LT1-LT4 Modifications - Exhaust weight question

What weighs more, a dual setup with bullets and a hpipe, dumped, or a 4" catback with a single in dual out muffler? What kind of weight difference am I looking at? I'm tired of scraping my duals, I even have to worry about some dips in the road if I'm going fast enough. Looking at going to 4", if its going to add a lot of weight to go out back I do have a 4" bullet here and might just go 4" dumped.

What weighs more, a dual setup with bullets and a hpipe, dumped, or a 4" catback with a single in dual out muffler? What kind of weight difference am I looking at? I'm tired of scraping my duals, I even have to worry about some dips in the road if I'm going fast enough. Looking at going to 4", if its going to add a lot of weight to go out back I do have a 4" bullet here and might just go 4" dumped.

If you ditch your duals, do you think you really need a 4" exhaust? I don't see how you will gain clearance by doing so.

I have slp subframe connectors and the spohn body mounted torque arm. I should gain clearance as I will run the piping through that torque arm mount dip, instead of the duals I have with a Hpipe, that I had to run under the subframe tubing that goes to the center of the car. I'll go snap some quick pictures.:lol:

I have a 3" x with bullets dumped and I'd say it is a lot lighter than my old ORY and cat back setup. I also removed the heat shields under the car to drop more weight.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/camar0corey/DSC00514.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/camar0corey/DSC00515.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/camar0corey/DSC00516.jpg

As you can see my exhaust setup is semi-ghetto and ground clearance is a joke. Yeah I can barely get three fingers between it and the ground.:lol:

Insaneauto86, do you have a aftermarket torque arm and subframe connectors by any chance?

The way I'm looking at is I can spend a ton of money to run duals the nice way, or I can spend less than that to run either a dumped 4" setup or run it out back and retain some semblance of sanity in the car.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/camar0corey/DSC00514.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/camar0corey/DSC00515.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/camar0corey/DSC00516.jpg

As you can see my exhaust setup is semi-ghetto and ground clearance is a joke. Yeah I can barely get three fingers between it and the ground.:lol:

Insaneauto86, do you have a aftermarket torque arm and subframe connectors by any chance?

The way I'm looking at is I can spend a ton of money to run duals the nice way, or I can spend less than that to run either a dumped 4" setup or run it out back and retain some semblance of sanity in the car.

Yeah, that ground clearance is wack! I have just about the same ground clearance, but my car is SLAMMED...

You will gain a good amount of clearance by going with a single exhaust. I don't see you choking any power going with a single 3" exhaust, as long as you have good bends, with a quality merge. Then you can add a cutout before the axle and have the best of both worlds.

I guess I was worried about choking it, it makes 353rwhp now and I have a Nitrous Outlet plate kit sitting here, I've been planning on running a 150 shot.

QUOTE=Patrick G

Exhaust selection:

To make big power with a street motor, you need an exhaust that sucks...literally (David Vizard quote). When running a cam with lots of overlap, backpressure is not your friend. But when building a daily driven street car, too free flowing of an exhaust often means too loud. Not in my case.

You want the best headers you can find. For an LS1 F-body, it would be QTPs or Kooks in 1 3/4" size. For a Vette, the LG Pro Long tubes reign supreme. A high velocity merge collector on the header collector is typically worth some nice gains in the mid-range and is known to squeak out a few extra ponies up high as well.

Merging the twin pipes coming off the headers is a critical item for power and sound quality. Vettes have it easy because an x-pipe easily fits and the sound quality is awesome. F-bodies are handicapped because of space constraints. For 500 rwhp, you want to run dual 3" pipes after the headers and you'll want them to merge into a 4" intermediate pipe. Anything smaller will run the risk of flow loss. Most y-pipes on the market slam the 2 pipes together like this:

http://guerragroup.com/2000TA_Kooks.JPG

When the pipes meet at close to a 90 angle, the flow is going to be lower and the sound is going to rasp and drone at 2000-2300 rpm. By using a Flowmaster merge collector or better, your sound quality will improve since the gasses meet side by side as opposed to ramming into each other. Here are a few pics of my exhaust.

http://guerragroup.com/PGy-pipe1.JPG

http://guerragroup.com/PGy-pipe2.JPG

http://guerragroup.com/PGy-pipe3.JPG

http://guerragroup.com/PGy-pipe4.JPG

Notice the dual 3" pipes merging into a 4" intermediate pipe, then a 4" cutout. After the cutout, the pipe is reduced to a 3" SLP dual dual catback. Compared to open headers with 20" extensions, my motor lost 1 hp with this y-pipe, but gained 10 rwtq in the 2500-4000 rpm range. From a sound standpoint, the rasp/drone is gone with the better y-merge collector. The difference between running with an open cutout and closed exhaust through the tail pipes is 9.5 rwhp. Not bad at all. :)

Yeah, that ground clearance is wack! I have just about the same ground clearance, but my car is SLAMMED...

