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Hi,
I read how everyone was able to do the centre muffler delete with the cross pipe easily.
Well, not so much for me. The bolts on the catalytic converters are hard bolted on and not removable (like my old Boxster S). Every posts I have found online had removable bolts on the cats but my 2009 C2S model don't.
Anyone else had the same problem as me?
I will remove the bumper tomorrow and see if there is a way to slide the centre muffler out.
I can assure you that they will come out. If you have access to flame, heat them up and then hit with a hammer. They're only pressed in, and not welded in. Give them a good whack and they'll pop out.
If you don't have access to flame, pop down to your local hardware store and you can buy a can of fuel and flame gun. It will be in the plumbing section.
I'm assuming you have factory cats, so if they're not, my info above may be incorrect.
If you're at the stage of undoing the cat bolts then you're past the worst of it.
I'd also recommend replacing the bolts with stainless steel.
Good luck
Yeah, it can be a difficult job. I’ll also mention that I have been constantly swapping around exhaust components to get the sound I want. Have tried full FVD setup, OEM setup, Gundo hack setup etc still looking for the perfect sound. Why is that relevant? Because I have been screwing with this stupid exhaust non stop for almost a year and now know the layout and ins and outs of the exhaust and mounting points by heart. I could probably swap in a new exhaust blindfolded at this point.
The way I went about it was to cut each nut off so I could get the center muffler completely removed. That gave me tons of room to work. That also left bolt heads still stuck to the back side of the cat flange and in the holes. From there it was a matter of heat and knocking them out. I’d be careful using a big hammer or whacking the cats too hard as I am afraid of doing damage to the block where the headers mount.
One thing that many folks feel very strongly about one way or the other is use the use of SS hardware vs non SS hardware. You can read about this and different theories on the interwebs until you go crazy but I tried both and had completely different results between them. Galling is the main concern. I initially went with SS hardware. Had that on for a couple months along with light coating of copper high temp anti seize. After putting maybe 1000 miles on them I went to remove and 1 of the 6 SS nuts was completely frozen. I was shocked. I had to cut it off which was difficult. Here are the first ones I bought from McMaster:
94302A109Super-Corrosion-Resistant 316 Stainless Steel Hex Head Screws, Serrated-Flange, 5/16"-18 Thread Size, 1-1/2" Long, packs of 5
I then switched to non SS hardware and have had those on for maybe 6 months. I have removed them numerous times and never had a single issue. I am now a strong believer in non SS hardware for this application after this experience.
94239A108High-Strength Serrated-Flange Hex Head Screws, Steel, 5/16"-18 Thread Size, 1-1/4" Long, packs of 25
Heat the cat flange to red expanding the bolt hole, and hit the bolt, it should pop out. Try not to wack to hard but hard enough to get the bolt out as cats dont like being traumatized alot. For some reason I think the bolt all snapped off or I torched them off so the center muffler could be rotated down and off. No, You haveto slide the center to side muffler joiner pieces right off the joints and the center muffler will pull back off away from the cat bolts. Then I had more access to deal with the bolts on the cats
Thanks for all the replies! I managed to remove the centre muffler late last night (couldn't sleep cos of it!), with the bumper off it was possible to do it with the bolts still on by sliding it outwards instead of down.
I now will go knock them out anyway and put new ones on. Being a Socal car really make jobs like these easier. No rust anywhere.
well, so far no luck. I haven't been able to get those bolts off and the cross pipe wouldn't go it with the existing bolts. It is too tight.
I have to try to take it down the road to a garage to help me. I don't have a big enough hammer either. It's definitely not the 2 hours easy job it claims to be.
First, they're pressed into the cat flange, so really, they're studs, not bolts. Second, if you didn't break any of them when you removed the center muffler, why didn't you just re-use them?
When I installed my BB crossover pipes, I broke one of the studs off accidentally and I only broke that one because I didn't use any penetrating oil or heat, I just put too much torque on it. I learned my lesson and the other five came off easily after a little penetrating oil. I only replaced the broken stud. I reused the other five.
Unless the studs are rusty and look like they're on their last legs, why go to the trouble of replacing them? There's no harm in it, I just don't see why you would do all that extra work.
What x pipe brand are you using? You could perhaps enlarge the hole or holes on the xpipe flange to get it to fit. I heated my cat flange to red and whacked them out with a mallet in one good blow. Dont heat the bolt just the flange. We used a oxy acet torch.
Job almost done, it was a challenge. Just need to put my bumper and tips back on. I will post some pictures later to show you the challenges I had to deal with installing it differently.
Thanks for everyone's input, one of the best thing about owning a Porsche are the people on the forum always helping each other.
Hey matt997, do you have the specs for the other hardware: center muffler, side bar to bumper, and exhaust tips?
Specs as in part numbers? If so, most likely yes at least as they'd apply to the 3.8 motor. 3.6 might have different part numbers, not sure. Just let me know and I can post some of the parts I've ran thru lately.
And X2 on the torch. Even a basic propane torch will get it hot enough. Then you can just pop them out.
Specs as in part numbers? If so, most likely yes at least as they'd apply to the 3.8 motor. 3.6 might have different part numbers, not sure. Just let me know and I can post some of the parts I've ran thru lately.
And X2 on the torch. Even a basic propane torch will get it hot enough. Then you can just pop them out.
The McMaster part #s like you provided for the cats (it's a 3.8). I just looked at my exhaust and the nuts on the piece that connects the center exhaust to the side cans are really rusted as are the cat nuts. The rest look fine. I'd like to have new hardware in hand before I take the cans off for a Fister swap. The dealer changed the spark plugs less than a year ago. I thought the exhaust had to be removed to change the spark plugs but mine looks like it's never been touched.
11-28-2017, 11:24 PM
997.2 Center Muffler Delete - cat dead bolts
