Exhaust suggestions - stock/HO

[johnunit]

yep, that's exactly what I meant when I said you had to pick the ones with the air tubes. Those are pretty much the same cats but with air tubes, and what you need if you're running a smog pump.

[88Vic]

Are you gonna keep the stock cats/downpipes? You can unbolt it from the manifolds and have a shop make catless (or with 2 universals) downpipes and put the stockers back in if necessary. Is that the plan?

I want to do something similar to that when I delete my smog stuff. I'm running only my cats now, no mufflers so I want to go catless and run a set of cheapo turbo mufflers. That should flow a bit better and I can scrap the cats for a lot of cash, plus never worry about cats clogging again.

[Stealthlead]

Are you gonna keep the stock cats/downpipes? You can unbolt it from the manifolds and have a shop make catless (or with 2 universals) downpipes and put the stockers back in if necessary. Is that the plan?

I want to do something similar to that when I delete my smog stuff. I'm running only my cats now, no mufflers so I want to go catless and run a set of cheapo turbo mufflers. That should flow a bit better and I can scrap the cats for a lot of cash, plus never worry about cats clogging again.

My plan is to get rid of the cats and get current generation ones, lol. Once I realized why I have four cats and that the components are now combined into one, I found it to be pretty silly to have four. Also, keeping my stock cats/downpipes would defeat the entire purpose of all the work I have had done so far (which is essentially to have a true 2.5" system throughout, to allow greater exhaust flow). I suspect I will get much better performance once the headers are installed, the piping between the headers/cats/midpipe is installed, and the new cats are installed. My thoughts behind this are because obviously the headers allow for greater flow, bigger pipes means greater flow, and getting new cats (although not super necessary) might allow for even better flow as my current cats are pretty old and could very well be a tad bit clogged up. Like I said, its not super necessary for me to do any more work. However, I could never live with myself knowing I have a 20% 2.25" & 80% 2.5" system, lol.

There is definitely a noticeable strained sound which I suspect is because the upper portion of my exhaust is not yet complete. In other words, I think my system is currently under its full potential.

Unfortunately, no matter how much I personally want to get rid of the smog pump/cats, I cannot for nearly another decade until this is considered a classic automobile. Honestly speaking, the primary and secondary air injection system (aka the smog system) actually seems very relevant to the catalytic converters function as I was reading about here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_air_injection

On a side note, for all of you who are interested in the sound, my resonance and drone seems to have noticeably cleared up. The system itself seems quieter compared to the first day, and is not quite as loud and raspy. Its a bit more smooth, and the idle sounds even better. I'm very sure the installation of headers/rest of the system will add to the tone of the sound. Also, I absolutely LOVE how the cherrybombs 'growl' sometimes on the deceleration. I remember reading somewhere of somebody saying they hate that, but I LOVE it. I guess its an acquired sound for some people.

Keep in mind I'm still pretty new to this, and still learning a lot. Some of what I said could very well be wrong. I'll go ahead and order those cats I listed and get this system finished hopefully by the end of next week!

[88Vic]

I'm happy with my exhaust, all stock duals with no mufflers. It was a massive improvement from single with a stock style muffler. Eventually I want to do what I said, get rid of all cats and run turbo mufflers but it can wait, with no mufflers at all it flows well enough for the stock lopo, I don't plan on doing any engine work since the lopo runs perfect as-is and I don't want to mess that up, so all i'm doing is getting rid of restrictions like smog, cats and stock exhaust parts. My goal is the best mileage I can squeeze while getting a little more power with it.

[sxcpotatoes]

You should get some vids/sound of various stages before/after cats/headers etc.

[Stealthlead]

Well I was just out there for a few hours seeing just how tough this will be. Its going to be pretty bad, for the passenger side I had to remove the smog pump unit where the tubes meet, and at the very least remove the a/c compressor. At least my system isn't charged! The really hard part will be unbolted the manifolds from the exhaust pipes. I'm considering installing the headers and then having it towed to the shop. ionno yet

trying to get camera to work..

[86VickyLX]

Well I was just out there for a few hours seeing just how tough this will be. Its going to be pretty bad, for the passenger side I had to remove the smog pump unit where the tubes meet, and at the very least remove the a/c compressor. At least my system isn't charged! The really hard part will be unbolted the manifolds from the exhaust pipes. I'm considering installing the headers and then having it towed to the shop. ionno yet

trying to get camera to work..

You don't have to remove the ac compressor to replace your exhaust. I fit my headers in my vic with the ac and the smog pump in place.

[johnunit]

What he said^

[jaywish]

You can drive the car with only the headers. Just make sure the pipes are tied up well. If the manifold to exhaust bolts do not want to loosen, cut or break them as the shop will not need to reuse them.

[Stealthlead]

How in the hell did you guys do this without removing the ac compressor? I didn't mean the smog pump itself, just the tubing that runs along the manifold

[86VickyLX]

How in the hell did you guys do this without removing the ac compressor? I didn't mean the smog pump itself, just the tubing that runs along the manifold

Simple just goes in lol. Had the pump in place. Only thing I did was remove smog pump plumbing.

[86VickyLX]

all in place..
but nothing beats installing...
the drivers side

[Stealthlead]

Hmmm, very nice, thanks for the pics. The spark plug sleeves are a nice touch too. Yea, I could do the driver side in probably 15 minutes haha. But I'm surprised you didn't even take off the upper intake... well if you could do it I can too :P I need to get a good angle to get the manifold to pipe bolts off, that's the most awkward. How bad would it be to drive with only the headers hooked up? Its a 20 minute drive on the freeway for me. Also would I just like tape the O2 sensors somewhere? I guess my arms are just a bit bigger than your guys'

Oh, and these just came in;

[86VickyLX]

Why would you take off the upper intake?

[Stealthlead]

Why would you take off the upper intake?

Because it was getting a bit in the way, I have the stock lopo on there still. I'll take a pic tomorrow and show you what I'm talking about.