You will gain a good amount of clearance by going with a single exhaust. I don't see you choking any power going with a single 3" exhaust, as long as you have good bends, with a quality merge. Then you can add a cutout before the axle and have the best of both worlds.

I agree with this guy here. I will say that my dumped H pipe is signifigantly lighter than my old SS magnaflow catback.

As far as size dude just go 3 inch with a nice flowmaster merge and a cut-out, should do just fine. Isnt that the setup that Pat G was running on his 500 rwhp TA?

I agree with this guy here. I will say that my dumped H pipe is signifigantly lighter than my old SS magnaflow catback.

As far as size dude just go 3 inch with a nice flowmaster merge and a cut-out, should do just fine. Isnt that the setup that Pat G was running on his 500 rwhp TA?

Yes it is. :nod:

How about the dumped hpipe with bullets vs. a dumped bullet off of the 4"ypipe? I probably wouldn't be adding that much weight then right? I suppose it will be loud with a single 4" dumped, how much louder than my current dumped duals?

How about the dumped hpipe with bullets vs. a dumped bullet off of the 4"ypipe? I probably wouldn't be adding that much weight then right? I suppose it will be loud with a single 4" dumped, how much louder than my current dumped duals?

I'd run it to the back and have a cutout. You don't want to be blaring loud all of the time. A SLP dual-dual is not very restrictive and should provide a good sound when you are not going all out.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/camar0corey/DSC00516.jpg

shit it your hand, though that a god dam animal. :angel:

I actually just weighed some things the other day...My X-pipe w/ Bullets weighs 28lbs. My 3" Magnaflow catback weighs around 59lbs. If you add the Y-Pipe to that we got about 80lbs. which is 50lbs. heavier than the X-Pipe.

Is a lot of that weight in a crossflow muffler though? I guess if I want to stay low on the weight but gain clearance I will have to just dump the bullet.

Any ideas though on if or how much louder a dumped 4" bullet is compared to two 2.5" dumped bullets?

Pics of clearance on my 3" x dumps...

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k311/Insaneauto86/th_10spokes006.jpg (http://s91.photobucket.com/albums/k311/Insaneauto86/?action=view&current=10spokes006.jpg)
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k311/Insaneauto86/th_xpipe4.jpg (http://s91.photobucket.com/albums/k311/Insaneauto86/?action=view&current=xpipe4.jpg)
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k311/Insaneauto86/th_xpipe3.jpg (http://s91.photobucket.com/albums/k311/Insaneauto86/?action=view&current=xpipe3.jpg)
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k311/Insaneauto86/th_xpipe2.jpg (http://s91.photobucket.com/albums/k311/Insaneauto86/?action=view&current=xpipe2.jpg)

Is a lot of that weight in a crossflow muffler though? I guess if I want to stay low on the weight but gain clearance I will have to just dump the bullet.

Any ideas though on if or how much louder a dumped 4" bullet is compared to two 2.5" dumped bullets?

Yeah alot of weight is in the crossflow. My 3" ORY alone is only about 6 or 7 lbs. lighter than my dumped X-Pipe to my surprise.

Is a lot of that weight in a crossflow muffler though? I guess if I want to stay low on the weight but gain clearance I will have to just dump the bullet.

Any ideas though on if or how much louder a dumped 4" bullet is compared to two 2.5" dumped bullets?

i run a dumped 3" bullet off of my y-pipe. its not very loud and has a good tone to it. don't get me wrong, it is loud and you can definately hear it coming, but i can still hear my radio just fine daily driving it and no one complains about it being obnoxiously loud

its actually quiet enough that i'm having an x-pipe made soon and running 2 2.5" bullets, but they will get run out the back through a CME