Off Road Headers, how bad is it?

[JP_Stang]

I have tried to find a thread that spoke directly into this, but I didn’t have any luck.

I am wanting to purchase headers, but I need experiences to determine if I go cats or catless. I daily drive my mustang and have my wife and kids in the car often. I definitely don’t want gas smells or fumes inside the car. I will run a Borla resonator, but just need to know if that will kill the smell or if I need to go ahead and purchase a catted system.

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[db252]

I run catless Kooks headers with the Borla resonator and the Roush quad tip Borla exhaust. No complaint of fumes/smells in the car windows up or down from anyone.

 

[Bladerunner70]

I run catless Kooks headers with the Borla resonator and the Roush quad tip Borla exhaust. No complaint of fumes/smells in the car windows up or down from anyone.

^^^^THIS

Only I am running cat-deletes (not LTH), Ford Performance/Borla resonator, and Roush A/B's. Never any smells or fumes inside or outside the car whether I am on 93 pump or E85.

I have read other threads where peeps talk about fumes/smells without cats and I don't know WTF they are talking about.

 

[Chad1986]

No fumes or smell that I or passengers have smelled. Now being way too loud is another story, but mine has no resonator or mufflers.

 

[1MEAN18]

I'm running catless lt's and no mufflers on corn, love the sickly sweet smell of cheap gov't subsidized race fuel! I say go for it!

 

[JP_Stang]

That’s great to hear! I want to go catless, but I wasn’t going to at the expense of enjoying the car daily, or being worried about the kids breathing fumes all the time. Thanks guys!

 

[EFI]

Alot of it is in the tuning too, as if you have any sort of cam overlap at idle then you will smell it. If you can tune it such that there's negative overlap at idle, then it should limit most if not all the smell associated with catless headers.

 

[gameovergt]

I used to get fumes every now & then if sit in traffic during the summer but its usually over 100 degrees in Florida heat. Then found out my tru x wasn't welded at the top only bottom, problem solved with new h pipe welded in correctly

 

[Bladerunner70]

No fumes or smell that I or passengers have smelled. Now being way too loud is another story, but mine has no resonator or mufflers.

So you have NO cats, NO resonator, NO mufflers...??

My god HTF can you stand it? I feel sorry for anyone driving in traffic within a mile of your car. WTF would anyone go with a set up like that?

 

[Zelek]

I recently took off my catted lead pipes and switched to catless when I switched to my Krona catback. Definitely much louder, but it's the kind of refined loud I really like. I think it has to do with the resonator in the mid pipe mostly. It's loud driving normally, and Nascar loud above 5k.

 

[drive_55_not]

So you have NO cats, NO resonator, NO mufflers...??

My god HTF can you stand it? I feel sorry for anyone driving in traffic within a mile of your car. WTF would anyone go with a set up like that?

I have LT's with 3" Outlaw exhaust, which is basically a muffler delete, It's Loud but inside the car it's not bad, These new cars have lots of sound deadening in them.

As far as people behind me?? As long as you stay off the gas it's not too loud,, but lay on the gas and this thing is NASCAR loud. As long as people stay off my bumper they wont get their ear drums blasted.

I get some fuel/burning oil smell, E85 smells like victory ,,, I've been running catless on my 3v for nearly 10years so I'm used to it.

.

 

[1badrz28]

Catless does have some fume smell. I compare it to smelling smokers these days. Years ago, I never really smelled smokers(before smoking bans). Today we can't have smokers anywhere near the public, so you smell it more. Same with today's cars. The fuel smell is gone , but is easily noticed now because that smell has been gone for years on production cars. It's a slight smell on gas at a stop light, and even a lighter smell on ethanol at a stop light.

 

[nastang87xx]

You have to assume it's going to smell. It may or it may not and really depends on the wind. Most high flows for available Mustang header kits are around 200 - 400 cell. That's barely doing anything to catalyze exhaust. Then again catalytic converters don't even start working, OEM or otherwise, until they get hot.

 

[Chad1986]

Running no cats, and no mufflers can be a bit loud in the car, I tend to just turn the stereo up. It doesn't get too bad until getting in to the skinny pedal, then you will wake the dead. I definitely wouldn't mind it being not as loud, but I would miss the pops and crackles that I get out of the exhaust. I keep telling myself I am going to buy a new exhaust system, but for some reason I keep buying go fast parts instead LoL

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