if someone did this setup (just these things) and left the stock mufflers, what is the ~ HP gain one could expect?

 

Even if you do all of those mods - 20-30hp is pretty tough to discern on the butt dyno.

 

all I know is all the reading of performance mods and numbers don't add up to me. I read the description of the X51 package that costs like 16k on the Porsche site and only takes the car from 385 HP to 408 HP. "engine upgrade to 408 hp. Comprised of modified cylinder heads, carbon-fiber air filter casing (upper part), new variable resonance intake manifold with six tuning flaps, sports exhaust system featuring specially designed twin dual-tube tailpipes and modified engine management. Note: also available in conjunction with PDK." All that money and tweaks for only 23 HP!!!! craziness and also shows how little something like one mod will add to me.

 

This has been discussed on this site so many times. There should be a lot of info. buried within all the threads. There is some HP to be gained, but like already stated it is minimal. Many people do the exhaust mods. for a more exotic sound as well as get that minimal HP gain.

 

One thing is for certain, the numbers (408 HP) stated by Porsche are true. No offense to any vendor. I can not simply believe you can achieve 30 HP just by flashing your ECU...

One thing missing in the X51 Package is a proper Exhaust set-up due to emission and noise level issues. If you put some decent Headers, Cats & Mufflers on a X51 engine you can probably get another 20 HP

 

IMO I think the X51 headers are decent (I think others would agree).

 

It is decent, I apologize for the poor choice of word. I think it could be better none the less...

 

use the search tool and there is a lot of post for you to read from and if you have any question all the members are here to help, but in general i wouldn't do this for power as it's really minimal I have done them all on my car just for sound

 

As others have said, you need to search and learn. You cannot just add the numbers from each item together, it doesn't work that way. But the biggest place to gain is the cats and Porsche cannot tamper with those (but we consumers can). So while they may take $8k of extras to get 25 HP, you could get there with much less expense and without touching internals. Another area is the software. Porsche has to do it a certain way to meet certain requirements (ie: to account for owners that use 87 octane - and they are out there). So to do X51 headers, AWE cats, stock mufflers, and Softronic you can get significant gains. I don't bother with dynos - too many variables and you could test 1 day and get very different results (stock and modified) as you would the next. I go by consistent results on the track and what telemetry tells me and how I'm "different" than the guys I've been driving with for years. And the X51 / AWE cat / Softronic really did make a difference. Is it 20, 25, or 30 HP / TQ? Who knows and honestly who cares? If this is a street car, I wouldn't bother with doing anything - I did it all for track performance where 1/10th makes a difference. But I will say the smoother curve / map of the Softronic is definitely worthwhile vs. the "hesitation" I had with stock that we all dealt with. So if I was debating between SC and Softronic (both about the same $), it would be Softronic hands down.

 

do you have to do the Softronic last if you are going to modify the exhaust? I know nothing, but I was thinking that you need to have all the other mods done first for the software to pull it all together correctly.

 

im just learning about the available mods on our cars and it appears that the marginal cost/benefit isnt that good. So, if one want more preformance, then why not just get a TT, GT2, or GT3?

 

When I did the Softronic flash I was asked for all my mods, so i assume there's some merit to doing all (or as many) of your changes prior to ordering the Softronic kit

 

The first is the cost factor, upgrading is expensive. You have to pay the difference on a higher performing car, and then you loose money on your already purchased car.

Then there is the daily driving problem, people usually don't think GT3s and GT2s are good DD cars.

So there are the 2 main problems with upgrading your car

 

I really don't think it matters what order you do things in. Everything adds up incrementally in the end.

 

can you tell by looking at the AWE cats that they are different? Meaning, would it be entirely obvious to a mechanic they were not the Porsche cats?