Dr.J

Hello everyone &

I'm toying with the idea of replacing the stock headers on my 06 997, 3.8l Carrera S. Fabspeed offers a beautiful header for the 997.1 and I'm wondering if anyone here has had any experience with it, given I'm a bit put off by the class action lawsuit, that comes up in a web search, against Fabspeed.

Any and all information appreciated.

Thanks,

John

mjsporsche

I have Fabspeed Maxflo mufflers for about 6 years and fitment/quality is excellent.

But after googling the Fabspeed class actions and associated comments about manufacturing being outsourced with issues, I would have my doubts going forward with them. If you really want a high performance custom exhaust, look for a custom exhaust shop (recommended by Porsche indys) and have them build something for you.

Petza914

Wow, just read through some of that lawsuit info and the posts from others - that doesn't seem good. I'm less concerned about the Sal Pane thing than then other forum entries.

My experience with Fabspeed has been nothing but positive (David, Alex, John, & Nick). On my supercharged 997.1 I have their equal length headers, Valvetronic Mufflers, & 200 cell X-cats and the system sounds great, hasn't given me any trouble, and haven't had any CEL issues. My system was installed in 2012 though so not sure if anything has changed with their manufacturing more recently.

Here are some pics and drive by clip.

J-Pipe Competition CF Intake (slightly modified during install to work with Supercharger pulley)



Current look of exhaust after 5 years of heat cycling and use - not quite as pretty since all stainless gets this goldish hue to it, but still sounds and works great






Here's how it looked when I first installed it. Tips are RUF, not Fabspeed, and were part of the rear bumper conversion with through-bumper exhaust.










I also have their secondary cat Bypass pipes on my Cayenne 957 Turbo S. Bought them used from a forum member, but the quality of their materials is so good, with a little metal polish, they clean up to look like new again. Also, nothing wrong with these welds.









As I said, I've been very pleased with all of my Fabspeed products. They also make the best exhaust gaskets - metal with good compression for sealing when installed. I keep a couple sets of them in the parts cabinet in case I need to pull a header for a water pump change or something.

They also make (made as I think it's NLA) some cool metal and CF artwork - have this large Porsche crest framed and hanging in my office.

Dr.J

Thank you for your responses!

Pete, your exhaust system looks awesome! On their website, the headers look amazing, the quality appears exceptionally high (I thought on one site it said made of 304 stainless, excellent- have written to confirm).

Did you have any issues with the ecu, or need to do any special ecu setup?

How are the headers for heat?

Did you replace the o2 sensors at the same time?

Thanks,

John

Petza914

No, nothing done with the ECU for either the intake or exhaust. With cats, I've heard that if your go with 100 cell cats or cat bypass that you will get CELs - sometimes the O2 sensor extensions will work and other times they don't seem to. I didn't want to deal with any of that so went with the safer 200 cell cats


Exhausts get hot. Whether these get any hotter or less hot than others, I have no idea. Some people will ceramic coat their exhausts to contain the heat and have more of it exit out the pipes instead of diffuse to the air, but I've only done that on one exhaust - the one for my 914 - and it was really to keep it from rusting more than for heat reasons.


I had a CEL that was unrelated to anything to do with the exhaust and replaced O2 sensors when I was trying to troubleshoot that, but it didn't resolve the issue. Smoke testing the intake revealed that I had a loose end-cap on the custom RUF intake manifolds that was allowing some unmetered air into the motor and causing the CEL, so yes, I have new O2 sensors, but don't think that's necessary - just make sure you unplg them from the panel in the engine compartment before trying to unscrew them from the exuast so that you don't twist the wires.

Dr.J

Thanks, Pete,

Much appreciated!

John

killacam

i have their headers, xpipe cats, mufflers, and tips. headers are very well made.

william123

installed headers and sport cats on my 997.1S this past spring. love them, no issues

mcfisticuffs

Save your money - look at Speedtech and NHP. Equal to better quality for a fraction of the price.

