Ok guys within the next month ill be purchasing my new exhaust. My plans are the hooker catback for TPI and a 3inch cat to go with that. I have a few questions: Will one of the catco/carsound cats off ebay work fine or do i really need to spring for a direct fit replacement. I plan on doing the install my self so welding/cutting is kinda out of the question. So basically will a universal 3 inch cat work fine? My other question is, what type of adapter do i need to mate the 3 inch cat to my stock tbi y-pipe. Do i need a slip on or bolth on reducer and am i gonna need to cut anything to make the reducer fit?? Any help would be appriciated...

 

A universal cat will not fit without cutting and welding. You could just put it on and take it to a shop and have them take care of it for ya. It shouldn't cost more than $20.

I bought a directfit magnaflow cat for my car it was only $127.45 to my door.

 

Well thats a decent idea and all but the direct fit cat for TPI would be smaller than 3", right??? (and even it the TPI direct fit cat was 3" i would still need to find a way to mate it to the TBI y-pipe)Like id really like to install the catback myself but if i had to take it to an exhaust shop to put the cat on then i might as well have them put the catback on too. That could be $100 and atleast $40 for the cat. So basically it comes down to do i get a $127.45 smaller cat that will fit decently or do i pay $140 to have everything installed including a 3" cat...unless there are better options that im not seeing. I may just have the exhaust shop do it then because id really like to get the most out of my exhaust system w/o doing headers right now and that would obviously be to get a 3" cat.

 

Alright, ive been doing alot of reading about universal cats and they seem like a massive PITA to install. Assuming my car will be having the stock manifolds/hi flo cat/and 3" catback on it for ATLEAST a year before new headers go on... Would i be OK using a direct fit TBI cat and basically the hooker TBI catback? I mean obviously the cat would be smaller, but it would still be better than the stock one... I would figure that in my car's current state with stock manifolds the difference in power with a 3" cat and a direct fit 2 1/4 cat would be neglidgable at best. And like i said, it would be atleast a year until headers went on, if i ever put them on... So basically teh question is: would a direct fit 2 1/4 cat yield any less power in my cars current state than a 3" cat???

 

anybody????????

 

Yes, it will yield less power. However, I do not think it is going to make that much of a difference. I wouldn't worry about it too much unless it is a racing engine.

 

If get the catco 9118 cat (which is direct fit but 3 inches), is there any way i can use a reducer on that to mate it to the factory y-pipe??? That would be awesome because it would be a 3 inch system until the y-pipe and it would accomdate the addition of hooker 2055s in the future...any help on this would be appricaited...

 

I do not think a reducer would work. The y-pipe would probably just fall off.

If I were you I would just wait and buy all the exhaust components at once. Get all the components for the tpi exhaust so that you will have a three inch cat and y-pipe and everything will match up perfectlly.

 

I agree.

Although a 3" cat with a reducer would work you are looking at more work and a non-direct bolt on. There would be cutting involved. Also, the stock cat does not just come right off of the y-pipe. You would have to cut it off. No big deal but it seems like you want this to go with simple hand tools.

Here is what I would do.

If you cannot wait and you must do somthing to your exhaust buy the TBI hooker cat-back. It will still be 3" but will have a 2.25" reducer pre-fabed onto the end of the I-pipe. It will bolt right up to your stock cat with only simple hand tools. There will be no cutting, welding or relocating of brackets/hangers. If you buy a 3" cat keep it off to the side until you have the headers. At that time you can cut the 2.25" reducer off of the hooker cat back and procede with the install. At that point there will be some fab work since you are changing the mating surfaces of the components (cutting the reducer reduced the length of the i-pipe). However, some universal 3" slip fit cats may be long enough and accomodate the distance you need to fill between the y-pipe and cat-back. Universal cats will require some attention to the stock hangers.

The cheapest and easiest route is to wait until you have all three.

 

Long story short any money i make from this point until march 6th (when track season starts and i dont work as much) will be used on my car. We're looking at approximately $350-$500 here (obviously only enough for a catback and maybe a cat). Now if i wait possibly a few months longer i might be able to get the headers then but i mean seriously i hate how quiet my car is right now and i REALLY want to just get something on there to improve sound.

It looks like i may just get the hooker TBI catback and then get the cat at the same time as the headers.

To tell you the truth i have enough money right now in my bank account to buy everything in one shot, but technically i have that money put towards a Corvette for when i get outta college...not to mention as 'safety' money in case something expensive on my car breaks. So i mean i could buy headers now but i think it would be foolish especially looking at things from a logical and mature standpoint.