I am at the point I need to get an exhaust system set up for the car. I just purchased a Magnaflow 12267 Stainless Steel Muffler made for a Camaro / Firebird.

olejoedad did a very nice set up on his 3800, allowing the trunk to be untouched. I want to do the same, but I am wondering if I can install a small catalytic converter inline or not. One, for emissions, and two, if it will reduce the sound, and if so, would it be enough of a difference to even hear.

Here is the original photo of Joe's setup:


I am wondering if it is possible to put the CAT inline, as in this image that I Photoshopped


Any idea if there is enough room to do something like this, or is the cradle or other items in the way? Any input is appreciated!

To be clear, the exhaust in the photos was built by Ryan at Sinister Performance and is installed on Forum member MadMark's 88 GT.
All I did was wrap the exhaust to reduce heat and drone.....

I don't know that there would be enough width to have a flex and a small cat. This is a picture of my exhaust (was on my car when I bought it) obviously doesn't use as tight of bends as the one you pictured, also there is no flex piece installed.

It looks like it you might end up battling the rear tire rod for space or not have enough width because of the rear cradle mount. I'm only running a cat because my County requires a sniff test. In my opinion if it's not required in your county I wouldn't worry about it. I don't think that any of the smaller high flow cats do much to reduce sound but I could be wrong.

Plus a cat is going to increase the amount of heat on the trunk wall significantly.

[This message has been edited by zmcdonal (edited 05-15-2016).]

I just installed a Magnaflow 53956 Cat and Dynomax 17638 on my Series 1. I used a 2.5" donut for the tight bends, Cat installed where Ryan installed the flex joint, but on mine no flex joint ( mine has the bolts with springs for the attachment point at the header). The muffler extended down about 1.5" below the level of the cradle. Not bad, but I preferred to have it higher, so it would not get so easily damaged, so I wound up taking out about 4" of the bottom of the trunk. This allowed me to rotate the muffler toward the rear of the vehicle about 30 degrees, getting it up and above the cradle bottom. Two Cherry Bomb 14" right angle pipes worked perfect with the tips. Cutting the trunk was a lot easier than I anticipated, and the way it was done there is almost no loss of storage space.

Before cutting the trunk



After cutting the trunk

Here is how I did mine with a dynomax superturbo 3 inch...the trunk had to be cut though

[This message has been edited by MitchPower (edited 05-16-2016).]

I'm not 100% positive but I think Lou and Blu used a magnaflo with a cat and didn't have to cut his trunk. Hopefully he will chime in and explain what he did.

Just curious as to why everyone seems to try to cram all that stuff into the trunck location.
Is there any reason why you cannot just go the stock route under the front of the cradle, up the pass side and across the back, putting a cat and muffler in the stock locations. That's what I did with my DOHC swap and it worked fine.

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Anything I might say is probably worth what you paid for it, so treat it accordingly!

Dave

www.ltlfrari.com

I do not know much about exhaust systems.... but I think it has to do with the routing the cross over pipe goes. The exhaust goes to the rear in the original donor car. It would probably take quite a bit of fabricating to reverse the header routing and pretty much everything else. I THINK this is probably why.....

[This message has been edited by JohnWPB (edited 05-17-2016).]