I just picked up a 91 T/A TBI today for a grand from my cousin. The car is completely stock except for the Magna Flow catback. I was looking at y-pipes and headers trying to decided which would be the best bang for the buck. I know I'll want ceramic headers but what about the y-pipe. I'm new at the Pontiac thing so any help would be great.

 

The third gen y-pipe is, arguably, the worst power restriction on our cars. Yours needs to be evicted.

I like to have the exhaust guy bend my pipes while I am pointing and waving my arms while we have the car on the lift. I also like to use the Flowmaster Y transition piece. You need to have the O2 bung welded on as well. Then later when headers are added I'll have him fit the y-pipe to the headers. You may want to buy headers and y-pipe together as there are many kits available.

Putting new headers on with your crappy y-pipe will not give you much noticeable difference.

 

I'll probably go with the bolt on edelbrock kit--it's simple, complete, and legal in CA:
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

 

i'm planning on removing my egr and stuff like that. i live in kansas and we don't have emissions laws there so i can do what i want. i'm guessing those are the egr tubes on top of the headers. if i'm right can those just be cut and welded shut? i don't know, i've got a mean bitch mustang and this is my first time messing with a pontiac.

 

First off, I know it says Pontiac on the outside. The engine you're dealing with is all Chevy.

The tubes going into the manifolds are not EGR. They are AIR. That's air injection reaction.

It takes fresh air and runs it through the smog pump on the front of the engine and then pumps it into the exhaust to help the catalytic converter burn all of the excess fuel in the exhaust. If you are taking off your emission parts, you won't need them. Don't cut them, though. Spray them down with penetrating oil and take them out if you can. there are people here who will buy them from you off the classifieds so that they can pass a smog test where they live. Save your smog pump and bracket as well and sell the whole bunch of parts as a smog kit. You'll make a few bucks, so why not?

Once you take them out you can just use a regular bolt to plug the hole. Because they are tubing threads, you can just cut the right size bolt down and they will screw right in and seal up.

When you go to buy new headers, you need to specify with A.I.R. or without. Now you know what that means!

 

thanks, i really appreciate you clearing that up for me. what else will be involved in getting rid of the egr system and would that also remove the air system at the same time?

 

They are different systems. You should probably go and get a repair manual for this stuff. It will help you identify what you are dealing with.

The AIR system is the smog pump up front, the tubes that go into your exhaust manifolds, and the check valves and hoses that they are hooked to. If you take all that stuff off you just need to put the short bolts in the manifold holes and you're ready to run.

The EGR system is comprised of the EGR valve, which is bolted to the intake manifold, a control valve to turn it on, and some vacuum hoses. If you unbolt the EGR valve you can make a plate from scrap metal and bolt it down to your intake where the EGR valve used to be. Use a new gasket and seal it on there well or else you will have exhaust leaking into your intake and the car will run like absolute crap.
You will need to follow the vacuum line from the EGR vavle back to the control relay (which also has vacuum lines going to it) and plug the line that controls it. If you don't do this properly you will have a vacuum leak and your car will run like crap.

I don't recommend doing this EGR stuff unless you have a really, really good reason. You get no performance benefit from trashing it and it doesn't weigh much. It's better to leave it all bolted on and just plug the vacuum line that controls it if you don't want it to work.

 

i just really like the idea of cleaning up the engine bay. now that i have this somewhat figured out how about something to open up the intake?

 

So, you're really gonna hate me for this one. I'm in Iraq right now so I had my wife go get me the VIN of this car. My cousin (who I bought it from) was saying it was a trans am, but some of the body pieces told me otherwise. Well, she got the VIN and opened the hood, low and behold it's a 1990 Pontiac Trans Am with an LB9 under the hood. Now that I know this I have to research all this stuff again. I'm not complaining though, I got the car for a grand.