Straight Pipe Success!

[Top Toy]

Wow! They sound great! Can I have them back now? 😁

They will definitely get louder, though, if you go with headers. You have to decide what works for you. The cats are worth about 5 HP, BTW.

[George45]

Grest sounding set up. Sure nothing like a small block.

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[1971 Judge]

Originally Posted by Top Toy

Wow! They sound great! Can I have them back now? 😁

They will definitely get louder, though, if you go with headers. You have to decide what works for you. The cats are worth about 5 HP, BTW.

Gotta admit, they look great and sound very healthy. If headers make them any louder I'll stay where I'm at. I'd love to uncork 20-25 more hp with headers but my cabin noise is "stout" with this setup. I'm pretty sure this setup here is worth 10-15hp. Pulls a little harder and is smoother. I'm happy with it...for now

[1971 Judge]

Originally Posted by George45

Grest sounding set up. Sure nothing like a small block.

Sent from my SM-T817V using ZR-1 Net Registry mobile app

Thanks George45, It's a big difference from before.

[WARP TEN]

Originally Posted by 1971 Judge

Gotta admit, they look great and sound very healthy. If headers make them any louder I'll stay where I'm at. I'd love to uncork 20-25 more hp with headers but my cabin noise is "stout" with this setup. I'm pretty sure this setup here is worth 10-15hp. Pulls a little harder and is smoother. I'm happy with it...for now =D>

Actually it's really the cats that mellow the sound a bit. The headers could be added without too much change in sound if you include cats as well. -Bob

[1971 Judge]

Originally Posted by KILLSHOTS

I ran straight pipes on my Z (with stock manifolds) for a short time, as well. My understanding is that cats do muffle the sound more than you'd think. As loud as mine was in that state, I would never have added headers without putting on some mufflers. Yours seems surprisingly mellow to me in the video clip; mine was borderline deafening and I was seriously afraid of getting a ticket.

I appreciate the feedback! In the cabin, it's loud. I can drive (cruise) at 2k rpm and it's not bad. On the highway, luckily at 70-75mph its good as well. At any rpm above 2k rpm its loud, but I LIKE IT. Any more loud and it may ruin the experience...hmmmm....something to think about, thank you.

[1971 Judge]

Originally Posted by WARP TEN

Actually it's really the cats that mellow the sound a bit. The headers could be added without too much change in sound if you include cats as well. -Bob

Awesome! Yeah...that makes sense. Thank you for the confirmation. That just may be the way to go. I did see a member running LS7 cats on his headers and I did like that idea.

[Ozruss90]

Hey Judge, If your happy with the look and the current sound/noise levels, leave it as is. For the small power gain, is it worth risking? There's usually some sort of trade off for extra power.

[1971 Judge]

Originally Posted by Ozruss90

Hey Judge, If your happy with the look and the current sound/noise levels, leave it as is. For the small power gain, is it worth risking? There's usually some sort of trade off for extra power.

Yeah, I agree. The more I'm driving it, the more I realize the sound is spot on for me. More power would be great, but it's not necessary. I didn't buy this car to go racing; I own it because of it's engineering miracle.

[WARP TEN]

Originally Posted by 1971 Judge

Awesome! Yeah...that makes sense. Thank you for the confirmation. That just may be the way to go. I did see a member running LS7 cats on his headers and I did like that idea.

I should also add the obvious -- that the cats will clean up the exhaust. Without them it will smell like a car from the 60s or 70s. The good old days when we used to tune them by adjusting the carb to the smell and smoke of the exhaust. On my last iteration (the '95) I did not have cats (but did have a full exhaust system) and the smell was quite noticeable on start up. Overall I am a fan of cats even on a performance exhaust as they don't really reduce HP much.--Bob