We all know that Redbull gives you wings. But do we know for sure that aftermarket exhaust gives you additional horsepower.

I am getting ready to do PSE hack, but it seems that some aftermarket exhaust give you more horsepower. For example, fabspeed website claims 12-15hp gain on a 996.

Is it true? Has it been confirmed? I am all for extra horsepower, but if that is just a marketing crap? Should i still do PSE hack or should i consider getting an aftermarket exhaust to get a few extra horses?

And while we on the subject... when talking to alex @ sharkwerks this week (while getting my GIAC ECU done), alex mentioned that you have to be careful with some headers since you might actually LOOSE torque. Whats the story on that? Are there headers which are known to help and headers which are known to hurt? The fact that you can loose torque makes me very weary of changing out headers.

 

This subject had been talk, debate over and over again in many forums. Depend on you talk to on the subject. From a few HP gains to no gains at all. But most agreed on they upgraded for the sound & look of it.

You have to understand that with a exhaust mod. alone is not going to give you that big boost that you are looking for. You need to adds intake syst., ECU flashing, lightweight flywheel, big throttle body, etc...

 

well, i am definately getting upgrade for the sound and the fact that its a hack makes it so much cooler (hack is a cool thing in a computer field) -- however, what if there is exhaust out there that is confirmed to give you a dozen or two of HP and headers which are known to increase torque?

already got v-flow and ecu flashing.

 

I seriously doubt you'll feel any difference from just adding an exhaust. Email Fabspeed and ask for dyno charts. Adding headers will cause a loss of torque at the bottom end, but you'll pick up a few ponies on the top end. Most of us spend most of our time in the lower rev range so you have to decide if that will work for you. Get the mufflers for the sound. Believe us, there is not a lot of HP to be made on the 996 without adding a supercharger.
You got your car flashed and the v-flow. But if you didn't do a before and after dyno how do you know if these mods added HP? Sometimes better throttle response and more noise makes us think the car is faster.

 

in a word...NO....you will not see anything significant with mufflers on a 996 and while some say they have a free flow design and have less back pressure...they may actually lose power because our engines are designed with a certain amount of back pressure for max performance....so dont do it for power, do it for sound and if you want a performance gain, get lighter ones so you reduce the weight because the stock cans and PSE cans are heavy.

 

i can say after i added the exhaust the car doesnt seem to break loose anymore. i used to get 2nd and 3rd gear chirps after launch... now the torque band has moved higher... but it does sound super sweet cruising WOT on the 73 freeway!

 

I did this research about 6 month before and from my research and personal experience, the answer is NO, you will not get any significant or noticable HP increase from exhaust alone.

You "may" gain 1 or 2 additional HP at the loss of some low end torque, but an exhaust change alone is really only for sound.

To actually get any significant HP increase you will need these 3 things, Intake, Exhaust, and computer flash.

From my personal experience, I got my exhaust done and noticed no difference in HP. I went back to Sharkwerks and got the Evo intake and GIAC/Evo flash as well. The combination of the 3 proved to be what gives my car now the additional kick.

 

hi jay.. good to see you and I hate to be the party-pooper etc... Honestly whenever I've done exhaust/header combos before on 996s the gains have been minimal at best. We mostly do it for the sound... On cars that have software/intake etc... we've seen those gains but most of that is attributed to those mods. Figure from the right exhaust header combo you might get about 10-14crank at the most. Most of the headers, except those Suncoast ones loose torque...

 

hey alex, has anybody dyno'ed suncoast headers before? does suncoast simply transfer torque from lower band to upper band or does it add some torque throughout the full band?

should i just do suncoast headers for torque and PSE hack for sound and cheapness?

 

PSE is a really heavy system dude. The biggest change I noticed when I swapped my exhaust mufflers is how heavy the stock were vs. the aftermarket. The PSE is heavier than the stock.

 

i am not putting in PSE, i am doing a PSE hack. no weight change.

 

oh right, the one where they put the extra short curve tubes on the stock exhaust?

 

I was on renllist, and there were test for this hack between 99-01 vs 02-04 vs PSE... of course the other two stockers were compared to PSE the results were:
99-01 were only 35% louder than original
02-04 were only 75% louder than original
PSE is louder than both hacks

If you want to do the hack you should try to do it with the 02-04 mufflers...

 

02-04 mufflers won't fit in 99-01 cars though would they? 3.6L vs. 3.4L...

 

yeah, i read all the rennlist threads on this. 75% is good enough for me. i think its the best bang for the buck considering something like tubi will be close to 2K

the only thing i am debating on right now is:

1. remove my existing cans, do the hack, put them back in
vs.
2. buy used 3.6L cans, do the hack, swap for the originals, sell mine

plus it sounds cool saying "i hacked my exhaust"

the only reason i'd consider an aftermarket (GHL, AWE, Fabspeed) if it was proven to give me more HP/torque.