Thoughts on new exhaust - 4th F-Body

Dark Fox · January 5th, 2011, 01:27 PM

I've been thinking about changing out the stock exhaust for an aftermarket exhaust, probably Magnaflow, for a while now. Trouble is that I'm having problems with one of my catalytic converters right now, and it's effecting my mileage. So I figured that I should get a new exhaust system, change out both cats for their high-flow counterparts, and finish off with a set of headers. That was until I recently looked at some headers that looked like they took the cats out of the equation. Now that can save me some money, but I don't want to do something to my car without knowing the full effects. So here's my question. Should I find a set of short headers and a pair of high-flow cats to go with the exhaust system, or should I go with a set of long headers and forget the cats altogether?

youngrigo aka NVEEOUS · January 5th, 2011, 02:57 PM

TSP sells a catted Y for long tubes......

Yurview · January 5th, 2011, 03:39 PM

If u don't Have to have cats, I'd go the route without em. Cheaper, better performance, and better sound.

PNISSHR · January 5th, 2011, 10:39 PM

Yeah man we dont need the cats here in florida. I would just do long tubes off road y and a magnaflow cat back.

PNISSHR · January 5th, 2011, 10:41 PM

make sure to get the rear o2 sims though since there will be no cats, or you can always get them tuned out as well.

firebirdmuscle · January 6th, 2011, 10:53 PM

long tubes, shorty headers will have minimum gain over stock manifolds. get the long tubes, you'll regret if you dont. tsp catted y pipe and your set with whatever catback you choose since your talking about using a muffler and not true duals.

PNISSHR · January 7th, 2011, 01:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by firebirdmuscle

long tubes, shorty headers will have minimum gain over stock manifolds. get the long tubes, you'll regret if you dont. tsp catted y pipe and your set with whatever catback you choose since your talking about using a muffler and not true duals.

I agree, shorty headers are a waste of money imo.

Dark Fox · January 7th, 2011, 02:34 AM

I appreciate the thoughts from everyone, and yes, I am looking for better sound and performance. The thing is that I'm worried about gas mileage, especially in this day and age. I want to know how much my mileage will be effected depending on having cats or not. Before one of the cats was sending bad signals to my sensor, my car's average range was 300 miles both city and highway combined. Now, it's only around 230 miles. For me, that small difference in mileage does add up, especially in this freaking city. PNISSHR's suggestion for either getting sims for the rear O2 sensors, or just turning them off, looks like something I would have to do anyway, but I appreciate him bringing it up. Nevertheless, it will be a good while before I begin doing this anyway.