Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Duratec Performance Sho-shop off road Y-pipe. HP???

Of course my overweight svt could use some more hp and I've already replaced the mufflers,no resonator and no main cat. I'm considering buying a shoshop ypipe and gutting the precats. Is the pipe worth the money and is gutting the precats worth the time?

Precat gutting can give you a very good amount of hp for being a free mod, if you were to do this though i would not reccomend you get an offroad y pipe, way too loud and tons of rasp. With a hi-flow cat you will still see great gains.
As for the gains associated with the y-pipe you will see great gains, especially in torque.

Is there a how-to on this pre-cat gut mod?

Uh Huh....Found it on NECO and Team NECO...

Here ya go!!!!

A good Y pipe is a MUST mod. The stock front Y is horrible. If you do gut the precats you definitely need a main cat!

I just designed and had a local muffler shop (Bud's Muffler in CO) build me a custom Y collector. Hacked open the heatshield and cut the factory 2" mandrel pipes back. Laid over a piece of flared and ovaled 2.5" pipe. The collecter all welded ended up to be around exactly a 4" x 2" oval. It flares down smoothly to 2.5" and into a high flow Car Sound cat. Bud's Muffler is a MagnaFlow preferred pro-Installer so they had the high flow Car Sound cat in stock. I finished it off for now by having them then run 2.5" straight back to right before the bend for the gas tank. It sounds like crap cold but sounds really good warm. A little more raspy then before but I haven't had a resonator since 1999 so I am use to it. I spent a little less then if I would have bought a pre-made cat and Y pipe but I replaced a lot more then just the Y. The optimization of the Y would be easy if I had the tools, but paying $225 for the cat, pipe and all the work I had done was OK with me!!!!