absolute best...

[Only4U]

what is the absolute MOST gain one can get from the BEST exhaust sys...this includes the best headers/cat/muffler/and all pipes (s, i, y, j, l, and k pipe)???

[Dominic]

Probably 20rwhp maximum on a 3.8L. Keep in mind the exhaust will amplify any other changes on the car such as intakes and cams.

[ July 09, 2002: Message edited by: Dominic ]</p>

[Cale]

Hmm. Good Question - it'd probably take too much money to find out what the best is. Somebody here needs to win the lotto and blow some of the money on dyno w/ different systems.

It probably shouldn't be looked at so much gaining horsepower as it should releasing horsepower and maximizing engine efficiency -

Nonetheless... I'd say you might be able to free up 10-15 horsies.

[Only4U]

10-15 hp, or even 20 hp with adding a $300 muffler sys, a $100 hi-flow cat, and $700 headers? that sucks, lol, i'd just go straight for nitrous personally. and most of the time it does depend on cam/intake upgrades, but they offer their own amount of power increases, as exhaust sys offer theirs, even if they do compliment each other.

[Arctc Wolf]

i'd say 20 max rwhp w/ cia headers, 3"in/out cat., and cat-back. the least restrictive systems out there in my opinion are the slp "loudmouth" and the GMMG cat-back. doing all this and then doing intake mods such as whisper lid, ftra, and removed maf screen and/or P&P maf will give you another large boost in power since you'll be getting more air into the engine and fill up the exhaust pipes w/ more exhaust gasses, upping torque and hp across the rpm range. then next logical step after that would be to get a chip/programmer to advance the spark timing to get the most out of the increased air/fuel mixture as well as a MSD-DIS-4, accel coil packs, and spark plugs and wires to light everything off and get the most out of the increased air/fuel mixture. after that, things start to get very expensive. heads/cam, intake manifold, pistons, nitrous, sc, ect.

[TheBeast]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Only4U:
10-15 hp, or even 20 hp with adding a $300 muffler sys, a $100 hi-flow cat, and $700 headers? that sucks, lol, i'd just go straight for nitrous personally. and most of the time it does depend on cam/intake upgrades, but they offer their own amount of power increases, as exhaust sys offer theirs, even if they do compliment each other.<hr></blockquote>

if you want to use nitrous then you should have an aftermarket exhaust setup in conjunction with it! all that extra power will be choked up otherwise