which is good because on long trips I don't want to hear an engine drone on for hours and hours.

Since I have the grinder, and extra wheel and my old factory muffler, I think I'll "re-enact" the process for photos and post it on my website. I'll put a link to it here when I get it done. I'm out of town on business this weekend, but I might be able to get around to it after that.

Porschekid · 04-24-2006, 07:20 AM

I thought you were doing the bypass pipes as well... all you did was drill some holes? If it sounds good and you enjoy it then I can't really complain, but I dunno about drilling holes in a Porsche exhaust to make more noise. Just seems a little ricey to me.

98Boxster98 · 04-24-2006, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

I discovered bypass pipes could earn me a trip to the muffler shop once a year to put the factory one back on to pass inspection. .

I thought the muffler bypass pipes were post-cat ala the Porsche Sport Exhaust for a better sound. It seems that cat bypass pipes may cause problems with the state inspection but I have seen other postings where the first set of CATs are bypassed and supposedly in some states, it still passes emissions test and doesn't cause any CEL/MAF problems.

RandallNeighbour · 04-24-2006, 09:21 AM

I didn't want to risk failing an inspection and having extra expense for someone who wanted to be picky, so I went inside it instead of bypass pipes.

I might just put bypass pipes on my old muffler though, just to see how it sounds and then sell which ever one I don't like as much!