Headers ,cat or catless??
Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 19,459
Likes: 48
From: Schaumburg IL
CI 7-8-9-11 Veteran
St. Jude Donor '06-'10, '13
Headers ,cat or catless??
Well, this darn forum had done it to me again,,after reading about all the mods every day..my next one will be LT headers.
I have an 01 with SLP catback. I have narrowed it down to Kooks or LGM. I have read a few posts saying without cats you get a smell inside the car upon start up (logical since the gasses are not burning off inside the cats), how bad is it?...and I have also read about a lot of build up on the back of the car without cats?
I am not worried about noise level, or codes etc....I'll have an LS1 edit or tune done..
are the high flow cats worth the extra 400 bucks? how much of a pita would it be to install without cats and then add them later if needed?
Thanks
I have an 01 with SLP catback. I have narrowed it down to Kooks or LGM. I have read a few posts saying without cats you get a smell inside the car upon start up (logical since the gasses are not burning off inside the cats), how bad is it?...and I have also read about a lot of build up on the back of the car without cats?
I am not worried about noise level, or codes etc....I'll have an LS1 edit or tune done..
are the high flow cats worth the extra 400 bucks? how much of a pita would it be to install without cats and then add them later if needed?
Thanks
Safety Car
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 3,838
Likes: 85
From: DFW Texas
It's going to depend on your car. Some cars get the smell and some don't. I have two close buddies with vettes. We all have LGM Headers w/out cats. In my vette and my buddy Brannon's vette you get no smell at all. In my friend, Chads vette, you can smell it a little.
If you are going for performance do not sell yourself short. Go with out cats. You will be happy you did.
Worse case, you can't stand it so later on go spend the extra $$ for cats. For now just go with out the cats.
P:S Go with LGM Headers.
If you are going for performance do not sell yourself short. Go with out cats. You will be happy you did.
Worse case, you can't stand it so later on go spend the extra $$ for cats. For now just go with out the cats.
P:S Go with LGM Headers.
Team Owner
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 21,234
Likes: 19
From: Freestate Corvette Club! Elkridge, MD
St. Jude Donor '17
Not to throw another thing out there - but if you get the FLP's you get easily swappable high flow CATs AND Test pipes that can be put in place of the CATS in less than 15 minutes.
Yes the FLP's are more expensive than most - but this is a nice feature!
Yes the FLP's are more expensive than most - but this is a nice feature!
Melting Slicks
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 3,494
Likes: 0
From: McKinney Tx
Cruise-In V Veteran
St. Jude's Donor '05
I have the FLP's and love the fact that you can change from off-road pipes to the high-flow cats in about and 1 hour give or take a feew minutes. Howver the drone with my borlas made me crazy after awhile. Went to a tuner shop and had them fabricate some 12'' bullets in place of the off-road/ hi flow cats. No loss in performance and cut the drone by 50%. The exhaust note is alot deeper and sounds even meaner than before 
Good thing is I can still remove the bullets and reinstall the cats when I need too 
Good thing is I can still remove the bullets and reinstall the cats when I need too
Safety Car
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 3,838
Likes: 85
From: DFW Texas
If you are going with cats you should just spend your money on something else then headers. The cost of them compared to the hp they put out is not worth it to me if you get cats. You want to suck every little bit of hp out of that $$$!
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Race Director
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 16,477
Likes: 26
From: Gone
CI 6-7-8-9-10 Veteran
St. Jude Donor '03
I think with either of those header systems, you can opt to get both the cats and the straight pipes, allowing you to switch between them whenever you'd like.
I have the FLP system, which also has both. I run mine without the cats most of the time. It sounds better (louder), and it does pull harder in the higher rpms. After running catless for over a year, I put the cats back in last fall, and the loss of peak hp was instantly noticible. Also, I never found the smell annoying or overpowering like some people claim.
If I had to choose one or the other when purchasing a header system, I'd choose the version with no cats.
I have the FLP system, which also has both. I run mine without the cats most of the time. It sounds better (louder), and it does pull harder in the higher rpms. After running catless for over a year, I put the cats back in last fall, and the loss of peak hp was instantly noticible. Also, I never found the smell annoying or overpowering like some people claim.
If I had to choose one or the other when purchasing a header system, I'd choose the version with no cats.
Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 19,459
Likes: 48
From: Schaumburg IL
CI 7-8-9-11 Veteran
St. Jude Donor '06-'10, '13
Hey Tom I remember seeing you at our last cruise of the season at D&B's and you had just put your cat's back on....and I forgot to ask you about the smell etc..I didn't notice any coming from your car when you started it. I do remember you saying it was a quite a bit tamer in terms of sound.
I was hoping you'd see this thread.
I remember seeing you at our last cruise of the season at D&B's and you had just put your cat's back on....and I forgot to ask you about the smell etc..I didn't notice any coming from your car when you started it. I do remember you saying it was a quite a bit tamer in terms of sound.I was hoping you'd see this thread.
