MY45

Spent around 3 hours installing my new Fister Sports exhaust yesterday
I've not wrenched cars since my VW days 30 years or more ago
Super glad I did it. More about that below …


Bought the following to prepare:
(1) White 2009 Carrera S
(4) Esco 10498 Jackstands
Northern Tool Arcan (ALJ3T) aluminum floor jack
(4) Race Ramps wheel chocks (RR-WC)
Tekton torque wrenches (24325 for muffler and 24340 for wheels)
Craftsman 24" breaker bar
Titan #20192 19MM non-mar lug socket


Pulled the wheels and found a couple of interesting things
First, the exhaust can on the drivers side was missing both nuts from the forward bracket
Second, the passenger rear tire was plugged (on a CPO car no less). Lots of controversy about the speed rating of a plugged tire but no matter - I'm replacing them all now by working with my dealer

Love the sound of the new exhaust but I'm more in the "it's just a little north of subtle" camp. 100% glad that I did it and I can notice just as much difference below 4,000 RPM as above. Snorts and crackles from the overrun can be heard better than before and the simple decibel level about 4K is higher - a good thing. No drone at all at highway speeds.

Fister made the process easy. Box with modified mufflers is the same one you return your cores in. Comes with prepaid label and everything.

Online instructions were very unclear and although there are multiple posts on Rennlist, it appears that some are for other models than mine and there are enough slight differences to cause confusion.

My take on removal for my 2009 997.2:
• Elevate car and remove wheels
• Loosen 2 nuts at junction of muffler and center muffler (get extras ahead, most rusted of all
• Remove 2 nuts from the bottom of the "Star Trek" (tall triangle) shaped support bracket
• Remove 2 nuts from the bracket near bumper support bar (right behind wheel and visible when you remove it)
• Remove the silver bumper support bar (right behind wheel and visible when you remove it)
• Muffler is now "loose" and requires jiggling, twisting and finesse to remove.


For reference:
The "Star Trek" bracket nuts are M8 - 1.25 metric (they were standard nuts, I replaced with flange nuts)
The bracket near the bumper support bar - where mine were missing are M8 -1.25 metric flange nuts
The 2 nuts/carriage bolts on each side of the center muffler were a mess and you CAN replace with SAE sizes of 5/16th x 1" carriage bolts and matching nuts. I used the Home Depot stainless steel carriage bolt item #805156 which is a 18TPI x 1" bolt. (in the image those new nuts/bolts are what you are seeing - because Home Depot's selection of metric is dismal.

EMC2

Congrats. Nice write up.
The Fisters get a lot of great reviews.

Very disturbing to see missing nuts on the muffler!

Good choice on the Arcan jack. Done a lot of work on all my cars with that jack.

MY45

Thanks. There is a big jump from the Arcan down (in price) from $249 for the Arcan to $169 or less for a lesser jack. I'm thrilled I decided to spend more as the jacking points on the 911 that are not "official" are tough to reach unless your jack is low profile and longer reach. The Arcan had just enough reach to allow jacking on the frame area just ahead and to each side of the oil sump pan. Needed to jack from under rear corners to allow for spot to place jackstand at official jacking points

Bigger concern now is getting new rubber on the car. Will report back on what dealer says. They are good to work with so we will see. I do not want to mix brands of tires so it's either 2 more Toyo Proxes 4 Plus for rears OR a complete new set of Michelin PSS. The Toyo's are 2012 manufacture and have me a little concerned just due to dating (aside from the plugged rear that you can see in pics above)

Philster

I noticed the jack first, too.

Props to you for your wheel placement during work. I do the same.

Nice gear all around.

upier

+1 on safety

Hilltopper

Great post! Have the FD Sport ceramic black the 997 and FD 2 ceramic black with FAB X Pipe/Sport Cats on the 993. 997 sounds great, but as we all know, nothing sounds like or beats an air-cooled 911. Especially my 993!

kellen

Love my Fisters. Definitely agree with above 4000rpm they sound great, no drone. I do think its more than just a little more subtle but in a good way. I got the ceramic coated titanium ones.

jsalah

This made me chuckle. Very funny.

Which Fisters did you get -- "standard" finish or is this one of the special finishes? I dropped my fisters off at the indie for install yesterday-- only took a quick peak in the box but didn't get a great look. I ordered the regular ones, yours look more shiny, just curious...

Nice job on the install.

MY45

Thanks and I got the standards ... I was pleasantly surprised. Still plenty of "muffler dirt and grease/soot" on them but in 30 days there will be more

Thanks also for the thumbs up on safety. As much as I'm loving this car, I dont want to die under it

Sound update:
Spent 200 miles driving the Cherahola Skyway and the Dragon (US129) and I'm revising my initial "subtle plus" sound review to a solid "significant improvement" and ... its really in the low/mid RPM range that I notice it. Hard to describe the extra exhaust notes - maybe best to just say they are "magnified". A few underpasses and some of the tight canyons coming off the Skyway did a nice job letting me know what was going on back there


Driving update:
This sure ain't no Mini Cooper (though I do miss her)... I'm learning to assault the Dragon in a whole new way in the 911. Unlimited power out of the turns. Careful on the gas in the hairpins. Do all your braking before the corners. I used to be able to literally "throw" the Cooper into the corner, then hold the gas to the floor and only let up if I got too much wheel spin (FWD ... can't steer!). Not this beast. Anyway ... I love it and learned a lot today and I LOVE the Fisters!

Here's a pic when we stopped for a picnic lunch at the start of the Cherahola

Beautiful day!

Ezkill

Car looks sharp and the Fisters are an excellent upgrade. Love that road too but it's a little far for me to drive on a regular basis. Luckily the top of Mulholand is much like the tighter parts of the dragon. These cars excel on those types of roads. First few drives up and down Mulholand I felt the car had plenty of power but now I'd love a bit more.

I'm in no way suggesting you should drive recklessly or above your comfort level. However, with some more miles behind the wheel I think you'll be surprised how well your car will communicate grip and road conditions. It's a great chassis. Very predictable and very little drama.

MY45

Funny, I was thinking the same thing. Predictable, but in a very good way. Looking forward to learning more as I spend more time behind the wheel.

Jason DeWilde

Thanks so much for this, about to order the Fisters and install myself. Checked to see if I could loosen nuts at center muffler and they broke off! My car already has Sharkwerks bypass installed- sounds like this will really make it come alive.

phily911

I just removed my fisters and installed a Fabspeed system. The fisters were great.

I am no expert but I did this in less than 2 hours and removed the rear bumper. Gave me a lot of room to work and clear access to all bolts. Plus I can clean out all the dust and crap that builds up back there...




Black chrome tips after a spirited drive...

Jason DeWilde

Think this could be done with bumper off and wheels left on? Seems like bumper removal is very simple.

eagle1960

Just did my park plugs and removed entire exhaust system easily w/o removing wheels or bumper. just backed up on some Rhino ramps and had at it!