Performance Exhaust and Header for Boxster

[kingsilver]

delubozparts,

I noticed you are in the DFW area, do you have a shop/warehouse that I could come by and visit?

[RandallNeighbour]

I received the headers and exhaust as expected this afternoon via UPS. The exhaust looks simply fabulous, and I can carry it around in one hand. I'm betting it's half the weight of the stock exhaust.

Headers look nice too... well made and lightweight. I've not lifted my factory headers that are on the car now, so I don't know what weight savings I will pick up there, but it also has to be sizeable when compared to the weight of the stock headers.

I have an appointment with the dyno/installer tomorrow at 9 am here in Houston. If all goes well, and there are no installation issues that drag it out more than a few hours, I will be sending my dyno reports and installation info to Che tomorrow night.

Wish me luck... I'm going in!

[Dr. Kill]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

Wish me luck... I'm going in!

Good luck sir. It sounds promising.

[MNBoxster]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

Wish me luck... I'm going in!

Hi,

Good Luck! Fingers crossed...

Happy Motoring!... Jim''99

[ohioboxster]

Randall,
I dont think your going to need luck. Its just an exhaust, not minimizing you exhaust I would be excited! Whats the worst that could happen? Low dyno numbers a broken bolt, big deal. I think your going to love it, when you do I want a sound clip. If it sounds good I will strongly consider the muffler system.

[CJ_Boxster]

cant wait to hear the results.

[RandallNeighbour]

Prelim results are good, fellow boxster owners. Quality of product is high, and dyno results are showing HP and Torque gains after the headers have been added... muffler goes on now and then a final dyno will be performed.

[RandallNeighbour]

I am just back from the shop having Che's headers and sport exhaust installed and dyno results between the installs. Here's the details:

Are these parts cheap or good?
The quality of the parts is very high from what I could tell, but I don't examine exhaust systems for a living so I could not really be very discriminating. However, the mechanic and the shop owner stated that they thought the parts looked very well made and were impressed with the price I would have paid on Ebay for them. The parts are mandrel bent and TIG welded, and far, far lighter than OEM equipment.

Installation
The headers bolted on directly on my 97 Boxster without any modifications. There is an AC line that was zip tied off to keep it from touching the header, and it was wrapped with heat tape to keep it from melting. I am planning on buying some asbestos heat wrap stuff a friend told me about and put it around this AC line just to make sure it doesn't get too hot.

The muffler installed easily, but the holes in the bracket were a bit too far away from the center for the setup on my model year Boxster. The mechanic simply drilled a couple of new holes in the bracket and bolted it on. (I spoke to Che about this and he is going to have additional holes drilled in the bracket so it will fit any model year 986 in case you are interested in getting one some day).

Sound
I must say that I can now hear my engine's exhaust very very clearly, even with the top up or down and the stereo at full blast! It has a lovely rumble at idle, and is loudest between 2k and 3k, providing a little resonance at this RPM. It sounds like music to my ears though, but some may find this muffer a little too loud for a daily driver... I noticed people around me in medium traffic looked over when I moved through the loudest RPM range. I will post a sound clip soon.

Performance
My greatest concern with adding aftermarket headers was the potential for a gain of power in the higher RPM's at the expense of some power at the lower RPM's, which did not happen with this header or exhaust. In fact, there was an overall HP and Torque gain across the RPM range. Results are as follows:

Base WHP: 169.27 With Headers: 179.27 With Headers & Muffler: 184.24

Base Torque: 147.91 With Headers: 165.85 With Headers & Muffler: 165.92

So, by swapping out the headers and the muffler, I gained almost 15 HP and 18 pounds of torque. The "butt dyno" feels it a little, but the ears hear the rumble far more.

Che, I know you appreciate the review of your parts, but I must thank you for the exhaust, headers, and the additional free gift of the short shift kit I received today. You are quite generous, and you followed through on every single thing you said you would do, and were very available to talk on the phone numerous times. In a world of internet theives and scammers, you have shown me you are a good businessman with strong ethics.