97z2801ss

iTrader: (4)

"Far better flowing"

Switching from a 3" mandrel bent catback to 3" true duals will yield next to nothing as far as gains go on a stock to full bolt on car. Even if you have a heavily built car the gains will be slight. Not many people are pushing enough power to actually require a dual 3" setup on a f body.

Anyone who is willing to pay this much money for a td system who is still running cats is just.... Wow. Cats? Really? All this dough into "the best flowing best quality exhaust on the market" just to suffocate it. If you have to stay emissions legal I don't think a $3600 exhaust setup should even be a thought.

trilkb

iTrader: (4)

I could find my earlier post in this thread, saying how most lt1 owners are on a budget to begin with.

They wont do a group sale because frankly there isnt enough lt1 guys who want to shell out that kind of money for an exhaust system they dont need on a car that cost 4 grand anyways.

I hate to be an I told you so kind of guy...but I saw this happening way befor the guy even test fit it. We all want a true dual system, but for a reputable company to make one, especially out of Stainless like they do, I knew it wasnt going to be cheap, but I honestly didnt expect 1800$. I was thinking more around 1200 tops.

In kooks defense, like he said, they build quality performance exhaust systems. That is EXACTLY what you are getting for 3600$, I dont think anyone can argue that. Plus if they are making them on order then they arnt loosing out on any money having 20 systems just laying around taking up shelf space.

This system belongs on low mile WS6 and SS show cars. not 150k mile weekend toys or daily drivers. thats the only people that will buy it if you ask me.

I think kooks did a good job though all said and done, hopefully the market is out there. I know I cant afford it lol. 3600$ is a nice used gsxr1000 or r1 to me lol.

kinglt-1

iTrader: (26)

I went with it because the x pipe gets rid of the rasp ls1 cars tend to have with y-pipe setups. also If you herd my my car you wouldnt even know its a ls motor, yes it sounds that good! That imo was worth its weight in gold. Being a former LTx owner, I missed the sound, now I dont!! Again I gurantee you can get the exhaust for alot less than 3600.00. I paid 2k for my ls setup...Maryland speed is offering some pretty good deals on it.

97z2801ss

iTrader: (4)

Oh man I don't doubt it, your car probably, no definitely, sounds amazing lol and yeah agreeing with the above, you're paying for quality and you are definitely getting it. But I think a fair amount of the guys on here understand business, costs, supply and demand, ect.... And I don't think any one of us is dumb enough to ever swallow the load of bs that is that price tag. Not saying the guys who buy it are dumb at all, I definitely would if I could afford it and I had an absolutely MINT fbody. But are we all supposed to act like Kooks isn't making like $1,000 off each one of these $1900 setups?

R&d time, cost of machinery, made to order, cost of stainless has gone up, blah blah blah blah blah.... Does that pretty much cover the justification you'll hear?

97z2801ss

iTrader: (4)

I mean hell, I've got a 383 z28 with around 16k invested that's show car quality but even if I had that kind of money to throw into an exhaust I could never do it just based off of the glaring amount of wayyyy more worthwhile options to dump $2-4k into lol.

12 bolt rear and head/cam package or exhaust.... Hmm

kinglt-1

iTrader: (26)

if you break it down, its not that much more than a stainless y/ catback setup.

Budget stainless header/catback setup:

Hooker stainless lt headers 500
Hooker stainless catless y 250
magnaflow stainless catback 450

total 1200

---------------------

High end header/catback setup:

Kooks stainless lt headers 750
Kooks stainless catless y 300
corsa catback 1000

total 2050

-----------------------

Kooks header/ true dual setup:

kooks stainless lt headers 750
kooks 3" true dual catless exhaust 1350

total 2000

So yea you are going to have another 800.00 wrapped up into the kooks td's over a budget setup, and actually 50.00 or so dollars less than a high end catback setup...but definately not 2-4k over what you have currently.

97z2801ss

iTrader: (4)

Shiiiit my setups are a lot cheaper than that, but I am extremely crafty at finding the absolute lowest cost for my mods. The stainless y pipe 6LE was selling for a while is actually an eBay piece, they also make cme tips. Very nice high quality y pipe, adjustable to boot. I was getting mine for $80 shipped, I can get ceramic coated pacesetters for $330 or $350 shipped, and I hooked up with a Magnaflow wholesaler through eBay where I was getting the stainless catbacks w cannon tips for $285 shipped. I wanted to open a little online speed shop at one point because of how cheap I was getting so many things and I wasn't even a business! Yes the pacesetters aren't stainless but they do the job nicely for me hell I can still get the deals on the headers and y, cme tips as well... But I fell out of touch with the exhaust guy and he switched to flowmaster junk.

