Will the HP/TQ gain justify the work and money already spent?

[KIXASS]

Here is the deal. I have a 98' SS with
Edelbrock shorty headers (12,000 miles on them)
SW 2.5" s/s y-pipe (8 miles)
Hi-flow cats (8 miles)
Flowmaster cat-bck (8 miles)

My previous set-up consisted of the same headers, stock y-pipe, gutted cats and a Loundmouth cat-back system. I HATED the sound of that set-up and told myself that Ididn't mind giving up some HP/TQ for a better sounding car.

My goal after a cam swap is to put down 400+rwhp. But more importantly, bottom end torque to me is what I would rather have. I do a lot of short blasts around town, so I like to torque aspect of it. I may take my car to the track, but with out a roll cage I wouldn't be making many.

So basically I would like to make it an extremely fun to drive street car for my son and I to take out and blow the tires off of it.

So with that all being said, would it be worth my wild to remove all the new stuff (sell and take a loss) and spend a day of back breaking labor installing a set of Hooker Ceramic coated longtubes, 3" y with hi-flow cats and into say a 4" Mufflex single in, single out system?

[nhraformula]

youll gain about 25 h.p max over your current set up.
if you do plan on camming the car in the future, long tubes are the way to go.
i would just get a catless y pipe and have your local ls1 tuner take care of it so you pass emissions.
for now, i would just change out the muffler and leave everything be till you do the cam. then have all done at once.
btw, flowmaster mufflers are not much better flowing than stock.

[FuhBreezeE]

Hooker Ceramic coated longtubes, 3" y with hi-flow cats and into say a 4" Mufflex single in, single out system?

I'd vote for single in-dual out. My dad had that 4' mufflex on his 98 z28 and it was incredible! You won't be disappointed with that mufflex.

[Killer_bluebird]

KIXASS, It depends, how you match your components. I think that if you like the shorties that you have now, you can reach your goal with a cam that matches your set up. Thunder Racing "CheaTR" cam will fit your application nicely. If you have the Money and want to sqeeze every hp you can out of your setup then Long tubes will respond better to other mods.