Randall: your muffler?

[socratic]

Hey Randall,

Did you drill out your muffler like you said you might? I thought I read somewhere that you did a muffler mod.

If you did, how did you do it and what does it sound like after?

[RandallNeighbour]

I got the muffler last week from a very nice forum member... $25!

Bought a long-nosed electric die grinder on ebay and it came in this week.

Bought some grinding wheels at Home Depot last night. I'm gonna try and work on it tomorrow or Monday night.

I will return to this thread with pix as I do it and let you know what happened.

First thought: Our factory mufflers are HEAVY. Dang. I had no idea.

[RandallNeighbour]

OK, I'm in the middle of this project and man, that steel is thick!

The Morse abrasive cutting wheels I bought from Ace Hardware at 2 bucks each wear down to nothing in a flat 1-2 minute span. I am just barely making a groove inside that muffler thus far.

Finding small enough grinding wheels to fit inside the muffler pipe is not easy. Tons of big ones are available...and cheap.

I'm gonna find more of the small 1.5 inch x 1/4 inch ones and keep working at it. I'll keep you posted.

[Rail26]

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

[RandallNeighbour]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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!

[986Jim]

I think you will have to post pics of what you did Randall. Sounds to me like you stuck a drill bit up the pipe and drilled some holes out. Hard to understand really...

[xclusivecar]

I believe this is what Randall did...instead of cutting holes and welding a pipe between the inlet to the muffler and the muffler tips he drilled holes actually INSIDE of the muffler inlet. These holes allow sound to bypass any of the muffling material. The bigger the holes he drills, the louder he can make his muffler.
http://www.ppbb.com/boards/ppbbphp/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=ARCHIVES&Number=1085350&page=&view=&sb=&o=&fpart=all&vc=1

[savinor]

I have finally found the right combination. I cut (2) 3/8" slots in each side of both inlet pipes for a total of (8) slots. That and secondary cat bypass pipes produce the most wonderful sound from my '00 S. A nice deep rumble that sounds like an agressive sports car. Just loud enough but not so loud that it would be a problem on a long trip. The trick is to use the thicher cutting wheel (3/8") after the thin wheel. You can also get these at ACE hardware stores.
Good Luck

[RandallNeighbour]

Savinor, I'm not following your math this morning.

two holes on each side is a total of four last time I used my fingers for addition. Did you drill four holes on each inside pipe, or did you do the insides plus bypass pipes?

Mine's nice now, but I'm gonna drill two more holes in each side for a total of four to get it just a little louder.

I'm also gonna drill out four holes on my old muffler and put it on Ebay as a modified sport exhaust for old boxsters and make all my money back on my project. The wife loves that about me, by the way.

[savinor]

That was a math test. 2 holes on each side (2 sides) of both (2) inlets... That's 2X2X2=8.

Yes, I did the holes plus the cat bypass.

BTW: The holes were all slots that were cut with the grinder.

[insite]

can any of you post pictures of this? i'm trying to picture holes / slots / slices, etc. and in my mind i just see a chunk of shiny swiss cheese. i'm curious to know what this looks like. thanks.

[RandallNeighbour]

You know, I thought of taking pictures, but it would be very, very hard to photograph those holes we're boring through a center pipe INSIDE a muffler. I couldn't see what I'd done, but the grinder tip did the "seeing" for me when it broke through and I started to make the hole bigger and bigger.

But, I'll verbally describe it for you to help out.

The muffler has two, 2 inch inlet pipes. I took an electric long-nose die grinder and put a 1.5 inch grinder wheel on it that's 1/4 inch thick, purchased from Ace Hardware.

I stuck the die grinder inside the muffler through one side opening at a time and starting grinding through the pipe that heads toward the center of the muffler, staying in one place so as to make a hole.

It took two wheels to cut a hole through the pipe... it's nice and thick.

What it cuts is a "hole" that's really about an inch long and 1/4 inch wide on the pipe inside the muffler. The snout of the die grinder is long enough to get about two or three inches inside the muffler, so what I'm planning to do is move about a half inch beyond the first hole and put in another one, letting double the amount of exhaust escape the baffles in the middle of the muffler.

How's that work for a word picture?

[alex911s]

I just bought one from the guy in Germany for $400.... I'll be installing it
next week,, we'll see how it sounds...i got it in less than 10 days..

here's the sound file
http://oettle-autodienst.de/Oettle-BoxsterS-2.wmv

[986Jim]

OK so draw on this pic. I think your putting slices in the pipe just inside the first chamber on the inlet of the muffler from your description...