Which stock exhaust system do I use?

[Madman337]

I have the factory exhaust system from my 93 Z28 as well as the exhaust from my donor 97 Trans Am that has a Magnaflow muffler on it and the question would I be better off running the 97 stuff on my car for later on mods (CA Smog Legal) or sticking with the single cat that is on the car now.
I am going to do a swap with the TA for the engine and T56 since my car is an auto now.
I plan on going with a Hotcam and port matching and clean up of the bowl area on the heads and also which setup will pass smog better?
I figure that somebody here in smogland has to have come to this very same question before and may be able to steer me in the right direction.
I figure that this should get me in to the 13s fairly easy and thats good enough for now, 383 ect will come later.
Any ideas?

[fleetfeet2004]

I feel your pain! CARB is so silly. Is the car 93 or 97? If 93 single cat will pass fine (and based on my reading better flowing too). If its a 97 you may or maynot pass. It depends on your smog tech. The magnaflow catback should be fine for smog either way.

[Madman337]

I feel your pain! CARB is so silly. Is the car 93 or 97? If 93 single cat will pass fine (and based on my reading better flowing too). If its a 97 you may or maynot pass. It depends on your smog tech. The magnaflow catback should be fine for smog either way.
That is good news and thank you, yeah smog laws here are draconian at best and just plain dumb at worst such as a visual inspection??? Who cares what it looks like so long as it passes where it matters, you know like the exhaust LOL
The car its going on is a 93 but I thought I might get the 10 extra horses due to the dual cat situation and since I am doing only somewhat simple stuff now I thought it might be worth a try to use the later stuff.
I would be greatly interested to know what the hottest smog legal combo is that still passes smog here such as I keep reading that the Hotcam will pass but others say no so I will keep checking.

[fleetfeet2004]

I think as far as shorties go the slp single cat design with 1 3/4 primarys are best. I heard dual cat shorties are terrible... So i think your lucky to be able yo have that option. I have a 96 with obd2 and dual cats :mad: LE makes a wicked smog legal setup. I would give him a call. He can port your stock heads and hook you up with a custom cam to pass smog! I would expect anywhere from 360-390 rwhp with this setup! :cool: if you have extra cash pick up some carb legal afr heads. Anf of course you have options like the carb legal p1sc and the carb legal sts turbo. Both are supposed to work on a stock lt1 but FI is always a gsmble. Good luck! Btw Most people just swap out long tubes every two years ;)

[Madman337]

I think as far as shorties go the slp single cat design with 1 3/4 primarys are best. I heard dual cat shorties are terrible... So i think your lucky to be able yo have that option. I have a 96 with obd2 and dual cats :mad: LE makes a wicked smog legal setup. I would give him a call. He can port your stock heads and hook you up with a custom cam to pass smog! I would expect anywhere from 360-390 rwhp with this setup! :cool: if you have extra cash pick up some carb legal afr heads. Anf of course you have options like the carb legal p1sc and the carb legal sts turbo. Both are supposed to work on a stock lt1 but FI is always a gsmble. Good luck! Btw Most people just swap out long tubes every two years ;)

WOW thats awesome advice and thank you very much. I am going to do just that and I think that the Z is going to be much more fun than my 90 Notch back Mustang ever was and it was a very fun car.
I have been waiting to get my car back on the road and even have old school blue and yellow personal plates that read (UPNSMOC) from my dad that will go on the car.
I think the rear tires will be up in smoke then lol.