right now texas speed has coated longtubes + catted y-pipe and emissions fittings for $700 ( http://www.texas-speed.com/item_deta...ProductID=1279 )

1) how much HP is lost through high flow cats? i'm in florida so i don't have to worry about emissions but i will be moving out of state after college in about 2 years and i'm not sure where i'd be going, so i'd like to keep emissions equipment if possible.


2) will the cats on the longtubes get rid of the typical LS1 "***" sound? that raspy tinny high end sound that makes people cover their ears for the wrong reason whenever an LS1 drives by at WOT? i loved the way my old LT1 sounded, too bad there isn't a way to get the LS1 to sound like that.


right now the only other exhaust mod is a cutout, i still have (and am keeping) the stock SS catback.

 

High flow cats don't rob that much HP, I'd say 5 at the max. As for the sound, cats will definitely help, but it will make the car sound a bit more "muffled".

 

Dude, I live in East Orlando, me and my friend both have the Pacesetter LT's with ORY and no cats. I think they both sound sweet, he's got the Loudmouth and I have TSP Rumbler. Go with no emissions and a good tune, but for god's sake, get rid of your stock muffler. Also, think about how many long distance trips you're going to take. Road trips with our cars suck *** after several hours of listening to the exhaust drone. The only regrets about my choice in exhaust comes when I pull up to a stoplight next to the cops around here.

 

On a bolt-on only LS1, you won't lose much (a few rwhp) through the highflow cats...You'll never even feel the difference, lol. On a car with a big cam or heads/cam, you'll probably give up in the neighborhood of 10rwhp or so (give or take).

For me personally, just having the cats on there to clean up the sound is more than worth it...I HATE the way LS1's sound without cats through a cat-back system (Borlas, Loudmouths, Rumblers/Dyomouths, Corsas, Magnaflow, etc.). They all sound like raspy A$$ to me with an ORY. The cool thing about my LS1 w/ Kooks LT's, highflow cats, & the GMMG is that it actually doesn't sound like your average raspy LS1 you hear from day to day (it's fairly deep, but very clean for an LS1 motor).

Mike

P.S. What cat-back system & headers did you run on your LT1? And did you have a cat or offroad pipe on it? Because while my LS1 sounds "good," my LT1 with Mac mid-length headers, Random Tech highflow cat, & an open cutout/Flowmaster sounds nothing short of "great" IMO (very, very deep & mean).

 

yeah I agree with the others 5 horses max, and the car doesn't sound raspy at all with the headers and no cats, unless I have the cutout open, then its gets some rasp, but sounds great at full throttle, only part throttle brings the rasp. I would check into which state your going to as some like Califronia will fail you with longtubes even with cats, because its a federal law stating you can't move the cats from their original location. I have my stock WS6 muffler and it sounds close to stock even at wide open throttle, jsut slightly deeper, although tje cutout make it much much louder-cats will tame the sound down and tune the cutout better. I love having the stock muffler cause I can hear my radio without any drone, and then open the cutout for max horsepower-don't change the muffler unless you want a louder exhaust, cause you already have the cutout for power. You can also buy cheaper headers and then buy some high flow cats like soundcats which sell for 40 bucks new on ebay-they flow awesome, and have them welded into an off road Y. Cats with headers take more space under the car, but not bad unless you go with a lowered car.