Hey guys,

Well, after spending a bunch of time on ls1sounds.com and researching here, I've pretty much decided on a hooker catback as my next mod. Right now my car has a lid, granatelli MAF (soon to be swapped back to stock), shifter and spec III clutch. Here come the questions:

-I'm looking for a catback that will be loud and menacing when I get on it, but well mannered at cruising revs. I test drove a trans am a while ago before I bought mine. It had a hooker catback on it and sounded great! It was pretty loud when I hit it and quite quiet when cruising. However, it looked like the car had an aftermarket Y pipe (but stock manifolds). Here's a pic I took of the car I test drove (note that the car had 92k):

Essentially, I'm wondering if the catback will be enough of a loudness difference over stock on stock manifolds and midpipe (though not for that long, see next question)?

-I plan on doing pacesetters and an ORY in the summer when I get back home. Is it worth it to hold off on the catback until I do this? I really have no idea on whats involved with installing a catback. I don't mind the installs, its mostly that I don't want to hack up my exhaust too much if I dont have to. I may install a cutout when I do full exhaust, but I really have no idea how loud it's gonna be. So this is really a 2 part question; first, should I wait until I do full exhaust + potential cutout to install the catback in the interest of not hacking up my exhaust system? And the second is, do you find a full exhaust hooker setup loud enough or did many of you go with a cutout also?

-The next question regards the install if I go ahead with it. What all is involved with installing a catback. I have basic mechanics tools but no floor jack or jackstands. I could potentially get some though. Is it worth it to just pay a shop to install it or is it really easy? I typically like to do my own work but I'm kind of a noob.

-Next, my car I believe has stock exhaust with mecham tips (previous owner didn't know but it's pretty quiet and has no markings on the muffler). I think the hooker tips look okay, and slightly better than my mechams right now. I think I would definitely prefer my mecham tips if they we're shiny crome but right now they're black and gross. Would some sanding, polishing and elbow grease bring them back to life? Here's how they look right now:


-Lastly, Where is the cheapest place to buy a hooker catback? Right now the cheapest I've seen is at the WS6store. I would definitely be buying new. Anyone know who has the best deal?

I think thats it. Thanks in advance and I hope these questions make sense!

 

1) With the stock manifolds with cats the Hooker catback will be noticeably louder, however its far from loud. The sound is much better though, and worth it.

2)Install is straight forward and easy. You will need a floor jack at minimum and I would advise jackstands anytime you have the car jacked up. Removing the old catback is harder then installing the new one. A sawzall is handy for cutting the stock I pipe since its all welded together. Other then that its all basic hand tools. I strongly recomend NOT using the supplied clamps that come with the catback, and spending a few extra dollars to get quality bandclamps...this will make removal at any time much easier.

3)Your current tips would look very nice cleaned up. Even if cleaned nice and painted gloss black if they wont actually shine anymore.

4) I have purchased (2) hooker catbacks now. One from Speed Inc, and one from Summit racing. both had good prices, and good customer service.

 

i always liked a borla when i first bough my car . with stock headesr and ypipe , man that sounded really good . with lts and a ory it is going to be lound and raspy and the cutout is a good idea . though i went to duals when i bought headers and man they are loud .

 

I am extremely happy with my Hooker catback. I would highly recommend you revising your choice of headers. Spend the money and purchase a good set of headers. I bought cheap and regret it to this day. I may be pulling my XS headers off in the future to swap them out with QTP or ARH. I really like the ARH Y pipe...looks like they actually thought the pipe out instead of the crappy Y pipes that actually slam both pipes instead of using a decent merge collector.

Galen

 

Really? I've heard nothing but good things about pacesetters on this forum. Is there anyone else who would reccomend waiting to put the catback on when I do full exhaust or is it not a big deal? I'd like to put the catback on now, but if it is going to result in a hacked up exhaust by the time I do headers and ORY I'll wait.

 

Pacesetter headers are fine. The pacesetter Y pipe is not the best design but it works. They are not the best but are one of the best budget headers especially for fitment. You do not need to wait to put the catback on, it will not cause it to be hacked up at all, they are designed to be run with the stock manifolds/y pipe so it will fit perfect. If you have the money and don't mind spending the money there are other options for headers, but even some of the higher end header mfr's have poorly designed Y pipes for either fitment or merges. I really like my Edelbrock Headers/Y pipe, but for stainless or coated Edelbrocks the price will probably be 1.5x that of the Pacesetters.

 

+1. No need to reconsider your choice of Pacesetters. But I would recommend having a custom Y pipe made with a Flowmaster merge if you have a good exhaust shop nearby that works with mandrel bends.

 

The Hooker catback will sound almost as quiet as stock if you are running manifolds and cats. Adding headers really wakes up the Hooker system, but it never gets obnoxious.

 

It opens up after 3500. Sounds great around 5000RPM when the cars stock. That was my first mod back in the day.

It's loud with LTs and ORY. Pretty much everyone in my local area thought mine was the best sounding car around when I had high flow cats.

With the ORY it's just loud as hell and obnoxious. But thats my style, so it works well for me LOL.

Only downfall to this catback is that it's aluminized so it rusts. Then you also need to re-use the factory I pipe clamp.

Thunder Racing had it cheapest when I bought it. You should be able to get it for under 300 bucks regardless. I think I paid 275 shipped back in the day when they had a GP.