Last December, I removed my OPF and installed the Car graphics controller. I am not a youtuber but still wanted to share how it went and any lessons learned.

First, the cost. It was cheap. OPF delete cost $0. It took about 8 hours of my time because I am slow. For the car graphics,controller, I bought it from Vivid racing for less than $500 and it took about 90 minutes to install.

Results: The sound improvement has been outstanding. I am really happy with it. The stock GT3 sound is excellent but this modification brought it to a whole new level. I just needed a little bit more. The OPF is artificial and throttling the PSE valves I think is also artificial to keep noise down in neighborhoods etc. The car sounds much deeper and raspier at lower rpms (<5000rpm). I really can't hear that much difference at higher rpms partially because there is a lot of racket already happening. I am sure it sounds better though but just not as noticeable to me. I didn't find the car to be obnoxiously loud but others might disagree. I think it is just about perfect for me. I also don't really know how much each modification contributed to the sound improvement by themselves since I did them both at the same time. I just know that I wouldn't want anything more. I don't have a before and after video of it though. It's always hard to really capture the difference on these exhaust videos anyway.

My Background. Engineering executive by education and profession. Not much actual hands on work in my jobs except for the last three years in which I've been doing all my own maintenance on my three Porsches. I've also helped install a soul exhaust on two of my friends' Turbo Ss. My assessment was that this is a very easy job even though it is a bit intimidating for first timers. I've never taken headers off before. Just take your time and prepare.

Process: First, you have to take off your headers. It sounds scary but is actually very straight forward. I don't think you can get access to the OPFs unless you remove either the bumper or the headers. I used the below video from Sharkwerks to take them off with the bumper still on. You have to loosen the straps for the muffler so that you can wiggle it to break the flange connection from the headers. It's all in the video and it is excellent. I followed it exactly except for how they disconnected the oxygen sensors. You only need to follow the video through 6:40 because they are actually replacing the entire exhaust so you don't need to pull off the muffler.

Some key points from this video:. At 4:25 in the video, he disconnects the oxygen sensors. He is doing this by feel. Unless you know how these Amphenols are disconnected, this isn't going to work for you. The wires are also clipped in. You can't really see them and I don't think doing it by feel is a good idea or easy. The oxygen sensors are extremely easy to disconnect if you have the wheel off and the wheel well liner removed. The video shows how to remove the wheel liner. The wheel is removed just like on any GT3. This was my first time removing a centerlock wheel. The oxygen sensor connections are right there. I had my wheels off because I had just replaced my spark plugs. First time doing that too on any car. It made disconnecting the oxygen sensors a non event. The other thing I would caution you on is to no drop the header gasket. They are very flimsy and they are situated with a certain face up/down. I reused mine and reinstalled them with the same face pointing the same direction. But I dropped one of them and had to figure it out based on the indentures on the gasket.

Here is the video from Sharwerks. Just follow it exactly:



Here is the video to access to the oxygen sensor connectors. Much easier to remove the wheel than trying to disconnect it by feel from below or removing the sensors from the CAT directly.


Once the headers are removed, I just used a hammer and a chisel to get it out. I was careful. It took about 20-30 min per side. I lightly tapped the chisel and then increased force as I gained more confidence. There is a one inch air gap between the OPF and the Cat. Just be careful as you approach the end of the OPF that you don't smash through it and damage the cat. The actual oxygen sensor is not in the airgap. It's on the other side of the CAT.


It was that simple. I reinstalled everything using the first sharkwerks video above.

For the car graphics controller, I used the following video and followed it exactly:

Some key points I want to highlight.
1. A1 1:04 in this video, he removes the two side trim pieces. The tabs lock into the metal clips. You can see them still left in the frame. Well, when I pulled my trim pieces off, two of those metal clips popped out as I pulled off the trim piece. I found one of them. Could not find the other. Just be careful on this point. You don't want to drop one down the water or oil access point. The caps have to be removed to remove the trim pieces so you have some vulnerability here.
2. At 2:40, he struggled with removing the top trim piece off the back. You just need to lift it up from the front first. It's pretty easy.
3. My controller did not come with a mounting bracket. I used a plastic shim, cut it to the right size and drilled a hole for it and then mounted it like in the video.
4. In the video at 12:30, he had to move the controller farther down the bracket to provide sufficient clearance for the fan. I had to do the same thing. Try to put it down as low as you can on the first try.

He did an excellent job on the video. Better than I could have done.



Overall. The job was easy and fun. High return on investment too. I made some better videos for the spark plug and oil change which I will post later. The cabin filter replacements are identical to all the other Porsche sports cars.

 

Thank you so much for this info. 🙏🏻 I just bought a Cargraphic Valve Controller and was considering doing the OPF delete, but was a bit nervous. This is super helpful.

 

Awesome thread. I have both of these mods done on my car (done by pros) and it is absolutely a different driving experience. Car sounds OEM+. 10/10 recommend.

 

I didn't do it myself, but had a shop do the work. The volume and tone is a huge upgrade from the factory sound. Although I added a Soul exhaust in addition to filter and Cargraphic.

 

Huh, that's my cargraphic video. Glad it helped you out.

 

Awesome.
Is it same setup on GT3 RS? Cannot wait to remove OPF..

 

Some of the RS’s have been delivered without OPF internal elements.

 

These cars are beyond easy to work on. If you were just doing OPF delete it should take no more than a couple hours start to finish.

 

Headers out with just rhino ramps? That’s good to know. Ive been thinking of bumming some time on a friends lift but logistics is an issue with cooldown and timing. I may have to tackle this on both the cars. How is front clearance using the rhino ramps?

 

I just bought a Quickjack yesterday. Figured I'd need it to remove the wheels like @subshooter recommended.

 

Yes. I got them on sale on Amazon for $80 I think ? Front clears by an inch. PLENTY of room. In fact, if the car was any higher it would be more annoying because you would be reaching more. Its almost like Rhino designed these ramps with this car/project in mind. If anyone is struggling with the thoughts of doing this it is absolutely no problem.

 

Taking the wheels off is completely un necessary. I didn't even unplug the O2's. The line is long enough to un screw them while connected and hang them off to the side.

 

I have a set of them and have used them on my C2S but figured it would scrape with the GT3. I guess using axle lift is a possibility.

 

They will work no problem.

 

Those of you who have done the Carrgraphic vs. the Soul valve delete plug, do you find yourself ever using the other settings of the Carrgraphic? I am about to do the OPF delete and can't decide between the two. I guess if you are doing the Soul valve delete then you may as well remove the entire heavy OEM exhaust since it is basically just useless extra metal hanging off back of car at that point?