I was thinking of using this cat back system because it is fairly cheap, mandrel bent, and appears to be easy to install. I am mostly concerned with air flow but I would like it to sound a little better than stock at least (but definately not too loud). Let me know what you guys think.

 

It sounds alot better than stock but if your worried about loudness you might want to find some sound clips. It may be too loud for you. I personaly love it but everyone has different taste. On mine I put turn downs instead of having the tips the give you with the kit and it quieted it down quite a bit

 

I had no problems with the sound level of this... I have an '86 305 firebird and have stock manifolds, at this point, with the hooker supercomp exhaust and a cat delete. The car isn't loud with my setup. Well within legal limits. My '92 camaro, with stock piping, a cat delete, and a flowmaster muffler is considerably louder then the hooker. It's a very unique sound. I'm pleased with it, for a $270 3" mandrel catback.

 

Sounds like a winner then. Another question, will this exhaust system line up with the end of the hooker competition shorties + Y-pipe? I want to be able to put a straight pipe connecting the two in place of my cats.

 

I think the end of hooker's Y pipe is only 2.5"... correct me if I'm wrong... You may have to cut the tip off and have a shop weld a 3" pipe between the y pipe and the catback.

 

I believe the Y-pipe goes from dual 2.5" to single 3". If it was any smaller it would eliminate any potential performance gain from the headers. Also, I would like to keep the shops out of it since they would be required to weld on a cat at the same time.

 

Heh, the shops up here in Wisconsin tend to turn a blind eye to a lot of that sort of thing.