No one was too hard on me for asking my last dumb question, so I'll ask another.

I would like to do something to my exhaust before cruise season hits. I am actually not as much concerned with power as I am with sound, although gaining a few rwhp would be nice. I will most likely never add headers to my car, so I would like my catback setup to be nice 'n loud. I have spent a lot of time on ls1sounds.com and decided I like the sound of the Loudmouth on stock manifolds/y. Trouble is, I am on an EXTREMELY tight budget. The wifey isn't too pleased at how much $$ I spent on snow tires before winter started, and then new summer tires after winter ended. So I probably can't get away with spending much on the Z for a while.

So, I would like to make my exhaust louder on a very tight budget (couple hundred bucks max, parts and labor) in the short term for at least this summer, and for various reasons, I don't want a cutout. Would it be okay to have a local exhaust shop weld a Dynomax bullet in place of the stock muffler, rather than in the I pipe (as with a Dynomouth), and just use the stock I pipe? Is there some reason that wouldn't work as long as I am willing to live with only one driver's side exit? Would it be too loud located that close to the exit? And what if I were to do the same thing with a Loudmouth-style resonator? (Weld in place of the stock muffler) I could even use the actual SLP resonator... but it might be way too loud that close to the exit. What do y'all think? Or would it not cost that much more for an exhaust shop to just put the damn resonator or bullet in the I pipe and just fab up new catback piping behind the axle, since the piping itself isn't that expensive... in effect making my own homemade Loudmouth or Dynomouth.

 

Well you could go to all that effort, or you could just buy a ready made dynomouth, it's called a TSP Rumbler cat back.
It's not too expensive (~$250 without tips) and easy to install (took me about 30 mins and most of that was taking the stock exhaust off) so there's another option for you
FWIW if you ever do headers (and I was another one that said I wouldn't) the dynomouth sounds pretty goo with LTs and ORY

 

if ur really not about the power, u just want some sound and u would do it all out later.....just go with a muffler "flowmaster" or something u can get them for like 90 bucks and there nothing to install, save some money show the wifey and get brownie points OR dont show her and use it on something else...like a tune or some other bolt ons

 

Well, that's kind of what I mean, instead of getting a whole catback, I think I'd gain a little bit of power and a LOT of sound if I could just get an exhaust shop to put a resonator or bullet muffler in my stock setup the way it is, and if they put it in the I pipe instead of in the stock muffler location they could just close up the space where the stock muffler goes with some pipe...

I have thought of getting the Rumbler too, but I am really mechanically inept (go ahead laugh) and I'm intimidated by installing it myself... there's a local muffler shop that sells an 18" x 4" stainless steel resonator that is almost exactly the same size/shape as the LM resonator, but I can get them to weld it into my stock I pipe for less than $200 parts and labor.

 

OK hahahahaha j/k
FWIW installing a rumbler is about as simple as you can get.
If you don't want to DIY, then the muffler shop option sounds pretty good