i am thinking about begining to mod my car and i have been asking about rear ends and heads and cams and everything and with all that considered i want to ask if i should go for a cat-back or headers. i am either going to do heads, a cam, a rear end, or something with the exhaust. i want to know what will be the cheapest to do and easiest also (headers or cat-back) and what brand should i go for?

 

Catback is easier than headers. Then when you do the headers later on it will be easy to put the two systems together. A high flow cat is a good idea too.
I'm happy with Flowmaster quality. Also put a system on my friends '79 Z-28. Installation not too bad, and good sound. Just keep getting opinions.

 

can i put on a cat-back myself?

 

For the power gains I would say headers is your best bet in terms of price. On my car I got Edelbrock TES(headers and y pipe), the TES and a high flow cat got me a 20hp gain at the rear wheels(dyno not estimated). A cat-back would be the cheapest with labor and parts, but you would mostly just get better sound. Heads cost alot and even more to install but would give you the biggest gains.