What would be a good way to get more power by tuning a bit on the exhaust?

I'm not too familiar with this stuff so don't know about hooker this or edelbrock that or other technical mumbojumbo... but I would be very pleased if someone could explain some of it. The exhaust on my car is without the dual-cat option, so just single. But it's gutted so already have a little more power. How much does that give anyway?

Any advice guys?

 

theres no such thing as cheap. just about everyone installs a better (sometimes larger diameter pipe) Cat-back exhaust or has one made, and most everyone does headers-becuase the stock manifolds dont do justice for the engine, they're very restrictive.

a hi-flow cat is also something that is highly recommended, there are a few (very small # of) guys who have gutted cats and have recently put hi-flows on, it pretty much tones the exhaust and helps the enviroment a little But if u go putting a hi-flow cat on the stock exhaust your not gaining much because the 2 1/4" doesnt flow nearly as well as say a single 2 1/2 or 3" mandrel bent pipe would.

 

Okay thanx.... but I still didn't understand alot of the technical stuff. For example, what is a Cat-back exhaust? Does headers or manifolds mean the part of the exhaust that is directly connected to the engine itself? What about a mandrel bent pipe? Also I didn't understand the inch specifications, I've never understood that. We use the metric system where I come from so...
What about the stock mufflers? are they terribly restrictive? is it the same with them that it's best to swap to a larger pipe first?

I just got my car and haven't really cared for stuff like this before... until now! so I need some help with this
Thanx!

 

well I don't know the answer to all your questions but I will do what I can so here goes, cat back is exaust that literally goes from the catalytic converter to the end of the exuast system. headders or a manifold (the manifold is what comes stock, headders is individual pipes that go into the collecter. when talking about inch specs its reffering to the diameter of the pipe, as far as translating that to metric I know theres a conversion formula I just don't know it (math was never my strong point). I hope this helps a little bit

 

1 inch = 2.54 cm. I minored in math in school .

 

Yes it helps, thank you.
I understood that about the diameter, just not the inch stuff... math was never my strong side either... heh!
So the manifolds and the headres are basically the same part of the exhaust, except manifold is what comes stock... and both go into the collectors? And the collectors are fitted to the engineblock?


Nice avatar by the way red90bird, always liked "who framed Roger Rabbit" "...No toon can resist the ol' shave'n a haircut"

 

I guess I should clarify a little bit, (probabbly my fault) anyway a typical exaust system is put together as follows. the manifolds (which come stock) or hedders, bolt to the block, all the exaust ports meet in the collecter (which is the biggest differentce between manifolds and hedders) then they go to a Y pipe which connects both of manifols together (this is assuming you don't have true duel exaust) then there is a pipe that goes from the Y pipe to the cat, from the cat to the muffler, then to the exaust tips. basically the job of a good exaust system is to get the exaust out of the engine and the system as quickly and smoothly as possible. the bigger the exaust pipe the better this is accomplished, however there are practical limits depending on your setup. anyway sorry for the long post and I hope this answers your question.