okie981

Yes, these are the latest-greatest Sport headers for 981 from Cargraphics. I bought one of those sets in the photo last Friday, arrive today, sending off to Swaintech to be coated with White Lightning ceramic. I'll weigh the coated Sport headers and stock headers and post results.

I'm putting these on my BS, no GT4 any more, sold it. I'll be posting in the 981 parent forum of this forum my dyno runs before and after header install with no other modifications to the car. Baseline run is set for 28 October on a Mustang dyno, will return to same shop for dyno ASAP after installation but it may be after the Schnellfest DE at COTA on 17-19 Nov due to the 3 weeks it takes for Swain to do their work. Power-wise, the BS is stock and has PSE, 25k miles on the car.

DC640

i have the race headers and probably the best thing ive done to the car...

ralphmusic

They are for additional bracing as there have been some issues with flexing between the cylinder block face and the cat back flange due to vibration and I guess the weight of the cat.

I had mine modified in August and the workmanship is fine - I live near the Cargraphics factory. It would be difficult to make bracing look as elegant as the curved tubing.

Mine have been on the car since April 2015 and have run 20k miles including 35 track days. One cat failed about a year ago and I assume it was an issue with the cat bought in by Cargraphics who said I should not worry about the failure being indicative of any recurring issue, so far all OK even after the heat of Estoril, Portimao and Jerez last month.

usctrojanGT3

Besides the LWFW the race headers are the best mod for the GT4.

chillindrdude

What do you guys do to address CEL? And passing emissions?

BGB Motorsports

Hello - if you have ever watched a Cayman or Boxster accelerate from a dead stop you will see an egregious amount of movement in the tail pipes in the center of the lower rear bumper cover. We had concerns over people tracking these cars on circuits with aggressive exit curbing. On the more track oriented cars we install the harder urethane engine and transmission mounts but the GT4 and other cars that have PADM have an increased rigidity in the mounts. I had concerns about people running on the bumpy circuits without the trans mount dampening turned up so Cargraphic revised the entire design to mimic that of the factory part with dampening everywhere for harmonic vibration improvement. Since 2009 we broke or have seen broken every rigid mounted exhaust for the 987.2s/981s so we were in support of this; we were the ones that originally suggested the spring clamp/slip fit design that others have adapted. If there is a failure Cargraphic will stand behind their work. HOWEVER, they do NOT warranty race track failures BUT I see some new manufacturers that are warrantying their exhaust products for the track and I have asked Cargraphic about it and i think that eventually they will be open to the idea. I just need to keep working with them on it - i don't think they will ever warranty cats but every single issue has been addressed by them.

We just installed a set of these on a 3.4L Boxster GTS conversion we did to a car that started life as a 2.7L. We purchased the PSE from the dealership and coded the new console, etc. The sound is awesome with the catted manifolds and PSE. Our GT4 owners love this config.

Hi Ralph - Thank you! Above i addressed the revision so let's discuss cats and failing cats. For what it's worth, teams have been through several sets of cats on factory manifolds for the Clubsport race cars that run the stock PSE mufflers and we are going through them every 3000 race miles. Porsche continues to try and find better products with better material so even they are working on it BUT, make no mistake...cats can't handle extensive race track usage...aftermarket OR OE. They are required to run them for the world wide spec so they can't abandon them but my $.02 is that if you have a straight exhaust system it might prolong the longevity but when running cats on track, it's not a question of if...just when!

We recommend 200 cell cats for any car that is not a track car and race manifolds without cats ONLY for cars that are off-road/track cars. For cars that are track cars we turn the CEL off solely because it's an annoyance to the owner. If you're on the street you need to run cats for EPA reasons and aftermarket 200 cell cats will NOT set off a CEL. I think though that 100 cell cats will in fact set off a CEL on the warmup phase.

okie981

I'll reply here even though my GT4 is gone and I'm putting the headers you just sold me on my BS.

When I take it to the dyno for baseline runs and after header install, do you recommend I use 3rd or 4th gear with the PDK for the pulls? The shop is Growler in Plano.

And as far as the cats failing posts and your replies, please PM me price on the cat delete straight pipes. I'm headed towards the Cobb AP and your custom tune that Wray mentioned on the phone the other day, and if I have a map for both race and Sport header configurations, I'll be set to swap out for track events and just deal with the post cat O2 sensor as you have posted elsewhere.

ralphmusic

My PDK car has always been run in 5th and right up to the limiter on a dyno.

