atmorris

Yes, the rear speakers are definately worth it. Addition of them makes a HUGE difference in the soundfield in the car.

Hey, that's what almost any of us would have done as well. :) The cylinder wall distortion may or may not have had anything to do with the blown HG, but for the money you had in it, and at 126k on a 2.5L, what the heck. Your probably good for a long, long time now. Enjoy !

Sounds sweet Luis. :thumbup:

I know about that mod. That isn't what I am after. The newer style PSE is built differently. Thanks for the info though.

Is there anyone here who has cut a stock boxster muffler open, or seen one open, and can give me an idea how it is constructed inside? I want to try to convert a stock '03 muffler to a new style PSE (not the Pedro mod thing..) The newer style PSE looks to have 1 1/2'" bypass pipes that run from the muffler bottom, immediately under the inlet area, back up and around the back of the muffler, and appear to be outletting somewhere into the upper half of the muffler in back. I am assuming that it is outletting the bypass pipe into an area that is located in an outlet chamber. I want to try and figure out where that might be on the back upper part of the muffler.... anyone ?

Yea, the "bonnet" is usually the engine cover (USA=hood). Wonder how that works with a Boxster ? :P

Luis, What size/wall thickness are the bypass pipes you used?

I have a stock 03 exhaust I took off recently and would be willing to try this, if someone who knows the inside of the stock muffler well enough can give me an idea where to drill the holes for the bypass pipes' outlet ends. I'm sure they are rerouting a portion of the raw exhaust from the inlet area to a forward chamber and out. A4EP...can you tell me where those bypass pipes are outletting? It looks like maybe above the seam in the back side of the muffler, maybe 6 or 8 inches in from the side ? BTW....I put on the Top Speed (Che) style exhaust and it has a very nice "bark" and tone. Quite close to the 911. It does have some, not a lot - but some, resonance between 2500 and 3000 revs though.

Hey, get it right you guys. It's a boot lid (or boot cover). :P American cars have trunks. European cars have boots.

Once I relearn the limits, I'll try the 2# offset and see how it feels. I'm definately ready for some DE fun now. I think I missed LimeRock, but I'll be ready for the Glenn later this year. :thumbup:

sounds like you have it dialed in! pretty serious difference, eh? i think that's how they should have built the car to begin with. what are your tire pressures? I'd have to agree. It makes the stock US suspension seem "sloppy" if you can believe that (but of course you know what I'm saying...). Right now pressures are at 30 all the way around. Pirelli P Zero's - stock sizes - on M411 18" Lt Alloy Carrera Wheels.

glad you're enjoying it. my impressions are similar. i also think that the RoW lowers the car a bit more than advertised. they say it's 2cm up front and 1cm in back; i think it's closer to 3cm / 2cm. what will you be aligning to? i ran -1.6 up front for awhile on the street; it's showing slightly uneven wear (wearing the insides). i think -1.0 might be better for the street in terms of tire life. i notched my strut towers so i can quicly set it to -1.0 for street and -1.6 for the track. Well, after talking with Mike at Powertech, we kind of arrived at a set of settings very close to your suggestions. These settings are based on street tires being used even if I do an AX or DE or two. We set it up to: Fronts: -1.2 deg camber; 1/32" total toe Rears: -2.0 deg camber; 1/32" total toe Pressures: 30 psi. We added the front toe to minimize railroad tracking and because Mike was very convicted in his belief that the tires require a minimal amount of preload. Mike has been racing since he was a kid, so I put faith in his experience. Driving around last night, it became quickly apparent that I wasn't going to be dissapointed. It turns in crisper, and stays absolutely flat. Transition in switchbacks or "S" bends is so minor that it is virtually non-existant from the driver seat. There were a couple of times (with clear road and no one around..) that my eyes got beady and the adrenaline was pumping, because I was absolutely convinced I was entering a turn too hot, and the car didn't even sneeze....most impressive drive I have ever taken....yet totally inside the envelope. I can't wait to get this on a track. The only "down side" to this suspension change is that you have to learn the limits all over again.... :drive: For others out there considering which improvements get you the most bang for the buck, I can honestly say that, other than DE's and improving the driver, the ROW M030 is hands down the best money I have spent to date. I would put it at #1 on my list of "to do" mods.

