Porsche Fabspeed Exhaust

I've owned my 1980 Porsche 911 for over 13 years.  The one thing I've always wanted to do is put a performance aftermarket exhaust on it.  Well, last week I drove to North Philly to the Fabspeed Motorsports fabrication shop and picked one up.  Why drive all the way to Philly you ask? (as did the customs agents on both sides of the border, the bar tenders in New York that I was trying to pick up, and all of my other friends that don't understand cars) Because these guy's imagine, fabricate and test all of their products right in that shop, and the cars that were in the shop that day getting fit for exhaust proves they know what they are doing.

As soon as I walked through the doors, I knew I was in the right place (and in the wrong job)  Some of the owners cars were on display in the front lobby. Factory 930 slantnose in red, raced out 993 RS replica in white and Ferrari 458 in red were front and center, all fitted obviously with Fabspeed.

So, fast forward to the weekend when I started to install it on my car.

Step one. Remove old muffler. Sounds easy. Nope. 13 years of bolts rusting and heat cycling meant there was no way the nuts were coming off without a fight! Like a naive optimist, I thought a little penetrating oil and heat and elbow grease would do the trick.  I quickly gave up on that and opted for the grinder and air hammer to get the job done!  Here's what's left of them.

So, with the bolts out, just snipped the straps that were holding the muffler to the bracket (wasn't even going to waste my time with trying to undo the bolts) and off it came.

Looks like a hot dog!  Not nearly as nice as what I'm about to put on.

With the old muffler off, time to do some inspections. And good thing too! Found this disaster waiting to happen.

Cracked motor mount bracket. If you look closely, you can see whom ever tried to repair this first, just tack welded a little strip of sheet metal to both sides of the crack at the top.  LAME!  Gotta weld that shit.

It's not perfect, but it'll do for now.. until I drop the engine next winter for major service and do a proper repair while it's off the car.

So, they included this nice stainless steel bracket which the new muffler is supposed to attach to, and it's supposed to bolt to this motor mount bracket.. I don't see any holes.. do you see any holes?  After checking the 'ol interwebs, I found a nice picture of this piece in it's entirety (which I marked up) and realized the heat exchanger tube is in the way hiding the holes.  Yet another thing I have to take off!

Se, with everything out of the way, I was able to get the bracket installed.

Now, the rest should be like pie!

I'll post some pictures of the entire behind when I finally get it out of the garage if spring ever arrives.. And of course some video of how it sounds when I start it up for the first time in the spring.

Time to install the Rennline engine mount cross bar

Well, today was an eventful day.  I received my new Rennline stainless steel engine mount cross bar to replace the standard flimsy kaka bar that came on the 911, and took the day off to install it.

A little back history for you.  I was replacing the tired old motor mounts with some new sport mounts that came standard on the turbo, and while removing one of the main bolts, the bar cracked and bent at the narrowest point.

So, now that you know what's going on, back to the story.  The new bar I received is a real work of art.  This is the same bar that came on the prized 1973 Porsche 911 RSR.  I had the option of brushed stainless or painted red, and I thought the stainless would look nicer and be easier to clean.

The install seemed pretty straight forward, jack under motor, undo old broken part, install shiny new part, lower jack, clean up tools, drink beer.  Well, things didn't go according to plan, except for the first and last steps.

After completely breaking off the old piece, which was intentional, I was now ready to remove the 4 bolts which hold the bar to the motor.

As I'm always scared to severely cut myself (largely in part because seeing my own blood in large quantities makes me want to pass out) I took great care in positioning my hands and using restraint in... WOOPS, hand slipped and I sliced the top of my knuckle off.. CRAP.. on the first bolt too.  Well, better hurry up and wash this up and evaluate the damage before I end up taking an early unplanned siesta!

Hrmmm.. I can see cartilage.. is that bad?  I need to lay down.  Deep breaths... okay I'm good.

Decided to throw a band-aid on it and continue working, as my engine is precariously being held up by a hydraulic jack.

Hey, souvenir!

This time I used a much longer ratchet and put on gloves and was a lot more successful.  With the old piece completely detached, I was able to wiggle it out of the engine bay with little problem, but then it dawned on me that the old piece is a little shorter(because the end is broken off)  Now I'm starting to panic a little.  I don't think I'll be able to get the new part on without dropping the motor.  I'm not prepared to drop the motor today, or really any other day for that matter.

What I ended up having to do was lowering the motor about 8 inches, and I was able to wrestle the new piece in, with a hammer.  I'm almost done, I can see the finish line.  All I need to do is connect the bolts.  Why do I feel like Arya Stark in the Game of Thrones?

First bolt, dropped it.. it's somewhere under the crankshaft pulley.. CRAP!  Go get a magnet and fish it out.  20 minutes later finally get it and get the rest of the 4 engine bolts on.

Now onto the mounts. I get the passenger side on no problem.  Torque it up and move onto the driver side.  Start to tighten up the main bolt and as its getting tight, it starts to get looser, and is just spinning and spinning.. WTF?  The brand new bolt has stripped.  I was able to remove it and try another, but I'm already thinking that the threads on the nut are probably screwed too.  Yup, surely enough, I strip another bolt.

I have one more bolt left, but I think I'll hit up a buddy of mine to borrow his tap and die set to clean up the threads on the nut.

It'll have to wait for this weekend.. because I give up and it's time for beer!