It is possible to do the install without raising the car. You need to remove the rear bumper which is also easy to do. After removing the rear bumper i had no problem and im not the fittest guy around

 

Sweet! Make sure you get pictures

 

That's a nice hint. How did you remove the bumpers? Is it easy to make it fit back? Is there any adjustment to be done on the exhaust system?

If I'm able to do it, definitely will take pictures for a write up. I went to a muffler store today and the buy went berserk when he saw the stock exhaust. Came with a million excuses and a salty appraisal of 200. I'm ok paying that if the person knows what to do, but this guy I would have to explain it myself, so perhaps he should be paying me for the training

Thanks in advance, reputation points for you!

 

Do any one knows if Fabspeed Cat Bypass voids warranty?

 

A dealer can void your exhaust warranty, but not the entire car.

 

I haven't done it myself with a 997.2 yet, but it's not difficult on a 997.1 and I assume there's not much difference, just the extra mid section to remove instead of cats that were in the same place on the 997.1.

Just get yourself a set of Rhino ramps and you don't have to remove the rear bumper.

 

It's really not that different from the 997.1. I tried by myself and actually accomplished it. It's not exactly difficult but certainly laborious.

I used this write up to get started. It's a DIY for the bumperettes, but it fits the purpose here. I used the blue tape on the pics just to make sure of the alignment afterward. Held the rear lights up so I wouldn't need to fiddle with more wiring, not really necessary in retrospect.

Removed the lateral mufflers first, front connections then the rear ones. Removed the bracket attached to the cat junction, that holds the lateral mufflers. A third screw is left behind at the cats, needed a little extra effort for it because it's a but deeper.

Then, removed the braces that hold the central muffler in place. Swing it a bit and will come right off.

Installing is pretty much the reverse, except for the tips with the distal connector (see pics). I re installed the bumper first before connecting the final part just to make sure it fits equally in both sides.

Screw it all back together and turn it on. Piece of advice: User proper tools, gloves (the heat shield cuts) and lots of WD-40.

The sound is amazing now. I got exactly what I wanted, at least idling... A deeper tone, definitely louder. With closed doors you can hear it still, much closer to the Boxster experience. A much less tamed car so far.
Unfortunately it's raining non stop here, so a clip will be coming soon. For now, take a look at the naked rear of a 911

Cheers!

 

Check out the Agency Power stainless steel finish, compare to the bulky dull original...

 

Few more details, brackets (core is reused), the muffler itself, heat shields

 

What I've HEARD (so it can be far from the truth) is that you void anything you mess with, obviously, but if you fiddle with the cats, you also void the engine warranty. That's not difficult to believe and understand, IMHO...

 

Nice job ! Bet it feels rewarding after you do the install yourself

In my experience warranty varies from dealer to dealer. The dealership in dubai will void your warranty on ANYTHING even catback mufflers. But ive heard that some dealers in the US actually install mufflers themselves so its a bit confusing and policies vary so check with your own dealer.

 

Indeed it feels rewarding, specially when there is no apparent screw up.
I'm carrying the bruises and cuts, not to mention the physical pain as rewards...

Good point on the warranty issue. Given they have different approaches, I think it depends how much they want your business to void or not your warranty. I personally dont take my chances messing with cats, although I wanted to.
They clearly could do a better job on the stock headers on the 997.2; I think they dont do it on purpose, it wuld make it too close to other more expensive models and they would miss a market opportunnity to call the engine "upgraded" in the future.

 

I just flashed my 997.2 3.6L DFI with the softronic file.

The uploading was smooth, it took about 20 minutes. I followed all the instructions, including power source for the laptop and car, turning off all the background useless software (i.e. anti virus, scree saver etc) and was very careful with the cable maneuvering.

After some code cleaning and a couple of scary messages, the car is running fine. The code cleaning is not particularly difficult, but some DFI and PDK codes are fairly stubborn and one might need to manually clear them, one by one. It's quick and not difficult at all. By leaving the car it off for awhile it finished clearing the codes for good. The sport and sport plus were dead right after the flash, after the cool off, came back to life. No dreaded red “reduced engine power” anymore or emergency traction message.

Interesting how the car behaves now. It seems to have more torque in low revs having the PDK end up in a higher gear than I would expect for some places in my daily commute. How knows, it might also save gas if one drives nicely (which is crazy talk, I know).

In 7th gear on highway, it seems smarter from 60-70, typical pass maneuver. The real gain would be measured by a Dyno, what I can talk about here is perception. Also, in the city when it comes to a quick stop, the PDK drops more often to 2nd instead of 1st gear, accelerates back w/o a problem, but that needs more driving time to make sure.

This is a nice product, some might say it's not worth the money, but notice this: The Porsche DFI cars are close to 100 cv/liter. This is the benchmark for high performance cars, yanking more hp from this engine without forced induction is really hard. Recently I had my high pressure fuel pump replaced under warranty. The receipt stated a total of US$ 1500 in costs, so I really want to keep my warranty. By having the original file to flash it back to stock, I should not have a problem in this area. Replacing the cats and headers would probably yield an even better result, but you can kiss your warranty bye bye, same for forced induction. So, IMHO, I thought the best compromise with upgraded performance and maintenance of the majority of my warranty was an exhaust system (with central muffler delete) with flash tunning. Both are reversible but the exhaust theoretically voids the warranty of that segment only, so no worries there (I hope).

I'll try to update as I get more acclimated to the changes...
I have some pics of the code cleaning to post as well.

PS- One thing I noticed for longer now, there is a palpable increase in power by using the aftermarket exhaust. I know that due to a small straight that I exercise the right pedal everyday on my commute and the final speed is clearly increased. It also seems to gain rpm better, revving quicker, but that distinction is somewhat difficult in these high performance engines. With the exhaust my mileage did not increase at all for the last 2 weeks, same 25 mpg mixed city/highway, if that matters...

 

Great review!

 

Any video?