So I totally want kooks longtube with catted h pipe but the places around town do a gay visual test for exhaust and i have heard 50/50 on pass/fail depending on if u get some deuchbag or not. I am just considering shorties. I know u may gain like 1 hp if that but I really just want a meaner sound. I got the flowmasters and was wondering if anyone could give and recommendations on brands or if i should skip the shorties. If not much difference in sound than it really wouldnt be worth it since not really any performance difference.

 

Not worth the money and time for any reason. Just pull the trigger on long tubes. Kooks like you mentioned or American Racing headers.

 

If you're looking for sound and MUST keep the cats, it's cheaper to find a better sounding axleback. IMO, shorties aren't worth the effort as sparta mentioned and won't change the exhaust note as much as LT's. I think a good axleback can provide more sound improvement than the hassle of shorties.

 

Shorties are not worth the time or money. Just get long tubes. And dont forget to get them coated

 

but what happens if i get the long tubes and dont pass the visual test for inspection...i dont wanna have to pay to get stock parts put up there again. thats the only reason i even mentioned shorties.

 

As far as the CATS go....a friend that uses his car for racing and didn't have the money to buy a cat-less H-pipe......we had a golf club with the head broken off and proceeded to smash out the material in the cat. It took awhile, but we eventually removed everything. Car looks like it has CATS.

 

You can cut the cats off the original h pipe, hallow them out and weld them around the outside of your new x or h pipe.

 

ok but what about the longtube headers themselves...will they check for this or just check to see if i have cats or not? I guess that is my main concern. Also are high flow cats (the ones that is an option at brenspeed on their midpipe) legal for emissions? sorry for all the questions, just wanna make sure i do it right.

 

I have got the newer Flowmaster American Thunder Classic axlebacks (square mufflers) along with a Pypes off road H and my car sounds a lot meaner and louder than the stock set up. I did it stepwise and I notice an improvement with each add on (i.e. axlebacks first then added the H pipe). Offroad H is easy enough to switch in and out when it comes to emission testing.

I also just got a set of JBA shorties for Christmas and will be putting them on in the spring. Taco Bill and many others have given positive feedback on these headers. While they may not get the performance gains of long tubes, the general consensus is you do get a mild improvement in performance and some good benefits with sound. Not to mention they sure do look a hell of lot better than those stock manifolds

 

If you ever go FI and race quite a bit, they keep the temps down dramatically. Mine stays cool to the touch even after back to back runs at the track and an 1 1/2 drive there at 80mph the entire time. I have the JBA shorty headers ceramic titanium high heat coated ones... cost me a small fortune though at the time. Didn't do too much in hp gain, but it does sound smoother. From what I hear, if you swap out the stock H pipe for ones with high flow cats, you'll gain about as much as LTs.