Ok, I bought a 94 Z28 a few days ago. It already has an exhaust on it, don't know what it is though. It's really loud, about as loud as my girl's dad's truck and he has straight pipes on it. I'm looking to improve my gas mileage by cutting off the cat and putting an empty one on, but I'm worried about the sound level. How much louder would it be compared to the catback (I think) I've already got?

 

The cat muffles sound quite a bit itself. It's going to get considerably louder with it gone.

 

Is it going on illegal loud? I'm really loud now.

 

It'll definitely draw attention. With that comes negative attention too.


It's going to be probably 20% louder, if I had to put a figure on it.

 

This may be a dumb question, but will it affect the inspection?

 

It would pass inspection if you have a deaf idjit for an inspector. Gutting a cat is against federal law and Id be pretty sure the noise alone would make you fail, even if all the plumbing was still there. Gutting a cat does nothing for milage. I just put my stock muffler back on after 4 years. Im enjoying the car alot more now. I dont have to worry about the noise drawing attention. If anything Im driving alot faster now without the noise

 

If you have to pass an emissions test (especially a sniffer test), gutting the cat will make you fail. If it's just a visual test, then you should be ok. Just keep in mind that it probably won't affect fuel mileage. Besides, who buys a Camaro for fuel mileage?

 

I had 5mpg increase in my last Camaro (although it was a V6) when I got it cut off. I get my sticker from the place that's giving me the gutted cat, so I'm not worried about that.

 

There will be very little power gains or gas mileage increase to be gained by chopping out the cat. You will increase your exhaust noise and if you have emissions regulations to satisfy, you will most likely fail the "sniffer" test.

 

I'm thinking you saw gains last time cause the cat was fubar'd to begin with.

 

ALL cats are FUBARed !!!!