OK, I took it out for a test drive this weekend. The right rear was visably high on toe in after reassembly, while the left remained unchanged. Not sure if the right was that bad before I disassembled, or if something in my reassembly sequence changed it. Anyway, I saw that it was obviously out of wack, so I adjusted it as best I could before I took the car off the stands. Apparently I didn't do too bad a job with the toe adjustment as it tracks pretty well. I have an appointment to get it aligned this afternoon at Powertech. None of the local alignment shops would set it up to anything but factory specs, if they would even do a Porsche at all. Luckily, I only live about 1/2 hour away from Powertech, so they get the nod. My Initial impressions after a couple of test rides this weekend are that the ROW M030 under everyday driving conditions has a slightly stiffer ride, hardly noticable though really (My wife can't tell the difference). However, it's when you start "playing" that it really shows its stuff. I don't even have the alignment done yet ,and I can already see that it is an impressive difference. The car remains noticably flatter, something that is impressive given the ability of this car to corner pretty darn flat to start with. Turn in is sharper as well. Since the alignment has not been done, I have not REALLY pushed it to see what it can do yet, but I have played enough to know it is going to be impressive - to say the least. While I did not take before and after measurements, my car appears to be noticably lower - especially the front as expected, but the back appears to be visibly lower as well. It may be an optical illusion, but the back appears to me to have dropped close to an inch, and the front maybe 1 1/2". I really like the look.

i've heard control arm, upper control arm, diagonal, trailing link and track arm. to me, there is no upper control arm on a car with mcpherson struts. a trailing arm should TRAIL. diagonal or track arm is probably best i think. btw, how do you like the 030 so far? Have not had time to finish it up yet so I can take a test drive. Wife keeps scheduling crap and I can't get it done. I should finish it up tonight. Fronts are done. Swaybars are done. Pass side rear is in and just needs to be buttoned up. Driver side rear is all loose just have to mark and remove the lower control arm. Maybe 1 or 2 hours work left. Can't get it aligned until early next week. Unless it's really driving badly though, I'll probably get it out for a test drive this weekend sometime. Also, I meant to ask you - I recall something posted here one time about someone tightening down everything with the suspension fully unloaded and then having the back end sitting way too high until they loosened and retightened everything. Do you normally need to jack up the hub a bit before tightening the lower control arms to prevent this if the car is up on jackstands ? Andy

i'm still confused by what to call it myself. the toe control arms are called 'toe steer control arms'. the 'lower control arm' is the one with the ball joint. the upper control arm, AKA trailing arm (it's really neither 'upper' or 'trailing') connects the lower control arm to the chassis. it sounds like you didn't mess with the chassis side of either one. you should be fine. Seems like no one else is too sure what to call them either. The parts diagrams I have refer to both as simply control arms. My shop manual calls them the "lower control arm" and the "diagonal arm".

glad it worked out for you. did you remove the upper control arms from the chassis, or did you just unbolt them from the lower control arms? i ask because if you removed them from the chassis, you probably threw off your toe a bit. alignment isn't seriously pressing if the car drives ok, but i'd get it done soon none the less. it's doable. what you have to do is loosen the ball joint nut until it hits the CV joint. then, split the ball joint with a pickle fork. now the nut can be removed. it's a pain in the butt. much easier to remove the control arm from the subframe. Not sure which is considered the "upper control arm". I assume that the UCA is the control arm that controls the toe, I unbolted and split the ball joint from the hub side and didn't touch the chassis side of that arm. The diagonal arm, I disconnected from the LCA and didn't disturb the chassis side.

That cat would most assuredly be needing to use #2 of his 9 lives if he did that to my top. I'd get some pics too, and make sure his owner feels your pain through his wallet as well. I feel for you man.....

