So a little exhaust history that I had:

Bought a brand new stock 2001 Camaro SS

1) First upgrade: Slapped SLP Loudmouth Exhaust. Sound kicked *** !

2) Then did some major internal upgrades. 228/228 camshaft, and all the bolt ons. At this time I got a nice deal on Custom coated MAC midlength headers with off-road Y-pipe. That sounded like total crap. No cats+Loudmouth =

3) I couldn't take the noise so I bought an XR-1 Borla muffler and had it welded in place of SLP Loudmouth's resonator. That made things quiet a lot, but there was this annoying rasp, and drone at 2000 rpms. It didn't sound good at all. In addition the terrible sulfur/gasoline smell was unbarable.

4) I picked up a pair 2.5" in/out Carsound (magnaflow) cats off e-bay for $110 shipped, and had my exhaust shop weld them into MAC ORY

I just picked up my car and it sounds AWESOME !!!! No drone, no rasp, and it's got this deep, deep refined tone. Kinnda like an SVT Mustang, but louder.
No smelly fumes coming out of exhaust either. I absolutely love it !!!!
I don't care if cats rob me 2 horses. With 390 rwhp, I won't even tell the difference, and the luxury of driving is what counts more to me.

If I get enough requests, I might post how it sounds. I just need to video tape it first.

Just wanted to share my experience.... A lot of people face "exhaust decisions" everyday. I hope this post is gonna make things clear for some of them.

Adam

 

Post That **** Dude!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Pretty much what I'm about to do. Except I'm in the market for 3" in/out. I'm curious to hear it though. Post it up.

 

Drivability is always a plus. Post a vid.

 

u still have the borla muffler on?

 

Thats great to hear that your happy with the result. They way you describe it, it seems that it must sound really nice.
If you dont mind me asking, how much did the exhaust shop charge for the install. Your post was exactly what I was searching for. I will be picking a 99 SS tomorrow and it does not have cats. I know I wanna have cats in there because of: 1) NJ state inspection and 2) because of the weird smells. I was thinking of just buying a y-pipe w/cats or do what you did.

Is there a specific location on the y-pipe that cats have to be welded on, or a special arrangement. Also what did you do with the O2 sensors. Sorry for the newbee questions.
If you have can post pictures or sound clips, they would help me out a lot.
Thanks
Moe

 

Yes I do

OK Folks. I'll make a short video tomorrow after work, and I'll post it up !

 

The shop charged me $150 to weld in the cats, and ensure that there is no banging and rattling, which was very important to me.

 

You just found out the hard way that the Loudmouth, even after substituting a different bullet muffler, needs cats to sound good.

Post that shiat up.

 

We all do There is only so much wishing you can do on a LM setup.

 

LS1's are gay for cats!

I had them installed in my TD's and have never looked back.

 

Why would you put cats on duals??

The occassional fumes bother you that much?

 

Nice !

The CarSound cats kick *** and outflow just about everything else on the market - and cost a lot less than some of the high-flow cats marketed by other companies. I used the 3" ones to replace the Mac cats in my Mac y-pipe and WOW what a difference - made 410rwhp/415rwtq through them on a baby cam and 5.3L heads way back when.

Rob (Bad30th)

 

No sound clip???

 

I ran KOOKs Lts, with their 3" catted y (high flow Magnaflow cats) and a 3" Hooker CB for awhile.

IMO, it sound perfect. It is loud, but you can get by the local PD without hassle. In most states, you can get by inspection with relative ease as well.

After about 8k miles, my passenger side cat **** the bed. At which point I retired the setup to my bedroom, and put on an ORY. It's loud obviously, but cheaper than replacing the catted y.

If you can get those cats to last, ya can't beat the setup. Especially if the local cops are hassling/are known for hassling the modded car guys.

 

I have a digital 3CCD camcorder so if you'd like to meet up I'll be more than happy to tape, edit, and host it for you.

 

I put cats on duals because the sound was bothering the neighbors that i try to respect. The duals are run out the back, so fumes wouldnt be a problem anyway, and never were even for the year+ i drove it with dumps and no cats.

 

wanna see a pic plz

 

How's the rasp compared to the catted y? Is it very much more noticeable?

 

yep, my catted-y sounds 100x better than with my old ory setup. (cutout open)