I know this question has been asked at least million times already , but I need help picking out an exhaust system. I have a head an cam car that has the specs posted below. I would like to purchase a set of LT's and an off-road Y without cats. I have been thru about every search function for headers and installs. They all seem to have their own ups and downs, which makes my decision even harder. I would like a good quality set that is easy to install, does not require any mods if possible, does not hit the floor pan or anything else for that matter, have good ground clearance and would like it to be S/S or ceramic / jet-hot coated. I do not mind paying extra for quality. I've had great luck with ceramic in the past but can go either way. I am planning on removing the air system when doing the header install. Also, while I'm at the install process, should I change to poly engine and trans mounts? Will I benefit from doing so? Is there such a system?


My Combo:

I have a head and cam car that originated in California and it has a pretty small cam in it now. I will give as many details as possible and just ask for whatever I left out. The car is an '01 SS M6 car with 3.42's and a spec 3+ clutch. It has an RK sport "functional?" cold air lid and K&N air filter, RK sport descreened MAF, BBK 80mm throttle body, ported LS6 intake, reworked CNC ported LS1 heads (supposedly flow as well as AFR 205's), JBA shortie headers and stock Y-pipe, 3" flowmaster catback, msd wires, LS1 edit done to stock computer along with a Jet chip. I plan on doing a future cam swap for a bigger cam and have every intention of having the computer reprogrammed after the cam swap and to get it dyno'd. I do not DD the car, am not worried about emissions or fuel mileage and can deal with a lopey idle. I would like to have somewhere around 410-450 RWHP, after the current dyno, the car makes 365 RWHP and 370 RWTQ on a dynojet dyno with JBA shorties and stock Y. Oh, BTW the engine has only 11k miles on it.

 

i helped my buddy put some pacesetters on his 2000 auto z28 and it was cake. so much easier than putting shorty headers on my old 91 trans am. took us about half a day or so taking our time with many breaks. only real hang ups we had was with tightening the bolts (having clearence to get to them), getting the passenger side stock manifold out, and getting the headers in as we didnt jack the car up enough at first. the biggest problem we had was with the o2 sensor on the passenger side sitting right on the transmission. we think they just welded the bung in the wrong spot.

if i were looking for headers i would get either pacesetter, the edelbrock stepped headers or if you want stainless get the ebay stainless headers. the pacesetters were of very nice quality though. they were MUCH nicer than i thought they would be.

 

I've also installed a set of pacesetters on my car, and as 1bdbrd said, it was cake. It took me and 3 guys about 7 hours start to finish, and we actually worked about half of that 7 hours. We did have a lift and air tools though. My headers did hit the floorpan once in a while but that was fixed with some prothane motor mounts. I know there are other fixes for this as well. I'm definitely a proponent of prothane mounts, I like the feel of the car since I changed mine. You will get a little more vibration at idle, but with my small cam, it's actually nice to have a little shake at a stop light.

 

Sounds like an applications for True Duals.

True Duals will help get the most hp and tq out of the engine. A good TD kit like the Bassani one will connect to stock manifolds or headers (with a little work) and perform great. If you go stainless on the TDs and headers you'll have an entirely stainless steel exhaust system.

Kooks or QTPs are the most popular stainless steel headers, but they cost much more than average. Ebay stainless ones are another option, for much less. I would go stainless all the way and don't look back.

 

I was thumbing thru a magazine on the rack and found a dual set-up that looked like it went the same route as the single exhaust. Anyone have any idea of who makes this set up? I didn't even think to look who made them until afterwards when it was too late. Went back for the mag and it was gone. I really like the ground clearance of the sing pipe to the back, but like the sound and performance of the duals. I've got 3" mandrel bent dual with 2 chamber flows on my '70 and abosolutely love everything about it. How is ground clearence with duals? Any other brand suggestions for duals? Thanks for the input guys!

 

You might be referring to the Bassani Tru-Duals. They are a complete kit, you buy the kit and have it assembled on your car. It connects to factory manifolds by default (can connect to headers with a little customization), and runs into a volumetric xpipe, then two 2.5" pipes over the axle and into a SINGLE dual-in dual-out muffler, then out the back with nice tips.

It's a complete system that I had on my car, and performs and sounds great. It runs something like $960 for the stainless steel version, and $780 for aluminized version.

It's very refined, compared to other True Dual setups. Ground clearance is very good, much better than all the 3" setups. This is a pic of the rear on my car