Cat removal
 

Should I? Give me pros and cons?

Pros, if it is clogged, it will no longer be clogged.

Cons. Your exhaust tips will be super dirty all of the time, it will smell bad, and depending on the area you live, you will fail your emissions testing.

My friend tells me you get a power increase with the removal. However the increase may be.

Why not get yourself one of these ?

ZZPerformance - ZZP Downpipes #ZZ-GPDP

order the one that comes with a high flow cat, you won't throw any engine codes, your car will run right, and you will get between 15 - 20 hp gain and they will give you a $50 credit if you mail them your stock down pipe with the cat converter. When installing you can get rid of the resonator and just run a straight pipe in it's place back to the mufflers

I ordered myself one on the weekend, because where I live you have to pass emissions test, and if your car has a check engine light on you immediately fail

Depending on if you have emissions tests is the key I think. I can tell you your tips will be much more dirty and if you dont like the smell then that might be a problem (I love the smell) you can get rid of the u-bend if you go Catless.

Personally I won't buy or replace another cat on any of my cars. I live in Iowa and don't need to pass emissions. My SS is Catless and I wouldn't have it any other way. I got a lot of sound by taking it out too. You could always buy a downpipe but it would be cheaper to have a shop make you a "test pipe"

That seems like a real good idea. Thanks for showing me this. I would have had no real idea. I hope it will work out for my car. Me and my friend were talking about putting a dual exhaust on the Monte and I said to get it cheaper I should try to get a used one and he mentioned a Fox Body one would work. I also have no real idea what this is, what you pointed out to me, the link. Is this an exhaust replacement or no, perhaps just adding to it? I do not know all that much.

Hey ohara, is this a big job? Is welding involved? I am not that familiar.

If you buy that ZZP downpipe replacement there is no welding involved, it's a bolt in piece. If you are not overly intimate with car repairs there is a solid chance you'll have trouble changing this out yourself, but it is possible. I just did this same job last week and I was able to get three of the four bolts out that were holding in the downpipe. If you break off the nut on an exhaust stud you are looking at a whole world of hurt and the job gets a lot more expensive. Since I couldn't get my fourth bolt I sent it to my local hot rod shop where they had to heat and cool the nut to get it off. It took them an hour, and they actually know what they're doing.

Exhaust components can be really tricky to take off. You need to soak them with a good penetrant repeatedly and often, and you need to hope for a little luck.

Good luck!

No welding is a good thing. I will have to run it by my friend who knows more than me and see what he thinks, if we would be able to do it and if we would need another friend or another friend.

It isn't really manpower that you need- one person can easily do the job, you just have to know what to do if you run into nuts that are rusted together. PB Blaster does a pretty good job, and there is also some sort of freeze spray now also.

If a shop ran into that, they'd probably just hit the bolts with a torch.

The downside is, if you buy a catless downpipe- no shop will want to touch it. Even in non-emission areas, there is still a heavy penalty for disabling emission control devices. Certainly some shops will do it for cash under the table if you're friends with them- but not a lot of shops are going to want to risk the fine to make $50.

I know this is an old post, but true dual exhaust is expensive to install on these cars as it needs to be custom fabbed. Other than a different sound, there really isn't much performance benefit, especially on a nearly stock car.

A fox body mustang dual exhaust kit will not fit at all, the two cars are very different. Locations of the bends, length of pipe runs, etc are all different. Plus, ideally, you'd want to try to tuck both tubes into the center tunnel as much as possible for ground clearance.

Thanks for the replies. I said I would run it by my friend is because he knows more than me about this stuff. And then I think he has two other friends that may know more than him all in an order, so it is kind of like a network. I would not be able to do the downpipe thing but he may, though he was not familiar with Ubend and all that when I mentioned it to him but I think he is always on the up and learning so I can try again. My car will not be totally stock by the time I get the dual exhaust, I imagine. I already got a CAI coming and the next thing would be the downpipe thing so by then it may be a cool improvement but I definitely want to get it used. So since the Mustang's won't work, what about if I found a 2006-2007 LT, LTZ or SS, will those work on an LS for a dual exhaust or...?

The U-bend defies most peoples interpretation of "logical." Did 7th gens have as bad of a U-bend as 6th gens? For some reason I thought it got better with 7th's.

As far the dual exhaust, just to make the distinction so you don't look for the wrong things. Our MC's have "dual exhaust" but really that means dual muffler. I have a 2004, not one of the 7th gens, but I believe the newer ones still have transverse mounted engines. That means there's a crossover pipe from the forward facing exhaust collector and it meets up with the rear facing exhaust collector. From there they coalesce at a bolted flange which is where the downpipe (with your catalytic converter) bolts on. At the bottom of that downpipe there's a bolted flange and from this flange back is a single pipe that goes through your resonator and then back to your muffler. Someone with a 7th gen can answer this a lot better, but it would seem unlikely that Chevy has different configurations underneath the car that would negate your ability to put a dual muffler system from an SS onto an LS.

The one thing that comes to my mind is maybe if the rear bumper cover has a notch for the exhaust tip? If your LS only has one, then obviously you might have an interference.

And of course, the other thing that comes to mind is that I don't own a 7th gen and I could be completely wrong. If proven to be wrong, hopefully a mod just deletes this entire post. :)

I only have experience with my own Monte Carlo and from the back end it looks like the exhaust pipe is more "hidden" but not completely of course and no cut-out type slot is needed, for the current, stock setup that is. Hard to explain but if you saw one in person you may know what I am trying to express. And I don't think your post should be deleted, it is good material to have as reference.

I am close to the position of being able to get my downpipe replacement. Knowing my car can you please tell me which one from ZZP I need to get for the most power gains? Also the one that will work with my car?

Please help.

The site says it only fits 3800 engines and I of course have the 3500 engine?

That thread title "cat removal" is deceiving. I clicked thinking someone had a feline struck in a tree and needed some help getting it down...

ZZP knows their stuff. If they say it only fits 3.8 then I would believe them. The 3.5 just isn't as prevalent as the 3.8 and it's possible there just aren't as many aftermarket options. Did you look at any Hogan downpipes? Maybe they're in the 3.5 business?

You might have to talk to Milzy Motorsports for a 3.5L option.

Honestly had no idea what the downpipe was until ohara mentioned it here and I did some research after that. Also have not looked at purchasing anywhere except ZZP but I will now.

Quote from a site from my searches "Unfortunately, Hogan Performance is no longer fabricating replacement downpipes. Some have had luck using a downpipe from ZZ Performance (http://www.zzperformance.com/); unfortunately, I haven't had the pleasure of using a ZZ Performance downpipe, so I can't comment on it."

So I already have a cold air intake and the downpipe is seemingly out of the question for me and a dual exhaust job right now is just too much is there anything else that I can do for increase of power/speed/HP? Or am I just doomed?

You can gain a good deal with a tune, change the driveability of the car

Engine swap! Turbo,S/C and some good ole Nos,if you have the money and patience