Petza914

I like NHP - have their interlocking oval tips on my Cayenne Turbo S, but their header design for the 997 is not as good as the Fabspeed one because of the way the exhaust is merged. With exhaust gasses entering from the side angles for the 2nd two entries and at a rather sharp angle, this creates turbulence in the header and does not allow for as efficient a flow of the gasses out of the header.

With the Fabspeed design, all of the pipes are the same length so the exhaust pulses coming from the motor merge better into the collector which has all the pipes entering the collector on the same angle and all moving in the same direction for better egress.

See the difference.



NHP Header - essentially a copy of the X51



Fabspeed header - better design


The Speedtech header you mention has the right design, but it's a company I've never heard of and don't have any personal experience with. The photo on their site also won't enlarge so it's hard for me to get a good look at the pipe bends, but it looks like they are narrower than the rest of the pipe and the turns, so maybe they don't mandrel bend them like Fabspeed does. Mandrel bending preserves the same pipe ID even through the turns for better flow. Fabspeed also does a lifetime guarantee on their exhaust parts (except cats). I don't see any guarantee info on the SpeedTech site, but also didn't specifically search for it.


SpeedTech Header

So I'm not sure that either NHP or SpeedTech are the same design and quality as the Fabspeed ones - I also notice your mod list shows that you have the Fabspeed versions

FVD, Tubi, & Akrapovich are of the same quality as Fabspeed, but I'm not sure these lower entry companies are. I had FVD mufflers on my 997 before going to Fabspeed, but they weren't the valved PSE type, which is why I made the change.

mcfisticuffs

I actually sold the Fabspeed headers - way too loud on a 7.2. Need to update the sig. Bought them at a steep discount on Rennlist. Not to mention, they may have equal length tubing, but the factory headers are removable with a simple socket extension. The Fabspeed headers.... not a chance. Several holes require contortions equivalent to "that" bolt on the water pump. Had to tap the heads to fix all the holes I buggered trying to install them Never did install all the header bolts before I went back to factory.

I had a Speedtech X-pipe on my 996, and it was better made and better fitment than my Sharkwerks bypass on my 7.2. Not a Fabspeed comparison, but a big name in the Porsche world.

I'd also question whether Fabspeed would honour any of their guarantees.. their customer service is pretty poor. Too much negative feedback on the forums for me to continue to do business with them.

Oh yea, also had the Fabspeed carbon fiber intake on my 996. THAT was a poorly designed piece of kit. Wore a hole through the "carbon" with my decklid fan shrouding. Not enough clearance, and I'm pretty sure it was plastic.

Petza914

I assume your 996 intake was their J-pipe setup (like mine) - it's carbon throughout as I had to trim an inch or so off of mine to create clearance for the air filter with the active aero wing hydraulics on my car. I tried the Y-Pipe too, but the J-Pipe works better on my car.

Heat shield is CF too as I had to mount mine backwards because of the SC pulley and used a hole saw to create the new semicircle for the intake pipe.

mcfisticuffs

Mine was the Y. I never had to cut it, but I would think real carbon would stand up to some plastic, and not vice versa.

Saaboteur

I'm going with M&M / FVD next for my next exhaust:

https://www.fvd.net/us-en/BES9971920...haust-pse.html

M&M makes parts for Porsche Motorsport, that should be good enough for my poverty-spec 997.1 C4S...

BaileyII

Dr.J, I know you asked about Fabspeed however I just wanted to jump in also. I just recently added headers (a different brand) to complete my exhaust about a month ago and after adding the headers last I do love the sound that is created between shifts. Especially while driving at low speeds like 35mph or under all those burble sounds. I will not know if any improvements are made until I can get it back on the dyno but I can tell you that I am extremely satisfied with the overall sound of my car. I do love romping on it to hear that 3.8 flat six. One last thing my cost was not as much as Fadspeed. Get you some headers!!!!!