Goth etal what do you think of this idea?

So I found this exhaust company that sells the insides of mufflers so you can make your own. When I had my 348 on the road it ran so amazingly clean right to the low side of the limits in california! I bet you could get one of these cars to pass even without cats...well maybe. Or with a little help from NoDoubt have a smog chip just for the smog test.

Anyway, what would happen if you cut open the cats and removed the insides and replaced them with perforated tube and stainless steel wrap and then rewelded the cats so they looked legal but were really now mufflers? If you could get a 348 or 355 quiet enough just from this you could run straight pipes all the way out the back and loose a huge amount of weight and still look legal and may be not too loud either. In an early 2 can 348 that could be nearly 75lbs iirc.

What do you think? Does a muffler so close to the headers kill power?
Could you make a cat/header muffler quiet enough?

 

I'd be concerned about the loss of backpressure on the intake flow.

It may not be a concern, but I wouldn't be supprised if you lost power.

 

You wouldn't lose HP from having 'straight through' mufflers as long as the packing was tight ...... if the packing is loose, then it would allow the exhaust flow to 'expand and cool' which would lose velocity, taking some HP with it.

I am actually working on version II of my 355 exhaust ....... then we can do an 'invitational dyno day' ........... ....... I just need my TIG welder back from its 'service refresh' ....... hopefully they should be done with it by tomorrow .......