headers question...

[Guitarman19853]

I've been looking at the headers information and on the MSDS site and it looks like the headers come with the y-pipe and piping to get it to the main cat.

do the headers themselvs come to the same place that the stock precats come to? What i'm really asking is: will the headers be able to bolt up to the BAT Y-Pipe/Catalytic Converter?

(sorry about the text, its part of the image)

I'm asking because right now i have the BAT y-pipe but with a test pipe welded in place of the cat. My flex pipe is leaking and its cheaper to just buy a whole new kit from BAT. The reason i want a cat was that i'm planning on getting the Borla Cat-Back later on and i would need a cat in there to keep it from sounding too raspy. i was planning on doing headers too, but it looks like they wont bolt up to my BAT setup. On that note, is gutting the precats just as effective for increasing the sound as headers? (i'm not looking for huge performance gains... if i wanted that, i'd go with FI or 3L... but i'm happy with the power of my SVT... i just want it to sound better)

 

[Jason43]

They will bolt up to an aftermarket y-pipe.

 

[BrApple]

they will bolt up to any y-pipe, I plan to use mine with my optimized stock y-pipe

I would also look into the bat y-pipe more, people who have ahd similar setups or the same y-pipe set up loose torque ... you really need that bend on the one bank to build torque ...

 

[Guitarman19853]

problem is, i cant go back to stock because what i have now is a modified BAT setup. (sorry for the bad pics, they are old)

closeup of the removed Cat

 

[BrApple]

problem is, i cant go back to stock because what i have now is a modified BAT setup. (sorry for the bad pics, they are old)

closeup of the removed Cat

can't see the pics at work but I am sure you could find a used stock y-pipe, infact there is one in the classifieds now, used main cats may show up every so often or you can get a aftermarket high flow cat from trubenz I think it was

 

[PDXSVT]

That BAT y pipe is literally the same as the old SHO shop y. Not only should your MSDS headers bolt up to that BAT y pipe remainder you have, but if you later want to go back to a 2 inlet/1 outlet high flow cat, such products are out there as stand alone items.

 

[SVTJON87]

I would also look into the bat y-pipe more, people who have ahd similar setups or the same y-pipe set up loose torque ... you really need that bend on the one bank to build torque ...

wait so your saying you get more power with the msds or opt. y-pipe than with the bat or true bendz???

 

[BrApple]

wait so your saying you get more power with the msds or opt. y-pipe than with the bat or true bendz???

i don't know if it has been documented but I do remember reading that people felt less torque with a y-pipe design that didn't have the bend in it on the read bank


also it is one of those things that hasn't been documented I believe but it has been said that a optimized stock y-pipe is better then the aftermarket ones ...

remember sometime making everything larger, ie related to intake and exhaust isn't good and you will actually loose power ...

 

[Tourige]

wait so your saying you get more power with the msds or opt. y-pipe than with the bat or true bendz???

Its negligable on our cars. Just go with whatever setup is the easiest for you to do, if you dont have the time to optimize your stock one, then the BAT will work.

 

[SVTJON87]

well now it would just be cheaper to opt my stocker. i wonder if i can just get a msds y-pipe and no headers, but i would dout it. and yea i know everything needs to be tuned and big isnt always better

 

[Escortrs88]

I did the BAT Y-pipe first and really didn't feel any difference, the sound was a little deeper. Now the car was only makeing about 50 hp before i did it, because the cat in the stock y-pipe got almost fully plugged, it got plugged so bad that the back pressure cracked the stock pre-cats.

When the Y-pipe was installed with the stock pre-cats the flare on the y-pipe was at wider angle than the stock pre-cats and didn't seal really good. The shop that did the work added some ulta high temp RTV and it worked really good. When the MSDS headers were but on about a month later i had the same problem, after racing this summer i do have a really slight leak from the RTV burning up.

With both the headers and y-pipe the engine ran so much smoother and the power band felt so much stronger from about 3,000 rpms to fuel cut. You don't even feel the engine reving and the sound is great. The biggest gains were up high, i do think i might have lost some low end tq. but i have never had it dynoed.