For anybody contemplating a header purchase, I offer my experience in hopes that it will be of some help to you. As I usually do, I did plenty of research on the various header options available before I was comfortable selecting the manufacturer for my purchase. My final selection seemed even more significant in light of the old reports of cat failures from one manufacturer and then the more recent rash of cat failures from yet another manufacturer.
My preliminary research led me to the Cargraphic system but I was quite put off by the high price. When I pressed the nice gentlemen at Road Sport Supply to justify the cost difference I learned the following: 1) The complete header system (including the flanges) is constructed from T-304 stainless steel which best tolerates the thermal cycles. 2) Compared to other systems, Cargraphic has the most equal length mandrel bent primaries available and feature a fully spliced collector with an internal spike (not found in all other headers) for maximum flow and smoother power delivery. 3) The construction process includes a special wrapping and soldering process of steel web inside the catalytic converter carrier that is exclusive to Cargraphic (this is why Cargraphic hasn't had a single cat failure on a Cayman system to date). 4) The catalytic converters are tri-metal, custom coated beyond the industry standard with platinum, rhodium and palladium (they tell me that the cats cost the manufacturer $1000 each). 5) These 200 cell cats ensure great flow and sound without the dreaded check engine light, are OBD2 compliant (and TUV certified in Europe) and retains all factory sensor positions. 5) On the dyno at Parr Tuning in the UK, their complete system (with cat-back exhaust) improved HP from a baseline 290.96 up to 316.01 (for a 25.05 gain) and torque from a baseline 253.98 up to 282.52 ( for a 28.54 gain). This is certainly as good or better than the results I've read about from others.
I installed my headers and love the extra power all over but particularly from 5,000 RPM and my check engine light hasn't fussed. For my cat-back selection, I'm going to wait it out a bit to see if a new system from a trusted manufacturer materializes as rumor suggests and compare it two the two soon to be three systems that Cargraphic offers as well as others.
Regards,
Joe
A couple of notes and likely inaccuracies:
1) 200 cel cats WILL trip your check engine light unless you have a European car or ECU tuning. You can probably make it trip by turning on your A/C and going for a 30 minute drive in traffic.
2) It would be nice to know Cargraphic header sales numbers for Caymans, I've never run across another Cayman with them on before, so the lack of cat failure "could" be related to the lack of cars running them and/or running them hard such as on the track.
I'm not saying there is anything wrong with their headers, may be great headers, but some of what you've gotten from them isn't much better than marketing fluff.
Please let us know how these do long term and I wish you would have dyno'd your car before and after so we would have had an independent report.
Hello Ken,
I appreciate your comments however I have already driven my CS in 95+ degree congested city traffic a few times and no CEL! When you and I last conversed in advance of my header install, you mentioned that should expect to trip the CEL. This concerned me so I questioned Road Sport Supply about it; they assured me that all cats aren't created equally and that they haven't seen one Cayman trip a CEL yet. They explained that the term 200 cell only indicates the cats capacity for flow but that the premium tri-metal coatings used in Cargraphic's cats convert the exhaust so thoroughly that the CEL never comes on. They reminded me that their header's cats are OBDII compliant and that Cargraphic's specification for their cats even exceeds the ones used by HJS. These are very high quality headers, exactly what I wanted to maintain the integrity of my high quality Porsche!
Now if you still believe what I received was marketing fluff, I would appreciate the next time you are talking with Greg at Road Sport Supply if you would discuss with him your doubts or concerns.
Regards,
Joe
