So I went to get a quote for a new exhaust system today and it turned out to be a little more expensive than I expected. The place is kind of a one man show so the guy is really nice and reasonable, but the price with install of high flow cats was a lot.

2 High flow cats + Single-in/dual-out Jones premium muffler + addition 3-inch tubing to route the 2nd pipe (hes using my existing 3-inch tubing for the rest) + 2 chrome plated tips + Labor = ~$650

Now without the cats & labor for R&R on the cats, the same setup would cost me around $370. The parts alone are $100 per high flow cat. The guy kind of talked me out of buying the cats because he didn't seem to think 100k miles on the cats would plug them up very much. I'm looking to get a little more performace & big sound but are the high flow cats really gonna make that much of a difference for me? Is it worth an extra $250?? Thanks guys.

-Chris

 

Ever look on ebay? I found magnaflow high flow 3" cats (the nice looking ones too) for 55 dollars. I cant remember what I paid for shipping tho if anything.

 

Those Magnaflow cats are only $56 from Summit. Check out Summit. I think they have over a thousand converters to choose from.

 

I installed a high flow cat and dual exhaust (no muffler) from off the net for under $200. I used LMC and Auto Parts Warehouse.

 

Heh, I guess my real question kind of got avoided here. The real question is: am I going to see big enough differences in power and sound to warrant the need for high flow cats?

-Chris

 

In my VERY humble opinion......If you have to have cats....hi-flow is the way to go. Anything you put in to be less restrictive is going to give you better sound and more power. How much?.....I don't have an answer.....you'd have to dyno your truck before and after to really see how much difference it makes.

Over the years I have used no cats and hi-flow cats.......I was never building a racer......so what I based my decisions on was what I read and what "experts" told me. Afterwards I was always pleased because my vehicle performed as I wanted it to.

OEM is designed to be quiet and restrictive and definitely with 100k on them I'd replace them.....even though your muffler guy said no. Makes no sense to me to do 3" and performance mufflers and still have the bottleneck in front of it.

That said.......cost is always an issue........I might talk to him about leaving the cats for now and what the cost would be to replace them down the road. All of this work we do on these trucks is a balance of need, at the time.....and money. If you left them for now......you'd be able to "feel" and hear any difference now.......and decide if that's enough for you.

To point blank answer your question......No on the "big enough" power.......yes on the sound........my opinion

Good Luck Chris

 

The high flow cats are worth it IF you paid a reasonable price for them. On my truck I have dual exhaust. 2 1/4 going into dual 3". I have two cats, one magnaflow I bought of ebay on one pipe and I reused my stock one on the other. I have no real way of telling how much of a difference the high flow cat made, but I do know that I can see a definate difference in exhaust gases exiting between pipes, especially on cold mornings (In my bad planning I put the cross pipe before the cats). Obviously high flow cats will flow more than stock cats since the factory was interested in sound deadening and emmissions and the aftermarket is all about power. I guess its really up to you and what you want to spend. For an exta 55 dollars a piece I would definately go with new high flow cats. If I could go back I would put two on my truck and throw out the stocker. I think it would be worth it.

 

if your cats are bad you will see a huge improvement with either new stock cats or high flow cats

if not too bad you will see some improvement with either but a touch more with high flow cats.

 

any way you can get the exhaust out of the way faster is a good thing.

 

If they do lots of emissions testing and ticketing, and you want better flow, your pretty much stuck getting high flow cats. You will notice a world of difference in sound. Power Im not too sure of, some guys say yes, some say no.

 

It's pretty minimal in terms of power gained. They are a restriction, but the stock heads are more of a restriction.

 

A lot of good information being exchanged here. Thanks guys. It sounds like the cats are something that I'll be wanting to replace real soon. I think for now I'm just going to have my exhaust done and be real nice to him so he'll remember me a few months down the road when I wanna spring for the new cats, I want my truck to RuMbLe!! I have read that you can test your cats for being plugged by measuring the temp in the front and temp in rear and there should be no more than a 10% gain in temp front-to-back, but I don't have an infrared thermometer at my disposal. Is there any other way to really know? My guess is no... Thanks for all the replies guys.

-Chris