First post, new third gen owner. I bought a 1991 RS with the 305 TBI last week. Wrecked hood and fenders, front clip not great either. Drives fine, looks bad.
As expected, it moves out fine with the torque, then falls flat on it's face. I've spent the last week reading all the posts about modding the TBI. I don't really want to do a new cam etc. right now, as I'm also needing to take care of the bodywork and paint. But, most posts say the best gains will be from exhaust as the stock sucks. Am I reading correctly that from the cat-back, won't do much good? Need a new cat, y pipe, and if possible, headers? I don't do exhaust, but I know enough to recognize each piece. If I were to go this route, including a three inch cat, would I be looking at around 15-20hp gain? This would put me somewhere I could be satisfied til I got the bodywork and paint done and got some money together for the interior and serious engine work. And my wife's not really caring about the ultimate power. She's happy with me doing a project car as long as it has an aggressive sound.
Any replies would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Bryan

 

Yeah, do headers 1 5/8 or 1 3/4 primaries into 3" collectors and then 3" all the way back. Some have seen a 30hp pickup from that alone. That is a pretty big estimate though, but 15-20 is very reasonable. It will wake the car up. Gears and posi are the next step, they really make it feel much faster because it's snappier

 

So when I look on hawks site, they have a bunch of headers listed, most for over $400, then a couple of hedmen for $170 with 1 5/8 into 3". Are they any good for such a price difference?

 

The Hedmans that are 170 and the Hookers that are 190 do not come with a y-pipe. The other sets do, that's where the price difference comes in. Most people will recommend getting them coated too. Personally, I dont drive in rain or snow, and I used high temp VHT paint on mine and haven't had any rusting, they look great after about 2.5 years.

Look around on the Exhaust forum, they will have good suggestions as to which headers are best, do a search around on there.

 

When you order the exhaust don't get the stuff for the 5.0 liter TBI, get the parts for the 86-90 TPI 5.7/5.0 HO. The TPI stuff is less restrictive and will bolt right up to your stock hangers and brackets. Make sure it is for the single-converter application and not the 89-92 dual-converter stuff. If you can afford it your best bet is to get it all at once from headers and y-pipe to converter and the cat-back.