eclou

Santa dropped some Fabspeed bypass pipes off (stole them off eBay), and I was feeling somewhat deprived after working thru Xmas. Decided last nite to put these babies on.

Some thoughts on the install - rear bumper removal is pretty easy on the 993. The 1 pc wiring harness for all the lights is a PITA. I still have no idea what the 3 torx + long phillips screw sets do on the center light panel. Also, Fabspeed is somewhat lacking in quality control. The pipes had fitment issues from the heater ducts being too long, and one post-cat O2 sensor bung location was impossibly close to the crankcase. The O2 sensor could only be installed with the pipe off the car, and even then the O2 sensor wiring end is resting against the block.

Thoughts on the finished product - not much additional sound, perhaps 20% louder at idle and none at speed. Boost does seem to come on sooner. On a pull starting in 6th, I got 0.8 bar at 2700 rpm. Motor does seem more responsive. Overall very pleased with the new boost characteristics and for losing 25lbs or so off the rear



Heater pipe impinges against the manifold duct - had to be ground down with a angle grinder



K16 turbine on self-clean mode



Finished product

WHB Porsche

Eclou,

Did the bumperettes have to come off to get the bumper off? I couldn't get the bumper off last night. I removed the three screws behind the fender liner on each side, the one at the bottom near the wheel wells, and the one at the bottom of each rear corner. I removed the four along the bottom of the rear and the five above where the center brake light sits, but something was still attached near the middle. There were some solid-feeling hex bolts inside the bumperettes, so I was unsure of whether they needed to come out to get the bumper off. I didn't feel like getting in over my head, so I put everything back.

eclou

Charlie,

the bumperettes must come off. All you need to do is loosen the 8mm allen bolts halfway and the bumperettes can lift up and slide off. You were 99% of the way there.

WHB Porsche

Oh well, I know for the future. The gameplan for today is to replace the slave cylinder and accumulator, remove the bumper, mufflers, and turbo-to-intercooler pressure hoses, clean those out, reinstall, and go for a drive! I know the mufflers and hoses can be removed without removing the bumper, but I feel much more comfortable having some extra room.

Barney1

Tell me how bad the fit was...I went through 3 sets with fabspeed before I had them reworked to fit by a friend. They should spend more time fitting the pipes instead of polishing them.
You will soon see a CEL light after about 3-5 engine cycles.

Basal Skull

Great work, nice and shiny!

BTW - re: the wiring harness for the lights - there is a plug just inside the engine bay that can be unplugged and the harness comes off through the rubber grommet with the bumper. I looks like from one of your pics that the wiring harness is sitting on your intercooler - this whole thing can come off with the bumper when disconnected... so that you really only need to remove the passenger side corner light and not have to remove the others.

eclou

Thanks for the tip! I don't think Fabspeed is going to be on my list for any future items.

Mr C

Their shiny polished finish has always made me wonder if fabspeed's exhausts are made in china, where a polished finish is only an extra $5 for a full ehxuast system.

TT Surgeon

I've been to their shop, all 100% made in the USA on site. They have hudreds of jigs, I'd give jay or Joe a call, I'm sure they will get it right. My stuff always fit perfectly, in fact I'm doing another one of their systems shortly.

eclou

Just as an update - after 4-5 engine cycles still no CEL. I put my OBDII scanner on it and no pending codes or aberrant signals anywhere. Of course, I have now jinxed myself

Chris, 5 minutes with a grinder and the interference of the heater pipes was solved. However, the O2 sensor bung is just ridiculous in placement. Short of welding another bung in there is no way to correct it.

johnneurauter

my fabspeed experience was very poor. still trying to source silicon heating duct to make up for the very poor fitment. took me over a month to get the cats from them in the first place (of course they charged my card right away and told me they'd be in the mail in 3 days). then they forgot some of the mounting brackets, which they argued i must have just thrown out. when i finally got everything, the fitment still blew. i have one tip hanging lower than the other.

i was in direct contact with joe, who seemed nice enough, but just didn't want to acknowledge there was an issue with the pipes, despite the ultra-convincing photos i sent to him and about a dozen other people. everyone else agreed there was something definitely wrong, joe disagreed with us all.

i don't mean to trash talk here, but i tried to resolve the issue with them to my wits end. and finally got so tired of waiting to put my car back together that i decided to just live with it.

considering he was so adamant that his cats were 2nd to none, and that he somehow credited himself with showing our friend in the northwest how to build cats, i was pretty let down with the finished product.

oh well. glad to hear you got them on. and sorry that we all seemed to have had a problem with fabspeed in this regard, but maybe others can learn from the frustration.

to do it over, i think i would have sent them out to kevin for a restuffing. i now understand the benefits of that.

oh, and the polished finish? yeah, don't quite get that. looks great for install pics, but that's about all.

happy new year all!

johnneurauter

um .... thank you, that's the worst part of the bumper removal i think. wish i had known that.

LT1

I've had nothing but good experiences with fabspeed. They did my fathers and brothers exhaust too--both of their systems were fitted at fabspeeds shop.

eclou

Having them fitted at Fabspeeds' shop is probably the best way to go. That way any irregularities can be fixed by them. Their top distributor told me that they see the same irregularities not uncommonly.

BTW 10-12 drive cycles now and still no CEL. Also, I am cutting open a spare set of Bischoff's to do the RSR mod.

TT Surgeon

I must say, that has not been my experience with their products, my stuff always fit well. If you have problems with FS, I've found that it's always best to go right to the source, Joe or Jay. GL either way.