Quote:
Originally Posted by mlifxs
Thanks. Good to know the catted headers are still a worthwhile mod. I'm assuming your endorsement is more related to performance than sound?
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Yes, there was a noticeable improvement in performance with the AFE catted headers. I truly liked the way the PE sounded with the stock exhaust, it was tame under normal driving conditions but had a nice tone under hard acceleration. Please keep in mind I never intended to go beyond the PE but this forum can sometimes be a bad influence on you. The chronological order of my exhaust experiment (which spanned about one year) went something like this:
Started with a stock exhaust and it was way to quiet.
Installed the PE and loved the way it sounded, especially under hard acceleration.
Removed the secondary cats and installed the mid pipes, the exhaust tone became right on the cusp of being too loud for me. I did this in an attempt to pick up a few additional horsepower.
Had the AFE catted headers installed and in my opinion the exhaust became obnoxiously loud, even under normal driving conditions.
Had 9 inch resonators installed on the mid pipes and they did very little to quiet down the exhaust.
Reinstalled the secondary cats and that toned the exhaust down enough to drive the car but it was obnoxiously loud under hard acceleration and in my opinion it was not even a cool sounding loud.
Researched exhaust options, as I did not keep my stock exhaust; if I had I would have reinstalled it. I even contemplated buying a used stock exhaust system.
Bought the Dinan exhaust, which helped to quiet things down but it was still a bit too loud for my liking.
I installed a baffle inside the single pipe portion of the Dinan Y pipe, which got me to were I am at now.
Again an acceptable exhaust tone is a very subjective thing and there are varying opinions on this. If I could mimic the exhaust tone of the PE with the catted headers, I'd be in hog heaven.