OK I have an 88 Trans am L03 TBI 305. I want a little more power and sound but I am on a budget. Right now I have Flowmaster Series 80 on my car from the cat back. I am unsure of what type of headers and mid pipe I should be looking for. I am considering an off road midpipe because I can get it inspected still. So what am I looking at for brands and price?

Thanks,
Jared

 

One thing is for sure, you need to get rid of your y-pipe.

The TBI engines have the worst y-pipe of all third gen engines. Along with your cat-back, switching the y-pipe is probably the best thing you can do for your car. Of course, headers and a high flow cat are good too!

I think hooker 2055's are pretty good pieces. I hope I got that part number right... Also, don't forget to surf eBay and the our classifieds. I LOVE USED PARTS!! I have gotten some great deals from our classifieds here. Basically you need some 1 5/8" primary tube shortie headers if you're mostly stock and on a budget. Your stock exhaust is so bad that you will feel a nice difference when you upgrade.

Make sure your y-pipe is a true 2-into-1 transition and not two pipes welded together.

Good luck and welcome aboard!

After exhaust,, your next upgrade is a set of 87-up TPI or LG4 305 heads with 1.94 intakes and a TPI fuel pump!

Have fun!

 

If you're REALLY on a budget, even upgrading to the 350 TPI factory manifolds and y-pipe makes a big difference over the puny TBI manifolds and pipe. I'm running an Edelbrock 3" RPM series catback with the manifolds and y-pipe from an 88 350 TPI car on my L03. It sounds terrific and you can actually feel it pulls harder. I also gutted the 3" factory TPI cat and had a straight pipe welded inside it (still looks perfectly legal on the outside It also sounds better than just a hollow cat.). With those few mods it sounds more like a 350 and pulls a lot harder than it did stock. I've got a nice coated set of Hooker 2055's I'm going to be putting on when the weather warms up, but switching to the TPI manifolds and y-pipe was cheap and well worth it. You can pick up that stuff cheap from someone who's upgraded their TPI car to headers. Just something you might want to consider if you don't want to fork out the cash for headers right now.

 

Exactly right; on a budget, manifolds aren't bad from a TPI 350. I would try and find the money for a real y-pipe, though. Even the TPI y-pipe is not great.

 

Nobody makes a y-pipe that will bolt to stock manifolds. You need one custom made or you need to change everything and get a matched set.

 

They're not kidding about that y-pipe being pretty scrawny. Im think the primaries on my headers are bigger than that y-pipe.