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Received these yesterday! Evidently new V-clamps are recommended when changing cats and they arrive Monday, but in my impatience/excitement I'm thinking that I'll go ahead and install them when I get home today and swap the clamps when the new set arrives. Haven't forgotten about the sound level testing, but I'm assuming M Engineering won't be providing me with the tune map I'd need to check 100% valves open with stock cats before I install these, so that probably won't happen.
Install notes
- As others have noted, they obviously installed the cats with the bumper off and with no consideration for any other way of doing it. Had to get rather creative with the flex-head wrench, and would've been impossible without.
- Soul's instructions suggest there are four screws fastening the heat shields to the factory cats. My car only had 3 on each side.
- Stef recommended torquing the v-clamps to 15 ft-lbs, the support beam bolts to 17 ft-lbs, and the exhaust clamp to 22 ft-lbs. I suspect the factory didn't get this memo, at least on the exhaust clamps which were quite tight on my car.
First drive notes:
- way more turbo noises. whistling mostly.
- noticeably more power at low revs: below 3500ish
- perhaps less turbo lag
- no CEL on a spirited drive with multiple redline pulls. fingers crossed!
- I did the stock volume measurements, and will conduct new measurements with the sport cats tomorrow. Will add 100% valves open data once M engineering sends me the requested maps as well.
Finished the measurements for before & after with sport cats. These were measured in my garage on my Apple Watch, so caveat emptor on the precision lol. I hope at least that the relative differences are somewhat accurate...to my ears the difference seems about right. It's slightly louder in most scenarios, most noticeably at lower revs. The sound is slightly different as well - deeper, throatier. Again, mostly noticeable below 4000. I can barely tell a difference in sound higher in the rev range, and the measurements back that up.
Finished the measurements for before & after with sport cats. These were measured in my garage on my Apple Watch, so caveat emptor on the precision lol. I hope at least that the relative differences are somewhat accurate...to my ears the difference seems about right. It's slightly louder in most scenarios, most noticeably at lower revs. The sound is slightly different as well - deeper, throatier. Again, mostly noticeable below 4000. I can barely tell a difference in sound higher in the rev range, and the measurements back that up.
Would it be possible to fit these sport cats into an OPF car with a similar configuration of the sensors to avoid CEL with OEM muffler/exhaust?
I’m really tempted to buy this product but one thing I don’t like is losing the ability to have the car quiet down with the PSE button
Originally Posted by stef@europipe
The sport cats will fit but they will throw a CEL for not having the proper OPF pressure difference, that is correct.
On our OPF sport exhaust we have an small area ahead of the cats that connects with the first OPF bung and subsequently with the differential pressure sensor. The second OPF tube is connected with a specific nozzle inside the muffler. The pressure difference between these two is equal to the pressure difference of a new soot filter so you’ll get no CEL.
I also have the Akra slip-on with stock cats and is exactly a described by German1967. I tried the Soul Cats with the Akra and kept getting the cel. No tune. I'm wondering now how these cats would work out with the Akra. I'm pretty happy with what I have, wish I hadn't seen this thread.
I also have the Akra slip-on with stock cats and is exactly a described by German1967. I tried the Soul Cats with the Akra and kept getting the cel. No tune. I'm wondering now how these cats would work out with the Akra. I'm pretty happy with what I have, wish I hadn't seen this thread.
I also purchased the Akra though I don't have the car yet to install but I also wanted to upgrade the cats without a CEL and a tune. So I'm just as curious as you, would the combination of the two work together issue/tune free?
I also purchased the Akra though I don't have the car yet to install but I also wanted to upgrade the cats without a CEL and a tune. So I'm just as curious as you, would the combination of the two work together issue/tune free?
'From what the Rep from the company says, sounds like it to me. Honestly , unless your looking for the other benefits that are claimed besides the sound , I would try the Akra alone first. You might find that's satisfies the improved engine note. My car is a 992 S, and the improvement over the PSE is pretty substantial. You will get louder cold starts, less variation engaging the exhaust mode, a bit of highway drone, and a different more exotic note throughout the rev range. I had a brief moment of weakness and was seriously interested in these cats, but I think I'm over it and will stick with what I've got.
'From what the Rep from the company says, sounds like it to me. Honestly , unless your looking for the other benefits that are claimed besides the sound , I would try the Akra alone first. You might find that's satisfies the improved engine note. My car is a 992 S, and the improvement over the PSE is pretty substantial. You will get louder cold starts, less variation engaging the exhaust mode, a bit of highway drone, and a different more exotic note throughout the rev range. I had a brief moment of weakness and was seriously interested in these cats, but I think I'm over it and will stick with what I've got.
Thank you for that. I needed the reassurance, the C4S I have now is so underwhelming with its exhaust note even with pse that i new I was instantly going to upgrade the GTS when it arrives. YouTube so I've heard does 0 justice in reflecting the true nature of the Akra exhaust, and I haven't heard it in person so I don't know what to expect. And when I saw your interest in the cats I thought "oh no it's not enough". But I'm happy to hear of your experience, honestly.
09-10-2022, 01:02 PM