I can't answer why, but mine does the same thing any time I haven't driven the car for a couple of days. I can't unlock the doors or the trunks with the button, but I can unlock the door with the key, then push the lock/unlock or the trunk buttons and it will start working again. I always thought that it was because I'd keep the key in my pocket all the time (16 YO boy at home...) and probably was activating the lock/unlock button in my pocket - away from the car, but it does the same exact thing if I leave the key in a drawer for a few days. Thought it was the batteries - nope. Did the shimming "fix" I read about on one of the boards somewhere - nope. Finally gave up trying to figure it out.

good for stopping. a couple of posts ago i listed some tricks for the M030 jobl. one was to NOT split the ball joints. instead, remove the control arms from the chassis. that way, the entire arm with the ball joint and knuckle all come off together. this way, you don't have trouble clearing the halfshafts, you don't rip the boots, etc. let me know if you run into any other issues. Worked like a charm insite. Your right, this is a much easier way. Am I correct in assuming that, as long as the eccentrics are put back in the positions that I marked, the current alignment will remain essentially the same, or does the geometry change significantly with the ROW M030 parts anyway ? Trying to get a feel for how urgent getting it to the alignment shop will be. The weekend is looking like I might want to drive it a little and I probably won't be able to get it into the shop for alignment until next week some time. .....and for the record, I double checked last night - and there is NO WAY on my '03, that that nut is coming off the lower control arm ball joint with the half shaft in place on the hub side.

Ahhh...Harvey satisfies yet another Boxster owner. Welcome to the club. I agree - HUGE difference.

Yes, that's the mod I was referring to. I have seen a lot of positive comments on it. Based on what you are looking for, that's probably a good place to start. Inexpensive, a moderate change, little or no impact to powerband, etc.

That's a tough ask. Almost anything you do to significantly alter the sound is going to result in the exhaust being, or seeming, noticably louder. In a cabrio, even a little louder is VERY noticable. There is very little between you and the sound after all. For example, I recently installed headers and a muffler manufactured by iA. The muffler design is very similar to the ones advertised on eBay for $800 - $900, or sold on www.topspeedauto.com for $800. I am undecided on whether I will keep it or not. It sounds B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L, especially from the outside of the car. It has a very throaty rumble at idle, and sounds just plain BAD (in a good way) when I get on the throttle. In that respect I got exactly what I wanted. The trade off however, is that the exhaust is noticably louder from inside the car. Top up / top down doesn't matter, it sounds the same. Now, I expected it to be louder, I'm just not sure that I expected it to be so noticable from inside the car. You can still conduct a conversation in a normal tone of voice, so it isn't THAT loud, but it is low frequency tone and believe me is IS noticable. I think that a lot of people mistake this for resonance, it isn't. Resonance is a strong sonic effect that produces vibration as well as sound and occurs only under specific conditions. This is just a deep, rich, exhaust tone and it takes some getting used to. There is an exhaust mod you can do to your stock muffler that might be closest to what you are looking for. It is inexpensive, and sounds a lot like the PSE according to the writeups I have seen. It involves running a set of mandrel bent 1" SS tubes from the muffler inlet tubes, around to the sides, or top, of the muffler outlet. In escence your just allowing a small portion of the raw exhaust to exit without passing all the way through the muffler. I'm not sure that this significantly changes the back pressure picture one way or the other, but it does accomplish a slightly throatier exhaust note without introducing any resonance issues. Whether or not it is enough of a sound change depends on what you are after. Keep in mind that the addition (or not) of headers will add to the sound changes as well. Take your time researching it. Try to find cars that have the equipment your interested in, that way maybe you can hear the setup first hand, and maybe even be able to arrange a checkout ride. Good luck in your quest. :thumbup:

Ran into a little snag with the rear suspension when removing the stock struts to put the ROW M030 parts on. The ball joint nut for the lower control arm does not seem to want to clear the halfshaft housing to come off. I tried jacking up the hub to change the angle, but it still wouldn't clear with the half shaft roughly straight out. Maybe I didn't go up high enough, but I realized a second issue was going to be a problem....even if I get the nut off, the ball joint tool I have (the recommended Porsche type) is not going to be able to sit correctly over the top of the ball joint stud - the arm is too thick. I could use a splitting fork, but I have read that they don't work all that well on the Porsche's and often tear the boot resulting in a new lower control arm. I don't want that. Thought this would be a good point to stop and ask for advice. SO...how about it, any advice guys? Any tricks I need to know ?

Thanks insite...your experience/advise has been a huge help with this.

Insite, This weekend looks like crappy weather and a good one to put my car back up on the stands and put the ROW M030 suspension on. Can you give me some tips on doing a rough alignment in the garage so it's not too bad to drive to the alignment shop? What would I need ? Any tips on the best way to measure for toe-in, etc...... Andy