aero86

so, the 2000 gt needs a louder exhaust, but I'm a bit stuck. I have no major plans for this car, other than maybe a tune, or if I ever decided to spend the money, a blower, but I doubt that. anyways, my question is, is there much benefit going with a cat back system over a weld in? i know with the mandrel bends and all, but, I'm not sure how limiting the stock exhaust system is. any ideas? also considering straight cut tips over the factory slash cut style.

school boy

To be honest, by the time you buy two mufflers and pay someone to weld them in, you could almost buy a nice catback. Really, its the mid-pipe that frees up the most hp on the exhaust.

hotrod7687

The stock exhaust I believe is 2.25 inches. That's will be fine for your GT and most N/A cars unless they're pushing around 400 HP at the crank.

Like school boy said, the mid-pipe is usually the restriction. The cats they put on aren't the best flowing and ford sees the need to use either 4 or 6 of them (not kidding) so a good high flow catted mid pipe, or even better an off road mid pipe if you can get away with it, will give you the best performance gains.

If you're keeping the stock mid pipe, you could just order a set of bullet mufflers, I like dynomax, and have them welded in. I did and it cost me about $150 total for mufflers and install.

Summit has them for $43 right now.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/wlk-24234/overview/

If you plan on going with an off road pipe, I'll warn you those bullets are LOUD without cats. If you just want an inexpensive way to get some good sound on an otherwise stock exhaust they're great.

Here they are on my car, stock 2.25in pipes with cats deleted and the 12in bullets. Mines a cobra so it'll sound a little different but you get the idea.

Edit: I found this vid, which is closer to what yours would sound like. Its the dynomax bullets with high flow cats: