I'm trying to keep the resonator mainly to keep the drone down and keep the rasp out of the exhaust. From what I've read on here there isn't much for the 3400, and I'm not trying to go for performance. Kind of an expensive upgrade just for a look, I agree, but it is all what we want in our own vehicle.

Driving through Cleveland for work, I can't complain here in Kansas. Haha each car is different, I just feel like an upgrade for a car I plan on keeping for a long time is worth the cost. To each his own.

 

You won't miss the res on the 3400 one bit. We removed it from my wife's 3400 on her '05 Impala (which is the same setup as your 3400 Monte). Honestly, I don't think you can tell a difference in the sound.
From performance, it made more of a difference on my 3800 powered Monte then it did on the 3400 Impala.
Either way, a piece of pipe is cheaper then playing around with the res again.

The 3400 is not much different from the old 3100 (just larger cylinders and air intake). GM never put a res on the '94-'95 Grand Ams with the 3100 (I don't know about '96-'98).

As a side note, when I ditched the res on the Monte SS (which was because I went through 2-3 after market resonators in less then 10K miles and was fed up with it), my exhaust note changed very little, it sounded a touch "tinny", that was it. Nothing annoying. It may also be because the Monte has dual mufflers or because I have a PLOG and ZZP downpipe with u-bend delete. For comparison, I have a friend with a'97 Grand Prix SE, 3800, single muffler, admittedly, his exhaust note is a bit louder and a lot more on the tinny sounding side (I attribute it to the fact he has the 3800 and a single muffler).

Just food for thought from a guy who has been there and done it on both drive train platforms. I would not hesitate to remove the resonator on a Monte SS with the dual mufflers or especially a 3400 Monte regardless of the muffler set up.

 

Just got a new package in the mail Just one step closer to finishing this little project. After opening this package to check it out, cause I can't wait like till this weekend, the quality of these parts really started to shine on me. That just goes to show why you do your research and figure out what you want before you purchase anything. The welds, and the quality of going with a stainless steel system vs an aluminized system. I will update this weekend after putting everything on and after I find that exhaust hanger.

 

Pretty, shiny parts

 

Just a couple more pictures of the exhaust once I was able to get it out to the shop and open everything up with some room to look at everything. Can't wait to see everything on the car and hear how it sounds. I will post before and after pictures once everything is installed.

 

I took the y-pipe off of a Grand Prix and welded it onto my catback and put two mufflers on it... the stock pipe won't rust out, for me it was my mufflers, which were an easy replacement.

In the grand scheme of things, you do have to realize, it's a base model Monte Carlo, you won't gain anything in terms of value of the car if you do the complete thing and you surely won't lose anything if you just put in a y-pipe.

 

I got an original SS y-pipe off an 01 monte,hangars and all,just light surface oxidation. They will outlast the car in most cases. My LS exhaust is all original except the cat. I've got 40 series Flowmasters to put on. Cost me about $60 for the stock mufflers and pipe to just before the cat.

 

Ok so being it's a 3.4L clearly your not building a race car but I'm assuming you want it too sound deep, loud, and like a v8? Unless you have deep pockets the best, cheapest, way too make this happen is like this.. First don't even bother wasting your time or money on changing out the headers, (it's a 3.4L) you want top get yourself a good catalytic converter i suggest

MagnaFlow 23433 Direct Fit Catalytic Converter (Non CARB compliant) this way you'll still have a spot for your o2 sensor and won't throw any codes. From there i suggest getting yourself 2 flowmaster super 44 or super 40 mufflers.. Then just bring all that too your local muffler shop and have them make your 2.5inch piping, replace the resonator with straight pipe and have them fabricated your y-pipe.. You'll prolly spend a totally on everything about $5-600 and you'll have a badass dual exhaust for your 3.4L monte carlo..

 

No offense, but the thread is 4 years old. I hope he's not still trying to decide what exhaust to get