So I took my 99 3.8L V6 down to a shop today and they wanted to charge me over $250 in install on a bolt on Magnaflow cat back system. Other places only quoted me 100-150 tops for the same work. Isn't that a ripoff? Not only that but they told me that I should get my money back for the Magnaflow cat back and go buy a Flowmaster muffler?? I couldn't believe it.

 

magnaflow outflows flowmaster and IMO sounds better.

Do it urself and save urself 100 bucks that can be spent on something else. Its easy as hell to do. Or take the 150 and buy the tools u need to do it urself, then they will be around forever.

 

Tell them, that when they start chipping in money for car payments, then they can have a say about your exhaust system. They must sell Flowmaster, otherwise I don't think it would have been brought up. $250 is kind of steep, I think. When my friend and I put mine on, it was kind of a pain, but not that big. $100-$150 sounds better. I'd make sure they weld it, sometimes clamps come loose and exhaust will leak.

 

u do not want to weld a catback in place. that will cost u alot of money down the road if you ever need to swap antyhing else out thats up in there. Lowest number of peices i would ever have for an exaust system is 4. 2 headers, 1 ypipe, and 1 catback, all separable

 

I guess I can say that, as my friend has a welding machine. That and the last clamp-on exhaust I had (on my GT), the clamps kept coming loose. Maybe cutting and welding is more difficult than I thought.

 

exhaust also goes over the axle, so if u weld it there you will need to remove the rear end to ever take that catback off again. I would highly recommend u dont weld. if the brackets are leaking take an impact wrench to them and make sure they are on good and tight, a little penetrating locktite will do the trick. also make sure the clamp is actually on both pipes. i did that once with my mustang..... i tightened the crap out of it but it was only catching the outter pipe [&:]

 

Ok it's finally over. I took it down the road to another place and they did the same exact thing the first place quoted me for 250 for only 80 bucks. The guys at the first place said it was a 2-3 hour job so that's why it would cost around 250. I was like do you think I'm blind or something with my wallet wide open for you to take as you please?? They didn't like it but I told them I had talked to several people on here and other places that said they did it themselves in around an hour tops.

So long story short I have the system on and it sounds great! I love it. I actually turn my radio off to listen to it . Before I had to read my RPMs to really know when it was the right time to shift and now I can just listen to it. The only thing was the second shop that did it for 80 bucks had to start at pipe right after the S pipe becausethe Magnaflow S pipe didn't come with a spot for the O2 sensor. It's not a big deal it still sounds way better than it did and I do notice a bit of a power gain. It's mostly just the feel of the engine being more free flowing because in the lower gears instead of the car slowing down with kind of a jerk makingme to lean forward it steadily slows down and the exhaust sounds good too.

Thanks for all your guys help. I think this just makes me want a Z28 even more you lucky SOBs . I'll get me one soon enough, I can't wait!

 

I'm still amazed than exhaust shop wouldn't think to remove the bung from your old system, and put it on the new one. Or even better yet, put a new bung on there. Glad you got it on there, and that you like it! [8D]

 

I had an extra bung welded in twice on my car, once on my stock ypipe, and then once on the off road pipe after i did the long tubes. the first place charged me 80 bucks. the second charged me 20. its important to shop around.

 

my camaro me and my dad did, and was a pain. but got her done.
the ION i got charged 75... lol