96celt4soldier

my over all goal is to eliminate the cats. i am trying to find iether a true duel system or staight pipes or possibly an x pipe system.

i was hoping to find something prefabed as how i am currently in iraq and im trying to buy and get everything for the car put on before i get home and i dont have the resorces to take it to a muffler shop and have it fabbed.

my parents are taking care of the car for me and will take the car and all parts to a mechanic for me but if i needed somthing to be fabbed i cant really depend on them to know what to tell them.

i am new to the vettes and am still learning and have alot to learn about the car and its stock components. but as i said i am currently in iraq and dont have the most time on my hands to do so.

this is my only car so im trying to have everything done before i get home so i am never without a car as how my job can be preatty demanding some times ( US Army )

all help would be very much appreciated. if possible please include links and or part numbers.

Demonic85

Well it all depends on where you live and what kind of emissions laws you have, but one thing remains the same. Its hard to find a shop that will do this for you because its illegal not to put a cat on a car thats supposed to have it. I'm in the process of getting this done myself in another thread.

rlane5

What state in the car register in? that's the biggest problem.
Randy

aklim

Well, you are a few days late. A couple weeks ago I just tossed my cat. Why? It was too noisy with the Borla cat back system. If you wanted to, you could cut your cat and have a pipe welded in or just flared the right end to slip over it.

Why make things harder than they have to be?

85vet

First, thank you for your service!!!!!!!!!
second, fill out the rest of your personnal info. Perhaps a member could help you out if we knew where in the USA your car is.

86C4CONVERTIBLE4+3

I just bought a "test pipe" for my 86 on E-bay. I still will have the factory pre-cats in the y-pipe for now, but those will go in the spring when I put headers on it. Good luck with your car, and like the guy above said.....thank you for your service!

c4cruiser

A shop cannot, by federal law, remove cats and install straight pipe in their place. The cats on the later C4's actually flow very well and you probably wouldn't notice a big SOTP difference even with hi-flow cats. And if the car has less than 50K miles, a shop cannot even remove a working factory cat and re-install a high-flow cat.

The LT1 and LT4 exhaust systems use a cat on each side and a center resonator. The factory exhaust is considered to be a dual syystem even though the center resonator is a single piece with two pipes in and two pipes out.

There are a variety of good cat-back systems that will increase power and even provide an increase in fuel mileage. B&B Tri-Flo's are good systems as is Borla and Magnaflow. B&B and Borla use a 3" stainless system and the all of the B&B pieces are highly polished. Do a search here using terms like "exhaust" "cat-back" to find more info on what's out there.

There are shorty headers available and you can have the factory cats installed behind the collectors. I don't think that there are any long tube headers available that are emissions-legal.

Depending on where you may be assigned after your return to CONUS, you may at some point find yourself at a base where base tags require passing an emissions test.

96celt4soldier

first off i would like to thank every one for there help. im trying to learn as much as i can and all of you are helping me out alot.

second the car is registered in Colorado where there are no emissions laws (at least where it is registered there arnt) one of you had mentioned if i get stationed somewhere else i would have to change back depending on the laws there that is why i was looing for a bolt on system instead of a faded system so at any point i could just unbolt and bolt the stock exhaust back on.

for now i keep my car registered in CO no matter where i get stationed because thats where my parents live and the insurance company who i have delt with for the last 5 years (needless to say they give me a great deal) but once i ets out of the army in a couple more years i will have to switch my registration to what ever state i am in.

as of right now the car is in Maine but in a week oro so it will be back down in CO with my parents. another issue is if any one is from colorado and knows some good mechanics in the area please let me know other wise i will just keep looking around.

thanks again

aklim

I got TPIS long tube headers and they go into the cat which I have said you can hollow out like I did but the noise was too much for the wifey so I used a Random Technologies cat. A compromise between price, muffling and flow.

aklim

BTW, "duel" is a fight. "dual" is the word you want unless you are looking for a fight with someone at the crack of dawn with pistols or swords.

c4cruiser

Why do you want to eliminate the cats? The factory cats really don't hurt HP and their removal will definitely harm air quality. You may even find some driveability issues with the cats removed and a "true dual" system installed.

As I mentioned, the 92 and later exhaust systems are a dual exhaust system already. The factory resonator is chambered such that the exhaust gasses don't really mix together completely.

If you want better sound and some added performance, look at the cat-back systems. And they are legal in all 50 states. When you get back to where the car is, find some local Vette owners that have system sinstalled on their cars and listen to them. There should be some Forum members in Colorado that can help you out.

MarkBychowski

Thank you very much for your service to your country and all of us!

I agree with the others that losing the cats, while staying with the stock manifolds, won't gain you much at all. When I still had the factory manifolds, I swapped to a set of gutted cats and didn't notice any change except for the fact that it was louder.

There's one option that would work perfectly for you, but it's not necessarily cheap:
Exotic Muscle long-tube headers with a Corsa cat-back. EM sells pre-made pipes that connect their headers to the corsa system. If you ever go anywhere that requires cats, EM also sells connector pipes with bullet cats.

Again, definitely not cheap, but this is the only true bolt-on complete system I'm aware of without having a shop fab something up.

Edit: I forgot to mention that on a '96 there is another set of rear O2 sensors that test the cats. If you remove them you either need to run O2 sensor simulators or get your car reprogrammed to avoid triggering a service engine light.