So i have been reading some info on these forums and i had a question about my own monte carlo, i have a plug & play tuner for the meantime to get rid of DOD. I have been looking for a few ways to add HP while staying within emission standards and keeping it street legal. What would be a good exhaust system for my 2006 SS Monte Carlo? Or what are some suggestions that you can give for added power and sound?

 

Unless you go for headers, you aren't going to gain any power with the exhaust alone.

LS4s take pretty well to a proper tune, the stock transmission tune isn't the best. Intake/Headers/Proper tune wakes them up pretty well.

 

Catback changes on a stock engine are really just for sound. There's not really any power to be made there. As such, I wouldnt buy a full replacement, I'd just muffler swap / resonator swap if you want to change the sound. I used to have a cutout on my GXP, and trap speed differences were negligible run to run regardless of position.


There are headers out there, but IMO bang for the buck is terrible. They're almost $1k and seem to pick up less than 10 whp on their own. With a tune also, youre about +20-25 whp but with almost $1500 into it. As with any LS, it can be made to make power, it just depends on your budget and how much power you want to make.

In terms of mods to add power, what do you mean by emission testing? Are you in CA where you need CARB numbers for mods, or are we just talking a simple OBD2 test? If its the latter, you can get away with a lot more - the sky's almost the limit outside of dropping a carb on it lol.

Personally, I'd return the handheld tuner and put your money towards getting an actual dyno tune. There are legitimate gains to be made there, especially if you're doing some other mods first, but the handheld ones are pretty worthless IMO.

 

Im in Cali unfortunately

 

Sorry to hear. You're over my head then as Ive never dealt with CA emissions.

There are some pretty heavily modified cars out there, so Id imagine there's got to be some kind of workaround.

 

I have done a whole lot of research and looking for parts, sadly there are little to no carb approved parts for the monte carlo. Anything i would do to modify it would take it off the list for a smog, even a CAI. But I’m thinking abt doing a CAI anyway and just swapping them when i get smogged. Only thing i really can do besides swap the muffler to a holley super 44.

 

Just spitballing ideas, but what about something like a custom low lope cam grind, an intake swap (to some other stock LS intake that doesn't have the LS4 D neck), a dyno tune, and maybe some ported stock heads? Externally the engine would look and sound the same and I don't see how they'd ever know those parts have been changed / modified.

 

So does anyone know any EO approved intakes or mods that would be semi legal in California or at least easy to remove? I would like to get a cold air induction CAI and a new flowmaster super44 muffler but i would like something to add that extra HP as well as make my monte carlo sound like a beast.