Installed SharkWerks Pipe - Good but Issues
 

2009 C2S 57K miles, all year all weather driver

Results: I like it! More "Porsche like", not that loud, just better. I did not want the typical after market exhaust that wakes up the hood.

Worth It?: Who knows, that is your call. It is just a bit of sound.

Why do it: My 2009 C2S is the most non-sports car sounding car I ever owned. I didn't do any mods to my 2000 Boxster S in 197K miles of ownership and it was a more fun car to drive. These newer cars are a bit boring and fat. The first "mod" I did was liven up the handling by dialing out the negative camber in the rear and increase the negative camber in the front... I am a bit outside of Porsche spec but the car is dead boring without this.

Time to complete: Five hours with specialized tools and a grinder

Issues: I had trouble with the install. Read on.

I can't fault SharkWerks at all but...... if you have a car with mileage near or over mine at 57K and have driven in the salt, you will most likely have trouble. I broke/sheared three bolts on the two, four-bolt collars, rounded one nut on the cat, and sheared another.

On the sheared bolt on the catalytic converter, a few wacks with a punch and the bolt pops out the back. The bolt has splines on the shaft and they are just pressed in. They are not welded in.

I ran to Home Depot (go to Lowes as I think they have better selections) and picked up replacement stainless bolts and nuts.

To remove one of the rounded nuts, my buddy thankfully had a DeWalt grinder and we cut into the nut, and then he wacked it with a chisel and hammer. It spun.

We quickly realized that to address these problems, we needed to remove the bumper, the crash bar behind the bumper and the left side plastic structural thingy. I was amazed at how fast and easy removing the rear bumper parts were. I had no internet instructions but just started removing screws and lightly tugging to find the next one. Really it was shockingly easy to remove all of this.

I have to give big kudos to my buddy who really did most of the work. If you read my posts, he is the Ford engineer I always mention. He is a car nut and used to work at a Ford/Jaguary dealership as a tech working his way through School many years ago. He left Ford for a few years and was Dale Earnhardt Senior B-manager for a few years and then went back to Ford. He is a big car nut now owning a Porsche Carrera, a '65 vette, and tons of manly machines. He also has a tool bench that will make you tear up. Thank goodness because I could not have done this myself.

Odd note: I changed my own plugs at 40K miles and got those darn cat nuts off albeit with a ton of trouble. I should have replaced the nuts with new ones as SharkWerks does provide new ones. I figured that after only 17K more miles and only about 6 months later, these nuts would be easier to remove but actually the opposite was true. My Ford buddy said the constant heating and cooling wrecks these nuts and bolts and rounding and breaking them is common.

So, a warning: If your car is an all weather driver and has around 57K miles or more.... this is not a DIY job with just a few tools. Just be prepared as you may run into trouble.

Happy,
Bruce in Philly

Pics of the work and my buddy (with cool T-Shirt):

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/bruced.../car/Muff1.jpg

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/bruced.../car/Muff3.jpg

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/bruced.../car/Muff4.jpg

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/bruced.../car/Muff5.jpg

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/bruced.../car/Muff7.jpg

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/bruced.../car/Muff8.jpg

Better buy him a beer after that job. I quickly realized that i was over my head installing the bypass pipes and took mine to a local shop. Maybe its these east coast cars

I installed my SW bypass about 3 months. Took off the bumper and the heat shields...I believe taking those two off were worth it. If you don't take them off be prepared to get a half-moon wrench to take off the top bolts holding the bypass to the side mufflers.

This install took me about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. I took my time with this.

This is a worthwhile mod. I did this in conjuction with the gundo hack and glad I did. Gives a whole different personality to the car's exhaust. I have a 2010 C4S.

I broke a few bolts working a few shops in the mid west back in the day. One thing that you can do is take a torch and get the nut red hot and hit it with a air gun. Works most of the time. A mapp torch may get it hot enough. They are just a pain in the butt and I'm glad that I live in Colorado now.

Wd40 works for me. Just soak overnight before playing.

So as not to scare too many people by the difficulties you ran into...

I added the Sharkwerks bypass a couple of weeks ago but had the advantage of changing out the center muffler twice before so I knew how it went. It makes a really good combo with my Fabspeed side mufflers (you'd think I'd prefer the Fabspeed x-pipe with the Fabspeed sides, but to my surprise I liked this combo better!).

It took just under 2 hours without removing the bumper, working with the car jacked up on only one side with a jackstand safety. I presoaked the bolts as slicky rick suggested and had no problems with any of them. I actually had the previous center off in only twenty minutes. Of course, I live in Texas so that may make a big difference as corrosion is minimal. I can get two normal crescent wrenchs on the difficult-to-reach top passenger-side bolt by placing the handle of the one holding the bolt head upwards between the body and the muffler and the other from a more conventional position; no special wrench was required.

Finally, I don't recommend the Home Depot stainless bolts and nuts. There are many grades of stainless and these are one of the lower quality ones and are not made for exhaust levels of heat. I learned about this when I tried them in a previous exhaust application and they immediately sheared off the first time I tried to remove them some time later. Pay a few dollars more and get really good automotive quality ones if you need replacements.

I just remembered that when doing the install, I took a photo of the wrench positions since I knew a lot of people have trouble with this. Please see the attached, you can see both wrenches (the left one is holding the bolt head and right one is on the nut) in the positions that work with normal crescent wrenches. The top bolt of the passenger side exhaust flange is in the lower left facing away, the handle holding the bolt head is in the space between the heat shield protecting the body and the muffler. In this case, the muffler is a Fabspeed, but this works with the stock side cans as well.

To help provide perspective in the photo, both wrenches are sticking almost straight up in the photo.

This mod worked best for me after I combined the bypass with the Gundo hack. Indy put on the bypass for 1 hour labor. Peace Bruce.

Thanks for the excellent write-up! Does the crossover hang down any lower than the center muffler? Also, does anyone know the lubricant other than WD-40 that's used to presoak the nuts/bolts - I seem to remember something like KRLcoat?? Thanks.

I would think any rust pentrant would do jh.

No, the Sharkwerks pipe does not hang down any lower, probably just a little less in fact. I'll admit that I was a more paranoid than Mark with the installed photo above and installed the two straps so that the open end of the bolt didn't point straight down (I was afraid they might get snagged on something), so my straps are mounted so that the bolts are on top of the pipe with the open end facing backwards, eliminating the already minimal chance of the bolt snagging on anything but in a position where it was still easy to get a wrench on the nut.

The old standard other than WD-40 is Liquid Wrench, and WD-40 even makes a specialized version called WD-40 Specialist Rust Release Penetrant if you are especially concerned. It is what I used just to apply overkill, although I doubt it was necessary. I picked it up at Home Depot since my old WD-40 can was empty. Here is a link to the web page for it: http://www.wd40specialist.com/products/penetrating-oil

Thanks for the comments guys - here's what I was referring to:
http://www.eastwood.com/kroil-penetrating-oil.html

Yes the install is easy, DIY. But like you Bruce I broke a bolt even with penetrating oil, 2 of mine were really rusty. So took the car to a muffler shop to do the install, they tend to have a lower hourly rate than mechanic shops and all the right tools. So yes DIY only if your car is pretty new or rarely driven.

I think the Eastwood Kroil would be excellent, but as Slicky Rick said I think most any reputable penetrant would be fine and most are a whole lot less expensive. $36 ($27 plus $9 shipping) seems awfully high to me.

Concur. That was a b!tch...as was removing the clamps around the (left?) muffler I think.