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I'm thinking about doing longtubes on my 04 Z06. Right now the car is bone stock other than the zip tie mod and a home ported TB. I want to keep the car pretty tame so I'm keeping the stock TI exhaust. My question is how much power will I be leaving on the table leaving the stock H pipe on the car with the longtubes. I'll remove the cats but keep the 2.5" piping. I'm assuming very little loss on a close to stock car but I thought I'd ask. Also if I remove the AIR system from the car will the car throw any codes? I know it will throw down stream codes which will have to be tuned out anyway but I'm just curious about the AIR system. Fbodys don't. Thanks
AIR removal will throw a code.. you will need to tune it out.. if you get headers with the AIR i would just hook them up, no performance loss with the AIR system. you will need to replace the mid pipe when doing Headers... i would do 3" X pipe in the mid and connect to the stock Ti's. should sound good and perform better with 3" Mid pipe.
Long-tubes or shorty headers? I believe all LTs come with the mid-pipe, stock just doesn't fit. It's confusing, I know, the first time I saw "headers" I almost felt mislead.
LTs with the Z06 Ti catbacks are a great street/track combo, they're quiet until you get on 'em, then they howl like a scalded dog.
Removing the AIR System will NOT gain any HP/Tq.... Just a weight savings if you can call that a gain...
Stock CATs cost you 7-12 HP. The nasty exhaust smell that you will experience when they are removed is worth the additional HP to keep them.
Unless you add a BIG cam,,, Ported heads and a Fast 90/92/102 manifold,,,,,,,,, the stock 2.5 inch exhaust will N O T limit your HP/Tq enough to worry about.
I have 2 Fbodys both are catless so the smell doesn't bother me. The AIR I wanted to remove for the less weight, easier spark plug changes, and to clean up under the hood. And I'm looking at TSP headers. They sell them with or without the midpipe but if buying without it comes with some adapter pipes that taper down from the 3" collector to the 2.5". You just have to cut the stock mid pipe.
You're a well respect and knowledgable member but I gotta bust yer ***** a little....
Originally Posted by Bill Curlee
Removing the AIR System will NOT gain any HP/Tq.... Just a weight savings if you can call that a gain...
Weight savings is always good, big or small. However the biggest benefit to removing the AIR system is the cleanliness of the engine bay. It drastically cleans it up and there's also no more air tubes in the way of changing spark plugs or doing anything else in the engine bay. I always delete the AIR system when doing a header install unless the customer specifies otherwise.
Originally Posted by Bill Curlee
Stock CATs cost you 7-12 HP. The nasty exhaust smell that you will experience when they are removed is worth the additional HP to keep them.
7hp is definitely on the low side, I'd say more in the 10-15rwhp range. The smell vs. performance is all relative and debatable depending on the person. A lot of the smell can be tuned out by a competent tuner that knows how to properly calibrate idle/part throttle fueling. Playing with injector timing also helps BIG time with the stinky'ness.
Originally Posted by Bill Curlee
Unless you add a BIG cam,,, Ported heads and a Fast 90/92/102 manifold,,,,,,,,, the stock 2.5 inch exhaust will N O T limit your HP/Tq enough to worry about.
100% agreement with this statement. The stock mids flow plenty of air.
To the OP, TSP sells a longtube header that can be fitted to your car using their connection pipes. This deletes the cats, however does not require buying a full system or replacement your mid pipe system.