blckcaymanR

I bought my Cayman R with an aftermarket (Fabspeed) exhaust on it. I don't know if the headers and cats were also replaced by the original owner. Can anyone tell from this picture if this is an OE exhaust manifold?

cstyles

Those are most certainly aftermarket headers, not OEM exhaust manifolds. OEM manifolds have a casing around the catalytic converter part, like heat shielding. And the piping is flattened in multiple areas. Here's what the OEM's look like, from Carnewal's website:



Not sure which aftermarket headers yours are, but should be pretty easy to tell with those machined holes in the flange that mates to the motor. That's not a common characteristic.


Edit: yeah you've got Fabspeed catted headers on your car:

blckcaymanR

Thank you!

A432

As an fyi, those will fail CA emissions testing (and potentially anywhere else that uses CARB standards) and also, they can have reliability issues during track use.

blckcaymanR

ok

The Duke

Care to expand on this comment? I'm not aware of this issue. As a prospective customer, this is a point of interest.

Zach L

A high amount of track use can burn out any catalytic converter, OEM included. Most dedicated track vehicles are running catless. Some people just swap back on their OEM headers to do emission testing each time.

Fabspeed uses HJS cats which are made in Germany and about the best you can by. To aid in power, they use 200-cell per inch(OEM is about 600 CPI, I believe), so while they may more than suffice for the car's sensors, they may not be quite effective enough for the most stringent standalone sniff tests (sensor in exhaust tip).

2010panny4S

But since if Car is 2012 or so it's now plug in test no longer sniffers.

We did my previous 2010 Panny and my wife's 2012 Cayman R with Fabspeed exhaust. No issues and was just hooked up to a machine or ODB port. No sniffer.

A432

Not sure if you're asking about my emissions or track failure comment.

Based on competitively tracking my '12, 2-200 cells HJS cats failed on me in under 12 months, I know of 3 other HJS track failures personally, more HJS track failures upon searches.

OEM on our cars are 400 cell, which is why it's only a ~5hp gain. It's more about the tone of the exhaust that people might like.

My stock cats, zero issues for 3+ years, 150+ mph torture on California Speedway, 130+ mph Willow Springs, Spring Mountain, Buttonwillow etc. etc. all fast high heat tracks. Catless is not required.

Regarding my emissions comment, CA + other CARB emissions states are now supposed to visually identify stock catalysts or EO approved ones (which we don't have)

They use a mirror and a flashlight to get under the car to look at the manifolds. They also now look for modifications to the software.

The Duke

Thanks for your reply. To clarify - I meant the "tracking" comment. Above, I wasn't sure whether that term was referring to HPDE or "competitive tracking".

Both your and Zach's comments have confirmed that it's the latter and not the former.