Ok guys im looking into buying a Vortech SC for my 06 Z but was wondering if i could keep my stock headers, cats, and exhaust or should i upgrade those also? Would you recommend upgrading the exhaust? And yes i have searched but couldn't find the actual answer! But just in case ill put my flame suit on. Thanks

Tom

 

if you are going FI you should defenetly get testpipes or high flow cats, and a larger exhoust. You are going to restrict yourself in the power band. I would say not upgrading these parts you will loose about 50rwhp. I would do these first before installing the vortech. I suggest true duels or atleast a 3" exhoust. The more your engine can breath the better.

 

you can keep all those things. You don't NEED to upgrade them, though it's recommended usually to upgrade the cats and exhaust at least so you can make more power and make it easier to get the heat out of the engine. You won't really lose huge power though. Your powerband will be shifted to have more power at low rpms and less at high rpms. Personally, if you stay on the stock exhaust/cats/headers etc, I wouldn't drive the vortech very hard for extended periods of time - like on a track. You'll build up heat in the engine and it won't be easy for it to leave out the exhaust.

Headers are the least important of the 3 exhaust sections because they're expensive to install and being bigger, they'll actually add additional heat to the engine bay so you'll probably want to ceramic/HPC/jethot coat them or possibly heatwrap them (read up on the cons of heatwrapping first though) if you did install headers

just about any exhaust is recommended for the vortech except really huge exhausts like dual 3 inch ones (at least until someone breaks over 700whp with the vortech or something - it's different than with a turbo car because the vortech doesn't have the restrictions of having turbines in the way of the exhaust, so the dual 3 inch is going to be seen in setups as low as 500whp on turbo cars). It partly depends on how far you're going to take the vortech. It'll do you more good to have a medium size aftermarket exhaust like nismo/stillen/borla etc if you're not going to be pushing the vortech to make a lot of power and pretty much keeping it on the stock or 3.12 pulley

otherwise just pick out your favorite exhaust and have fun if you're going to change it

 

^

 

Cool, i was thinking that if i was to get the Kinetix high flow cats, and the Borls exhaust i should be good. I do not drive my Z hard as is and it has and wont see the track too often. This is a 06 Enthusiast Z with a Auto trans and is used as a daily driver, not sure if it matters but just in case. From what you guys have said it looks like i need the Vortech SC, high flow cats, and the Borla and i will be good?

Tom

 

why add a source of forced induction only to bottleneck it on its way out? get headers, test pipes, and an exhaust, and make that b1tch fly.

 

get the SC, your exhaust, guages, and your VB upgrade and your good to go~.

 

I was debating to go that way but how much gains would i actually get with just the headers, pipes, and exhaust? I also have the MD spacer and the Mrev2 already installed and debating to get the Injen intake. How much do you guys think i would be able to pull out with the headers, intake, exhaust, pipes, and the spacer and Mrev2?

Tom

 

Hmm, Booger and Sentry are the ones to answer that since they are the Vortech gods.

 

No one can really say without knowing where you get tuned and what your baseline dyno was.

be careful of test pipes, you might not like them. I'd reccomend resonated test pipes.

headers, pipes, and exhaust together probably will add something like 20-30whp depending on which ones you buy. You'll also lose some low end power

I'd just get the vortech on there and see how you like it. Start switching exhaust parts as you feel like it. From the sounds of things, more upper rpm power doesn't sound like it'll do you as much good as more lower rpm power (staying on stock exhaust) It depends on how hard you like to rev the car. The vortech itself will add like 30 more torque or whatever to your car around 2000 rpms so even your low end will improve right off the bat by putting the vortech on. So if you did go with a better flowing exhaust, I doubt you'd miss any low end power lost anyway because it'll still be higher than what you have right now being NA

 

I think ill get some high flow cats and the borla right now and then slap the Vortech on it and see where i go from there.

Tom

 

that should be a solid setup

the kinetix cats may or may not give you problems though - they seem to be hit or miss as far as fitment quality.

Also the borla is a decent exhaust, but because of how it's made using slip joints, it may or may not leak down the road. If you ever decided to take it off, you'll have a ***** of a time trying to take it apart and seperate the pieces - I had one on my car a long long time ago and the pipes sorta bond to each other. I couldn't seperate them without risking damaging the pipes

 

Which exhaust system would you recommend so that i won't have any problems with it? Stillen? Nismo?

Tom

 

nismo and stillen are both nice.

The stillen will make more power, but weighs 20 lbs more than the nismo. But at least the weight is in a good location, low and in the rear

I ran the nismo for awhile with my vortech

 

Awesome, looks like Kinetix high flow cats are going to be ordered today and Exhaust i will choose after hearing some sound clips. Thanks a ton for you help!

Tom

 

no problem
if you like the stock exhaust sound at all, the ones that will sound the closest to it IMO are the Nismo, Fast Intentions, and Stillen

 

My buddies car LOST almost 2 pounds of boost when we took out his cats and put in test pipes. So yeah try to keep some sort of cat. in the car.

 

the boost pressure doesn't really matter at all on a vortech

the power/torque is what matters

If boost pressure is all that mattered, I'd go out and fab up a really thin quarter inch single exhaust.
Sure I'd have like 50 psi, but I'd only make like 120whp...and then the engine would melt shortly after lol


the boost pressure matters more on a turbo setup where pressure is regulated by a wastegate so it can be considered a somewhat consistent measurement for power on the same displacment and exhaust setup

really high boost pressures mean the engine is more restrictive than what is trying to be forced into it. It'll also have more friction due to the faster air velocity

 

pm me for a great Vortech price!! thanks