noob question?

[pualrevere]

hey ive done a search and i can not find my answer. i just want to know what exactly a cat-back exhuast system is? how is it different from my stock exhuast system?

[Firebird1055]

Okay, I'm sure you'll get a lot of people jumping to answer this question, but I'm glad to be of service. A "cat-back" exhaust system is basically just a collection of all of the pieces of the exhaust system starting from the cat-converter on back. Your stock exhaust technically does have a "Cat-back" on it, since that's just a name for all of those pieces past the cat.
http://mods.firebirdv6.com/intakeexhaust.html
Check this page out and click on Catback, and also read up on everything else on that page, as you'll want to learn everything you can in order to understand how the entire system works and the names of the parts and whatnot.

[Dominic]

Firebird is right, however if you look at our stock exhaust system you'll see an S-shaped pipe after the cat, 2.25", and all the "3.8L V6 catback" systems sold do not include this important restrictive piece. Also, our cat is a 2.25" exit cat.

To get more power you need larger piping. Starting with a 3" cat ($50) you need the S pipe ($20-70 depending on how you do this) and then the catback ($200-400) and possibly tips ($50-100) plus labor ($50+).