Good sounding exhaust with a CATLESS setup?
Thread Starter
Cruising
Joined: Jul 2017
Posts: 13
Likes: 0
Good sounding exhaust with a CATLESS setup?
Hey all, curious to what axleback ls people are running on LS2's with headers and catless X pipe setups.
Ive watched a few videos and a fair bit of them are super raspy sounding and just plain bad sounding.
Curious on the hooker blackheart w/ muffler. A few videos online of that exhaust on stock cars and catted X pipe cars and it's fairly quiet. Would it be much louder with catless
Ive watched a few videos and a fair bit of them are super raspy sounding and just plain bad sounding.
Curious on the hooker blackheart w/ muffler. A few videos online of that exhaust on stock cars and catted X pipe cars and it's fairly quiet. Would it be much louder with catless
Race Director
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 14,555
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From: Saint Albans, WV
It really doesn't matter which aftermarket exhaust you choose...the offroad will have a major impact on sound as well as odor. Don't put a lot of faith in internet sound clips due to the fact the sound usually is no where near the actual live sound.
Pro
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 580
Likes: 15
2005 ls2 manual trans... cammed and supercharged... kooks headers and kooks catless midpipe and borla stinger 2 mufflers... music to my ears... higher pitched exhaust that sounds closer to a ferarri sound then a corvette actually... doesn't get extremely loud until around 4k
Racer
Joined: Dec 2016
Posts: 438
Likes: 24
Hey all, curious to what axleback ls people are running on LS2's with headers and catless X pipe setups.
Ive watched a few videos and a fair bit of them are super raspy sounding and just plain bad sounding.
Curious on the hooker blackheart w/ muffler. A few videos online of that exhaust on stock cars and catted X pipe cars and it's fairly quiet. Would it be much louder with catless
Ive watched a few videos and a fair bit of them are super raspy sounding and just plain bad sounding.
Curious on the hooker blackheart w/ muffler. A few videos online of that exhaust on stock cars and catted X pipe cars and it's fairly quiet. Would it be much louder with catless
Race Director
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 12,502
Likes: 3,631
You only loss about 3hp with high flow cats, but better yet, the car cabin does not stink of unburnt fuel every stop light instead.
Install the dam high flow cats, since maybe you don't mind the stink at the stop light, but the rest of do if we are behind you at the light isntead
Install the dam high flow cats, since maybe you don't mind the stink at the stop light, but the rest of do if we are behind you at the light isntead
Last edited by Dano523; Aug 6, 2017 at 11:11 PM.
Advanced
Joined: Sep 2016
Posts: 65
Likes: 3
I have Texas Speed Headers and catless x pipe and the Blackheart axle back. It is definitely loud but sounds really good. definitely not quiet by any means, but I get no drone unless your way too many gears high cruising slowly, like in 6th doing 40mph. Internet sound clips will basically make anything sound the same from a Z06 NPP, straight pipes, or anything really. I listened to a lot of clips and none of them sounded any different than the next, even as far as colume went there was very little difference in anything I listened to.
I get very little exhaust smell from my car, nothing excessive that's for sure.
I get very little exhaust smell from my car, nothing excessive that's for sure.
Last edited by crazyorigin; Aug 7, 2017 at 01:13 AM.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 5,376
Likes: 1,118
Hey all, curious to what axleback ls people are running on LS2's with headers and catless X pipe setups.
Ive watched a few videos and a fair bit of them are super raspy sounding and just plain bad sounding.
Curious on the hooker blackheart w/ muffler. A few videos online of that exhaust on stock cars and catted X pipe cars and it's fairly quiet. Would it be much louder with catless
Ive watched a few videos and a fair bit of them are super raspy sounding and just plain bad sounding.
Curious on the hooker blackheart w/ muffler. A few videos online of that exhaust on stock cars and catted X pipe cars and it's fairly quiet. Would it be much louder with catless
And on the catless thing: I agree that if you can run cats (i.e. not supercharged), there's no harm in running cats, as long as you get the right high flow cats. But don't buy into this "it will be stinky" without cats thing. That's more in the tune than anything, from my experience. Because after blowing one of my cats into the X-pipe (It's a supercharger thing), I drilled them both out and I swear to you that I cannot tell the difference. I credit that to having a very good tuner though (schpenxel) and I'm using ID injectors, which come very accurate injector data, which is essential to getting the idle tune right.
Last edited by CI GS; Aug 7, 2017 at 10:03 AM.
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Joined: Jul 2015
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From: Frisco, TX
btw op, best sounding is subjective
Last edited by Travlee; Aug 7, 2017 at 12:56 PM.
Race Director
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From: Saint Albans, WV
I'll buy into the "it won't be as stinky" with the windows up. My car's been tuned throughout multiple changes and the odor is unavoidable. ECS and Mayhem Motorsports are pretty good at what they do.
Last edited by saplumr; Aug 7, 2017 at 01:27 PM.
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Well, that rotten egg smell is not good enough for me... I went with Kooks headers & their green catted X pipe, no bad smell at any stop light or traffic
Burning Brakes
Joined: May 2017
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From: Friday Harbor WA
My 1969 Vette with sidepipes never stunk back in the day and my 1976 Vega with the cat removed never stunk, my 1996 1 ton cube van doesn't stink without the cat, so why would my 2012 GS CE stink if I was to go catless, if it was properly tuned and at operating temp??
I realize there is a lot more going on with the 2012 Vette, but am curious why it might stink?
I realize there is a lot more going on with the 2012 Vette, but am curious why it might stink?
Last edited by TomdaToolman; Aug 8, 2017 at 12:54 AM.
Le Mans Master
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My 6.2 truck with 1 7/8" AFRs and no cats stinks, but I believe that's because I've never been able to get the idle tune right. But I really can't tell that my car doesn't have cats anymore. I was worried when I had to gut the cats, but I honestly don't miss them.
Advanced
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The only time I have ever smelled anything like a "rotten egg" coming from a car was when burning in a new set of cats. My car runs with no cats and all I ever smell is a faint smell of old school, carbureted exhaust smell, which honestly I love. It is not nearly as bad as my C10 that has a very good MPFI unit on it, and no cats. The tune is where the smell comes from, if you do a hack job with a hand tuner its not gonna burn as clean, or run as good. I had a very good tuner do my tune and the car runs perfect and has almost no stink from the pipes. A few hundred dollars to have an expert reflash your stock ECU is money much better spent than on a hand held tuner where your just guessing at what your car needs. Nothing replaces an experienced tuner and a dyno, probably did 20-25 pulls with my car before he was satisfied and I picked up almost 60hp and over 80ft lbs of torque. Money well spent for sure.
Racer
Joined: Sep 2011
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I just installed a Billy Boat PRT system on my 2010 LS3 with long tubes and catless X pipe. It's loud, but I can't imagine describing it as sounding bad in any way. But here's the deal, sound is just too subjective for anyone's opinion but your own to be considered.
