Headers with stock exhaust

**rc74racer** · 03-06-2012, 09:42 AM

Has anyone done this? Put long tubes on and left the exhaust alone. I know most people replace the exhaust first but the one I want is going to run around $800. I can get LTs with cats for $650. I figure I will get more out of LTs than the exhaust so may as well do that first. I figure the stock exhaust flows well enough for this to work fine.

**tatertot91** · 03-06-2012, 10:24 AM

You should be fine doing that. What exhaust do you want?

**rc74racer** · 03-06-2012, 11:00 AM

Originally Posted by tatertot91

You should be fine doing that. What exhaust do you want?

Magnaflow 3" comp, part no. 16734. The best deal going seems to be on ebay for 750/800 shipped. I figured as much just thought I'd check to see if anyone had experience with this.

**cammed goat** · 03-06-2012, 05:07 PM

I've met fellow GTO owners who have run longtubes. Catted or catless. Sound like my car and I run factory manifolds, cats out an SLP LM-1. Nice rumble at idle yet SNARLS on accel.

**rc74racer** · 03-06-2012, 08:03 PM

Originally Posted by cammed goat

I've met fellow GTO owners who have run longtubes. Catted or catless. Sound like my car and I run factory manifolds, cats out an SLP LM-1. Nice rumble at idle yet SNARLS on accel.

Good to hear. I'm really looking for more performance at this point and LTs plus a tune seem like a good option for me to do that.

**Texas Jack** · 03-08-2012, 05:56 AM

You should be good with that set up, but wait to get your tune after you get your cat back. Do you have a cai already? This is what i did...cia, headers, catted mids, 3" cat back, catch can and then the tune, after the tuner finished the car made 387 hp and 385fpt at the wheels a good gain over the 320 it put down before. Hope this helps.

**rc74racer** · 03-08-2012, 08:37 AM

Originally Posted by Texas Jack

You should be good with that set up, but wait to get your tune after you get your cat back. Do you have a cai already? This is what i did...cia, headers, catted mids, 3" cat back, catch can and then the tune, after the tuner finished the car made 387 hp and 385fpt at the wheels a good gain over the 320 it put down before. Hope this helps.

Yes I have a volant box on the car now. I'm planning on getting a mail order tune from frost. I don't think the catback will make much difference except in sound. I'm still not 100% sure how loud I want the car either so I think I'm headed in the right direction with doing headers first. Those are some nice numbers I'm looking forward to the extra power LTs and a tune will give me.

Did you do everything at once or did you drive the car on LTs with no tune?

**Texas Jack** · 03-08-2012, 11:35 AM

Yes, I did drive the car with headers, cat back, cia, and a predator tune for about a month and it was running rich. When I took it to the tuners he checked what that set up was doing and it made the least h&t, then we put the stock tune back in the car and it made better power than with the predator tune, then he tuned off the stock tune to where it is at now. I'm not sure if the cat back will make a difference but my guess is it will because it is 3". I also went with a 3" with an x and straight thru muffs. Car is only loud when your on it other wise it is not too loud. My two pennies is to get it all done and drive it until you can afford to go to a tuner, every car is different and the mail order tune won't yeild the same power, it will not hurt to drive it for a while untuned you just won't get the performace you just payed for. By the way what is your ride. Good luck, Jack

**rc74racer** · 03-08-2012, 01:26 PM

I have an 05 GTO M6. Thanks for the response.

**Texas Jack** · 03-08-2012, 05:34 PM

Nice ride!!! No problem, hope more folks respond, lot of experience here. You can expect the same results with your 05. The Volant is a great cia. If you go back to the very first thread at the botton of the page Sarge posted a gto bolt on list, just go to the beginning and it is the 2nd thread, its real close, we can expect more, and trust me it took a long time to save the money..........brother!!!!!!!!