AWE exhaust installed - installation photos and impressions
Got my package from AWE yesterday, and could not wait so I installed it last nite. The brief sequence on the procedure:
A)Removal of stock system
1)jack up rear of car
2)remove taillights
3)remove license plate, rear bumper
4)remove rear inner fender liners
5)remove intercoolers
6)remove rear heat shield and bend side heat shields
7)carefully remove nuts from turbo turbine housing studs
8)remove O2 sensors
9)loosen rear muffler clamps and disengage from brackets
10)remove exhaust as a whole
B)Installation is sort of reverse, but with some tricks
1)pre-tighten muffler clamps onto the AWE exhaust (bolts barely are long enough and clamps need to be "shaped" thru tensioning to fit correctly
2)then remove clamps and engage them on the exhaust brackets without the exhaust
3)install 1 cat (I chose drivers) and then loosely fit the (drivers) muffler to that
4)loosely fit the other cat and muffler into place - since everything is a slip-fit, you have to leave some wiggle room to get the next cat and muffler to engage both the turbo studs and the opposite muffer at the same time.
C)Problems - I did have one stud at the turbine housing break and had to:
1)attempt drilling it for an easy-out
2)broke easy out off inside the broken stud
3)broke 3 drill bits trying to drill out the easy out
4)removed the turbo - 5 oil and water lines to remove, 1 vacuum line, 1 bracket, 3 more troublesome nuts at the header flange, 1 air inlet hose
5)took turbocharger to specialty welder, who built up a nub using a TIG welder to the broken stud, then torqued it out with a vice grip and then chased the threads. Took him all of 2 minutes. This guy is my new "favorite person"!!
6)re-installed the turbo
7)re-installed the exhaust
D)Lesson learned: be very careful with the exhaust studs - they are very, very weak on this car. Even using PB Blaster/ liquid wrench I had problems with 3 of the 8 studs and had to chase all the thread holes with an M8x1.25 tap and clean all the studs using the corresponding die tool.
E)Impressions/summary
1)at idle, much deeper and a slight growl. Very reminscent of a 993 with motorsound
2)throttle response is sharpened tremendously, especially in non-sport mode. The motor responsiveness now is closer to the sport level
3)MORE BOOST!!!! I saw at least a couple more # of boost in non-sport, perhaps another # peak in sport mode. Difference is also that the boost hits earlier (2-300 rpm) and the peak is wider than before. Imagine it as "Sport II"
4)very little to no resonance at cruising speeds
If I had to summarize the nature of the AWE exhaust, I would say it is the way the car should have come. It is not a whole lot louder than stock, and it has more of a menacing tone than the "Dyson". You would not be embarrassed at all driving this into a church parking lot. It truly adds some much needed character to the powertrain. It still won't enthrall the way a Gallardo does but the disappointment is surely gone. It takes the tt from a 3/10 to about a 7.5/10 in terms of exhaust.
A)Removal of stock system
1)jack up rear of car
2)remove taillights
3)remove license plate, rear bumper
4)remove rear inner fender liners
5)remove intercoolers
6)remove rear heat shield and bend side heat shields
7)carefully remove nuts from turbo turbine housing studs
8)remove O2 sensors
9)loosen rear muffler clamps and disengage from brackets
10)remove exhaust as a whole
B)Installation is sort of reverse, but with some tricks
1)pre-tighten muffler clamps onto the AWE exhaust (bolts barely are long enough and clamps need to be "shaped" thru tensioning to fit correctly
2)then remove clamps and engage them on the exhaust brackets without the exhaust
3)install 1 cat (I chose drivers) and then loosely fit the (drivers) muffler to that
4)loosely fit the other cat and muffler into place - since everything is a slip-fit, you have to leave some wiggle room to get the next cat and muffler to engage both the turbo studs and the opposite muffer at the same time.
C)Problems - I did have one stud at the turbine housing break and had to:
1)attempt drilling it for an easy-out
2)broke easy out off inside the broken stud
3)broke 3 drill bits trying to drill out the easy out
4)removed the turbo - 5 oil and water lines to remove, 1 vacuum line, 1 bracket, 3 more troublesome nuts at the header flange, 1 air inlet hose
5)took turbocharger to specialty welder, who built up a nub using a TIG welder to the broken stud, then torqued it out with a vice grip and then chased the threads. Took him all of 2 minutes. This guy is my new "favorite person"!!
6)re-installed the turbo
7)re-installed the exhaust
D)Lesson learned: be very careful with the exhaust studs - they are very, very weak on this car. Even using PB Blaster/ liquid wrench I had problems with 3 of the 8 studs and had to chase all the thread holes with an M8x1.25 tap and clean all the studs using the corresponding die tool.
E)Impressions/summary
1)at idle, much deeper and a slight growl. Very reminscent of a 993 with motorsound
2)throttle response is sharpened tremendously, especially in non-sport mode. The motor responsiveness now is closer to the sport level
3)MORE BOOST!!!! I saw at least a couple more # of boost in non-sport, perhaps another # peak in sport mode. Difference is also that the boost hits earlier (2-300 rpm) and the peak is wider than before. Imagine it as "Sport II"
4)very little to no resonance at cruising speeds
If I had to summarize the nature of the AWE exhaust, I would say it is the way the car should have come. It is not a whole lot louder than stock, and it has more of a menacing tone than the "Dyson". You would not be embarrassed at all driving this into a church parking lot. It truly adds some much needed character to the powertrain. It still won't enthrall the way a Gallardo does but the disappointment is surely gone. It takes the tt from a 3/10 to about a 7.5/10 in terms of exhaust.