Joe@Fabspeed

HI
Its is Joe @ Fabspeed Motorsports. Porsche occasionally has problems with catalytic converters on stock Porsche street cars and factory race cars. The factory Porsche race cars always use stock specification catalytic converters. Since I am in the business I hear about stock OEM cats going bad all the time and I see PCA Clubracers with 964 CUP , 993 Supercup and GT3 CUP cars losing power as the catalytic converters "break apart and break away" from their shells. It happens occassionally.......but it is not a routine occurence.

Technically any & all emissions parts are subject to a 100,000 mile warranty as mandated by the United States EPA. I guess Porsche might try to say "racing voids warranty" but that is bogus and how do they know you are racing.

There are 4 catalytic converters on all Porsche cars made from 1999 to 2007 from what I have seen. On 996, Gt3 and 997 cars they put 2 on each bank. If your catalytic converters fail and "they will not warranty them" get a set of sports racing catalytic converters as these are imported and much stronger and atleast reduce restriction and add power and sports car sound for sure and dont cost and arm & a leg. If emissions is no issue..........catbypass pipes add power for sure and cant fail no matter how hard you drive.

best regards and see you at the track!

Joe Fabiani
President
fabspeed motorsports
www.fabspeed.com
215-646-4945 (9828fax)

PS if you get burned by Porsche call and ask for me........I will hook you up with sports race cats for a special Rennlister deal. When we ship to Canada I will put a value of $50 for customs too!!!!!

cosmos

I kmow this is going to sound like I am plugging Fabspeed....but....I did get their mufflers for the GT3 and they threw in a set of bigger tips for free. The service was awesome and the product was as advertised.

Yes I would but again and no I did not get paid for this plug......

Blacksport350

Another vote for Fabspeed! I really like the Europipe too BUT you are stuck using the cats and you can't swap on the straight pipes.

NJ-GT

I've been running the FabSpeed Cat bypass pipes for over a year (no CEL). They look as if they were installed one week ago. The stock mufflers look like they're 10 years old, and they need immediate replacement (broken baffles). The stock headers have thin walls and I hope they last for the next two years.

I've used FabSpeed muffler bypass pipes, FabSpeed Maxflo mufflers (save around 25 lbs). Quality is bar none. Price is right compared to the Europipe/Kreissieg systems.

mooty

sorry, i am getting very confused.
i am in kalifornia, must pass smog.
so do i run cat AND muffler buypass.
or oem cat with muffler bypass
or cat bypass with oem muffler?
or what combo?

thanks.

cosmos

Need cats. After cats it does not reall matter. If its smog, I would just put everything back to stock.

Also, why do you need a smog pass now?

mooty

ok, so when i need to smog, i put back to stock.
mean while what do i run?
bypass both cat and muffler or what?

cosmos

Run high flow cats and does not really matter after that. I would maybe run a muffler by-pass or get after makrket mufflers.

You need cats, for proper back pressure and for 02 sensors.

You can run stock, or 100 cell race cats.

ltc

PCNA will infer 'track/race' use based on a DME readout. A single Type 2 will certainly do it and multiple/repeated Type 1's are cause for suspicion as well.....of course you could argue that multiple/repeated Type 1's can happen during spirited street driving, but then they will claim 'abuse'.....no, not kidding.

As mentioned, if pushed, they will usually agree to a single/one time warranty replacement.

Ask your dealer for a complete DME readout or go to an indy and ask them to do it.

ltc

Gert at Carnewal has some GT3 Sport cats:
http://www.carnewal-europe.com/cpx_p96193.htm

Mike K.

Hi Joe,
I was already looking at your site but I did not have time, before my next event, to place an order. I am going to drop off my metal blobs at the dealer tomorrow and will give you a call later on in the day. Racerron had a set of your mufflers on his car this weekend. They do have a nicer sound then oem. Will they pass a 92 db limit with the cats being bypassed?
I ran the car this weekend with the hollowed out cats and did not get a CEL. One strange thing did happened that spooked me . In a high speed sweeper I had to lift a bit for a slower car and when I re-applied the power there was nothing there. Could this be back pressure? It didn't happen again.
You said there are 4 cats, I only have 2. I have never raced the car, it is strictly for DEs. I purchased a Radical for racing purposes, if I ever get it to run properly.

Dale Gribble

^ mike, do you own an orange radical that was at cayuga this past weekend? If you could please PM me with more information on the car, as it sure looked like a beast.

RayGT3

You could buy a pair of 100 or 200 cell race cats, cut the old ones out and have them weld the new ones into your existing piping at your local custom exhaust shop for less than $500. You could even have them weld flanges onto the piping so you could easily bypass them with a short piece of pipe or put them back in for smog day.

Alan C.

I had a set of cats fail on my 02 C2 996. The car had 29K on it at the time. Porsche put on new cats and I promptly removed them and put on high flow cats, great sound.

I don't understand the failures on the cats. They should be made from an Alpha4 or Fecraloy alloy. Both alloys use a partial atmosphere to grow a whisker type surface that is used to cause the noble metal slurry to adhere to the substrate. I'm wondering if there isn't a bad batch of alloy out there or Porsche may have gone another route for cost. There are other alternatives but none as strong at temperature. The failure mode shown is what one would expect from that type alloy. It will shred into shards and go out the pipe. I assume that once it shredded into a small ball it was able to rotate and completely plug the hole. At that point additional heating would occur. That may be why the remainder of the cat has a near melted appearance

Racerron

You already know the answer to that one!