Notes on Fabspeed Cat bypasses (just installed)
 

A couple of nights ago I finally got around to installing the cat bypasses that I bought from fellow Rennlister Martin S many weeks ago. Here are a few random thoughts:

1. My car, a '96, has, from the factory, Bischoff mufflers and Gilett heater boxes, so I used the cat bypasses designed for Gilett exhausts. The lesson here is that on the '96's you have to look at the heater box flange itself, not just the stamping on the mufflers, to know which pipes you need.

2. From start to finish the project took three hours. If I had to do it again, I could probably shave a good half hour off that time. I did this with my car on a lift, and I really can't imagine doing this with the car on jackstands, laying on my back.

3. The fit of the pipes is excellent. I plugged the ends that go into the mufflers into the muffler donuts, hand-tightened the the bolts that connect them to the heater boxes, made sure everything was lined up correctly, and then torqued the various fasteners down in stages to ensure that everything would fit together nicely.

4. You have to look at how your exhaust tips are centered in the bumper cutouts before tightening down the pipes. The lateral position of the mufflers is affected by the overlap of each pair of bypass pipes, and so you have to tighten down the pipes with an eye toward muffler tip placement.

5. The stock cat system doesn't weigh anywhere near the 45 pounds that is advertised on the Fabspeed website. I put mine on a UPS scale and it weighed in at 24 pounds. It is ridiculous that Fabspeed puts such a deceptive claim on its website.

6. One of the pipes hangs down below the rear bumper and is easily visible. This morning I scraped this pipe leaving the parking lot at my bank. There is plenty of room up in the bumper for these pipes, and it's strange that one of them hangs down so low. As many other people have noted, this is really a poor design.

7. The pipes sound fantastic. They give the motor exactly the kind of growl that I was hoping for, but not the kind of exhaust note that is so loud and tedious that it wears you down over long drives. At idle and part throttle, the exhaust is barely louder than stock; when you stomp on it, you hear the full fury of the 3.6. I didn't put these on for the bogus weight savings or the bogus performance claims -- I did it for the exhaust note, and it was very well worth it. My 993 finally sounds like a 911.

Yes, it is.

I remember when a Rennlister asked Joe @ Fabspeed about this. The response was something like, "We designed the pipes like this for maximum performance and cooling...."

:rolleyes:


Andreas

Yeah, I saw that quote from Joe. Totally laughable.

Fabspeed appears to be a place that makes decent products, but has absolutely no respect for the intelligence of its customers.

Do they make them in-house? Seems like it would be easy to change the jig and fix it.

Or maybe they sourced a large quantity overseas.

Glad you are pleased with the pipes...what you have...
 

noticed, the one pipe hanging lower, is cured by the DACH X pipes as they weld in a crossover joining the pipes together, which eliminates the one pipe hanging lower.

I miss the sound, damn they are brutal...your experience was mine, that is, the throttle controls the exhaust noise.

Also note, I originally bought the pipes from a Rennlister....:)

Sorry to hijack this thread :bowdown:, but I have a set of Fabspeed by-pass pipes for sale. As I live in NJ (Morristown) and needed to pass my emissions test, I had to take them off last March. I have Fabspeed mufflers on the car and am very very happy with the exhaust note. The pipes came off my 96 Cabrio and have just 500+ miles on them. I'm asking $250 plus shipping.

Tom
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1996 Black Cabrio with cashmire full leather comfort seats
22K miles
Fabspeed mufflers and tips
Euro RS Splitters
Front strut brace
Carbon fiber air box
Rennsport pedals
18" Turbo twists

$250 is a smokin' good deal. They shouldn't last at that price.

I was one of the people Joe told about the bypass pipe design (one hanging lower than the other for cooling)...I had a quick chuckle, and told him I was returning them for a refund...which I received.

There was a thread awhile back about where these products are actually made.

His website states "Made in the USA".

However, a member here says he found Fabspeed's source in China.

Let no one ever wonder ..................DACH.........made in the great state of North Carolina by David (DA) and me (CH) Chris :bigbye:

Dumb nUUbie ?: are the DACHX's available thru U or a vendor or dealer????

Me, myself and only I :D so far. Gert and I had some web discussions earlier this year, then we both got busy and it died out.

I took my sports cats through Orlando International in my rucksack (they both break into two pieces) and almost caused the security woman to have a fit when they went through the x-ray machine!

Cheers,

David

When I worked for Sun Electric, I told the security checker at O'Hare what was coming through. Came out of her chair:
http://forums.rennlist.com/upload/au...iminglight.jpg

No affiliation and I am not even in the market for an exhaust, but regarding the Made in China statement, here are some pics from a RLer who visited the FS shop. scroll to top of p.2 for pics, and to 4th post from TT Surgeon on p.1 for where made:

"ALL the components are made right there on site, everything is first class, he must have had 200 different jigs for welding the various exhaust components for all the different models of p cars."

https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...=375158&page=2