MarcD147

Something new is coming.......
Can’t tell yet what or how but I will be testing it in a few weeks or months

BGB Motorsports

Correct, 5th gear on the dyno with a PDK. Car will either need to be put in dyno mode with a PIWIS to use on a 2wd dyno, or otherwise a 4wd dyno with linked rollers will be needed in order to keep the electronics happy.

okie981

Roger all on 5th gear pulls, will do. Also confirmed with Growler they have a 4wd dyno.

G-forceGT4

BGB, could we get another group buy going for the sport headers with high flow cats?

Yellowbyrd

I'm addressing this post primarily to John Tecce and the staff at BGB:

I recently installed the revised, modular Cargraphic Sport headers on my 2014 Cayman S with PDK. Mileage = 14K. I retained the stock exhaust muffler, and have made no changes to the stock intake architecture. My principal motivation for installing the header was to improve the exhaust note, since I didn't expect a significant increase in performance.

Well, I was more than pleasantly surprised by the result. Yes, I and others have been impressed by the new exhaust note, especially at WOT, and most definitely in the higher rev range. But what really got my attention was the noticeable improvement in torque in the middle range, and the startling increase in responsiveness from 6K to redline. I have not, and do not plan to, put the car on a dyno. Still, I know my car, and the throttle response up top is nothing less than intoxicating. I can't keep my foot out of it!

Here are some questions for John, or for anyone else who believes that they have the answers:

1. I have read on these forums that adding the Cargraphic Sport headers without a corresponding tune can result in the engine running significantly leaner, especially at WOT. Is this true, and if so, should I be concerned about the impact on pistons, valves, etc.?

2. What would I have to gain, and what might the downside be, if I were to add a tune especially tailored to this 3.4 liter motor? I know that there might be a risk to the warranty.

3. Would there be any upside or downside to adding an IPD plenum, and/or a larger throttle body, given that this is a 3.4 liter motor?

Thanks in advance for any and all responses to my post.

BGB Motorsports

Thank you for the kind words. Given that the car’s exhaust is now improved the ECU will compensate by adding more fuel; you’re not in danger of it going leaner but in fact the mixture will get richer. When you go catless on the race cars the situation is the same but greater. The benefits of the tune for you are as follows:

1.) if you don’t have a GTS and have an S, you’re not getting full throttle and the gains from the mods you are installing aren’t being realized to their full potential.
2.) by leaning the mixture out a little bit and getting it even back closer to a stock Air Fuel Ratio Number you will gain more HP up top.
3.) the larger throttle body will increase power above 5K RPM because it is at that RPM level and above that the car really wants to be able to breathe better. The IPD plenum adds some really nice throttle response at partial throttle but the single biggest reason to do the IPD is to be able to mate the larger 84mm Throttle Body to the stock intake and retain the original mounting points for the breather hoses for the crank case and fuel evap canister that are mounted to the intake on the NA Porsches.

Let me know if you have additional questions and thank you again!

okie981

I did my baseline dyno runs yesterday at Growler in Plano. I did them with Map 0 (stock) installed using the Cobb AP I bought from you last week. My headers arrive back from Swain by 10 Nov. I'll be in touch with you in early December for the custom tune I talked to Wray about. I'm not going to have time to get the headers installed before the Schnellfest at COTA on 17-19 Nov, but after Turkey day I'll get them in and send you some logs from 3rd gear pulls. I will have before/after video/audio for comparison and will post the whole story on RL in the parent forum since this of course is the GT4 forum.

BTW, Chris at Growler did some really consistent runs on the dyno from 2000 to 7500 RPM, could hardly tell one run from the other except for a little blip at 2200 RPM. It was a nice cool day in Plano yesterday morning, the weather data is stored with the runs for correction and comparison to runs on other days. It's a Mustang brake dyno with weather station.

Edit: Forgot to mention, when I was standing about 5 feet behind and 15 feet left of the back of the car during the runs, I experienced JUST HOW LOUD THIS CAR IS with only PSE and Fabspeed x-pipe tips. Holy moly. Sounds amazing, but ear plugs are recommended at that distance. I can't wait to hear with the Cargraphic Sports installed. I'll have before/after video/audio for comparison and will post in the 981 parent forum because this is of course the GT4 forum.