so, first off i just want to say i have a 350tpi. i have the hooker 2055's with the y. right now, my exhaust ends at the tip of the y pipe

however i called an exhaust shop and told him i have my catco cat (3in) and my magnaflow set up already welded together. (had to cut it off to switch out fuel pumps)

so, i told the guy i have no intermediate pipe and want a 3in, guy laughs and says i wont find any muffler shop in town with 3in pipes and he said he could possibly order one for me, but itll be the crinkley bs. wtf?

no way ill put a 2 1/2 in on there, IMO i think itll choke up the exhaust...am i right? goin from 3 in to 2 1/2 in with crinkley bends??

and how is a mandrel bent 3in so scarce?? figured that would be a staple in any exhaust shop!!

 

i've got 3" all the way back on my TA but its that crappy crinkle bent stuff.

Looks like its time for 3.5" mandrel bent exhaust..

 

You can find 3" Mandrel bent exhaust systems all over the web. Shops can probably order the same thing and charge a 100% markup on it.

Why not just buy one from an on-line shop and install it yourself?

 

have you looked into mufflex? they have bolt on 4 inch systems. decent prices, made for fbodies.

 

there is no reason for him to go to a 3.5 or 4 inch exhaust system. A good 3 inch will be enough, unless he plans on making a bit more power in the future

 

I built my 3" ex. using a dynomax i-pipe,aerochamber, and 2.5" ubends(for the tails) all from summit all for cheaper than the hooker kit.

 

Just keep in mind the Dynomax intermediate pipe isn't really 3". It's close, but it's more like 2.75". It's an exact replacement for the stock L98. It also necks down to 2.5 into the muffler if I remember correctly.

Flowmaster sells an honest 3" intermediate pipe with a break in the middle where the pipe goes over the axle. The price is about twice the price of the Dynomax pipe, and it's a bit harder to find. Summit sells the Flowmaster and Dynomax pipe, but you can get the Dynomax pipe under the Walker line from almost any autoparts store.

 

yea and then in cali i had a guy tell me that theres no difference at all between a mandrel bent 3in and the crinkly stuff, like its some sort of fairytale theory. yea dude...

i would love to order a true 3in intermediate pipe but thats it, no cat backs. i just didnt know if there were any out there thats correct to fit for our F body's, so they dont have to bend it all up and "crinkle" the bends. ill look on summit hopefully i can find something.

thanks for the info guys.

 

http://www.summitracing.com/search/D...8/?Ns=Rank|Asc

I'd suggest calling if you want to order the Flowmaster one... it might be 3 seperate pieces.

 

Sam:
Look up Allied Exhaust in SD, they have a 3" intermediate mandrel bent replacement pipe you can use.
If they can't help you PM me and I will get you the #

 

so what would be the cutoff on housepower to where i would want to go to a 3.5 or more?

ill be putting a 358 906 vortec head motor flat top pistons and change the cam from what i have since its a circle track cam made to turn 6500 rpm LOL. but i want to keep the tpi what would HP i expect to get from one of them with a moderate cam setup would i need to change the exhaust?

 

if they can cut/weld pipe together then just order the pipes yourself from summit. Just need a few J bends.

 

I had mine done about four months ago.

I had to pay a lot for the 3 inch mandrel bent intermediate pipe, around 100-150 IIRC.

 

Oh it is... And the pieces are sold individually. Hit up the Flowmaster website, and you can pull up each of their kits instructions which show each piece with the part numbers. The Dynomax 2 piece intermediate pipe (WLK-44063 + WLK-43248) might be a true 3" pipe. The front half is only for single cat cars though... The WLK-46669 and WLK-46744 are the single piece intermediate pipes they include in there cat-backs and sell as service replacements for stock L98 exhausts. Both neck down to 2.5 where they enter the muffler. Until that point they're at least 2.75", same as a stock L98 pipe.

 

More info...

It's $50 cheaper (Summit prices, Walker/Dynomax exhaust is stocked by most autoparts chains and can be had cheaper sometimes) to buy the Flowmaster 3 piece 3" intermediate pipe then the 2 piece Dynomax 3". I'm not even sure where that Dynomax intermediate pipe comes from since they dont even show a 3" catback on their website.

The Dynomax 3" pipe is WLK-44063 ($103) + WLK-43248 ($58), and includes an oversized shipping charge. Also it's only for single cat cars. $161 + shipping

The Flowmaster 3" intermediate pipe is FLO-26088 ($45) + FLO-26103 ($36) + either FLO-26003 ($25) for single cat cars, or FLO-Y-16078 ($93) for dual cat cars. So $106 for single cats, $174 for dual cats.

The dual cat setup includes the high flow Flowmaster Y-pipe. A person could always just have either single cat pipe flanged to bolt up to the stock dual cats.

Or a person could get the WLK-46669 or WLK-46744 and have the outlet expanded to fit a 3" inlet muffler. Or cut them over the axle and use the WLK-43248 over axle pipe to stay 3". But either of the earlier options would probably flow better and would be less hassle.

 

Nope, mines full 3" no necking down at all.

 

1 pc or 2 pc? Which part number?

 

will do thanks for the info Don

 

from the looks of it and what drew said it does seem like an individual piece/price and thats not bad if it goes in with no bending. i would like to have flanged connections so i can unbolt my exhaust for future mods/maintenance so it wont have to be cut up again..like when it had to be chopped up to drop my tank for the new fuel pump to be put in.

 

The 1 pc intermediate pipes are a bit of a bear to work with. The car has to be a certain height off the ground, so you can snake it into position. With the split over the axle, the car doesn't have to be as high off the ground. Flowmaster adds the third break so that the front section can be ordered to match the single or dual converters. In practice there probably isn't much performance difference between them.

 

I wish I had a finshed pic of mine. I basicly laid out the original system and made my own from 2.5" collectors Y'd into 3". No cat. Solid back to axle, added flanges to bolt together, over axle, and into muffler. You're better off doing it yourself. If you go to a shop they are going to make a factory style Y-pipe that is crap. I added a piece of stainless flex in place of the converter. Cost was around $125 and took about a week to cut/piece together. Barely visible in first picture is the cutout I added just behind front wheel. I've always loved it when a car idles by and throws dirt up in peoples faces.
Pieces before final welding:

 

It was 2pc, I don't remember the p/n.

 

magnaflow 16829 all stainless