If you search long and hard enough, it's amazing the deals and little loopholes you can find haha... This is totally unrelated to buying retail but Craigslist should be every car guys best friend! My latest buy was a package deal where I got a brand new In box Borla for $200, founders lcas and panhard both new for another $60. Then a week later I got a brand new slp loudmouth 1 that came with the (magnamouth) magnaflow bullet extra for $100! That's the way I roll lol... Gotta ball on a budget sometimes. I'd never put cheap junk on any of my cars and when the stuff can be had brand new, but secondhand, for next to nothing, then why not

On my 30th anniversary z I'm doing the headers as we speak, total cost is either $540 with the magnamouth or $640 with the borla. This time I went with the pacesetter y simply to try it out and because I got it for $110. I've got pics of everything if anyone doesn't believe me haha.. Both cars outfitted and all the stuff I've picked up. My basement is a f body lovers dream parts parts parts.

kinglt-1

iTrader: (26)

My point is; list price for list price, from a vendor, A kooks setup is not anymore expensive than a high end catback setup. There may be a point in time where you can find these kooks exhaust systems as a knockoff on ebay too. Thats not really the point tho...i have put budget setups together in the past, but you pay for what you get. If i remember correctly, i had a pacesetter coated lt's and flowmaster catback on my lt1 car...cost me around 600.00 for it all. the the thing is, the pacesetters started to surface rust thru the coating i 2yrs. that was a 36,000mi car that never seen snow or rain. my current car has 16,000mi and i told myself im not putting budget parts on this car. 20yrs down the road, i want this car to look like it does today and have parts that will last right along with it. if kooks is too pricey for you, no biggie, it was for me at one time aswell. I dont think its fair to call folks dumb for buying it tho...not saying you did, but it was mentioned by somebody who has been trying to sell his car for what 4yrs now...if it had kooks full exhaust it might of sold already lmao...j/k!

TexasNative

"Anyone who is willing to pay this much money for a td system who is still running cats is just.... Wow. Cats? Really? All this dough into "the best flowing best quality exhaust on the market" just to suffocate it. If you have to stay emissions legal I don't think a $3600 exhaust setup should even be a thought."

I ended up having to put the cats on mine so the wife wouldn't scream at me to change clothes every time I walked in the door after driving the car around town. Of course I do have a set of straight-thrus to eliminate the cats when the car goes to the track. When the car was dyno'd with the Kooks system there was only a 13hp difference with the cats vs. straight-thrus. On the bottle the difference went up to 24hp but for driving around I have to admit i'm glad I did go with the cats. I have to agree with one thing: there really aren't that many street cars that truly benefit that much from a 3" dual setup vs a well put together 2 into 1 system. In my case, yes, I have a motor that benefits from 3" duals but if it were my daily driver then I would say definitely find another alternative and save some money.

97z2801ss

iTrader: (4)

I understand fully why some guys need cats, you gotta do what you gotta do. How much power is your car making? That's a pretty potent increase for just pulling the cats!

There's no doubt it's one hell of a exhaust system, definitely a conversation piece. So you do need the panhard relocation to run it right?

TexasNative

With the heads and cam that are in it now on all motor it makes 565 at the crank. Well, when I say all motor this includes the methanol/nitromethane injection. The meth and nitro give it an extra 40 - 50hp. It also has a 150 shot and with that it puts out 697 at the crank. I can see the power drop on the computer with the cats but I don't really notice it when the car is being driven. As for the PHB relocation, yes, it's a necessary evil but it wasn't that expensive. I already had the safety loop so that made the price a little easier to swallow. When I bought the Kooks system I found it on ColoradoSpeed.com for $1561.00 on sale. I then called Summit and told them I wanted a price match and they gave it to me for $1560.00 to the door so it wasn't too bad. One thing to note: I couldn't find the LT1 system anywhere so I ended up going with the LS system and it bolted right in. I'm not sure what the difference in the two is but I had zero issues getting the LS kit to work on my LT based setup.

97z2801ss

iTrader: (4)

As far as I know there is absolutely no difference in the systems, or any catbacks even between lt1 and ls1 versions aside from the hangers, or if you're actually using a catback with the stock manifolds and cats then the attachment is different, but with headers and y pipe they're pretty much universal from my experience.

Very nice numbers man, I've always been curious about meth kits! What's required to run meth, could you school me a little?

TexasNative

Supposedly Kooks says there's a minor difference in the location of the drivers side header collector but I didn't notice anything and it fit right up. Running the methanol injection is pretty straightforward. I decided to run it because i'm running right around 12:1 static CR and it keeps the intake charge cool enough to keep the computer from pulling timing. The 93 gas we get around here doesn't seem to be very good quality and VP 110 got way too expensive to run on the street. It makes a HUGE difference when running nitrous because the temps start dropping even further when it starts spraying. I have the Snow Performance kit that uses the MAF to determine when and how much boost juice to inject. The nitromethane acts as an oxider much like the nitrous and it seems to add about 40-50hp on average. The gains Snow performance claims on their site are due mostly to being able to run a richer mixture with the cooler IAT readings. When you add the nitromethane to the equation it actually starts making more power and you can tune your fuel curves to take advantage of the mixture. All in all, i've had great luck with it so far. I buy my methanol and nitromethane from a place in Houston and mix it with distilled water instead buying the "Boost Juice" or using windshield washer fluid. By doing so i'm able to control my mixture exactly and I always know what's going into my engine. If you're considering trying it out i'd say go for it and use the Snow performance kit. It's especially beneficial if you're super/turbocharged and/or running nitrous.

szalkerous

iTrader: (1)

I'll say the Kooks TD system for my '99 is slick and well thought through. I doubt any exhaust shop would take the time to think through the entire setup to not only make it snug fit and tough, but easily removed if needed for room to do other upgrades. Totally worth the price for me.

jrwilliams95z28

how would this system be any different than the LS1 true duel system they already have apart from collector location?

MarylandSpeed

iTrader: (11)

Just a reminder...if you are looking for the best deal on these, always call us @ 443-730-9428 for a quote. If you are ready to buy, we will make you an offer very worth your while!