[Artryan]

Originally Posted by mlee

That's when headers are included. Catback exhaust isn't going to affect backpressure much at all.

I wasn't sure on these cars as I've only had mine a week and a half, but I've never put headers on anything I've ever owned and have noticed some HUGE losses on the low end with just a catback. It was a night and day difference on my Toyota Tundra.

At any rate, it's good to know that the ZL1 shouldn't have that issue if I ever decide to go that route.

[CharlieRomeo]

Originally Posted by Juiced1

A tune at this point might help out.

I thought about a tune but im still trying to keep the warranty at least for a little bit. Granted, I understand that modifying the car at all pretty much voids the warranty but the mods I've done so far can be reversed fairly easy and are basic enough that some dealerships might just look past them.

I want to wait until I was ready to put on long tube headers and change pulleys to start looking at a tune. I didn't think a tune would be THAT beneficial at the moment considering the light mods I've done. My mods are only a ROTO dry, Soler TB, AWE touring cat-back with PLPs and I have the N/X LT4 lid waiting to be installed.

[mlee]

Originally Posted by Artryan

I have lost low end grunt on some of my other vehicles when installing an exhaust with less back pressure. That's for sure.

On a side note, it's pretty discouraging to know that I have a Rotofab CAI and Soler TB on the way and reading that people are unhappy with that setup now. Before I ordered those two things, I had read nothing but good things. Just my luck...

Originally Posted by Artryan

I wasn't sure on these cars as I've only had mine a week and a half, but I've never put headers on anything I've ever owned and have noticed some HUGE losses on the low end with just a catback. It was a night and day difference on my Toyota Tundra.

At any rate, it's good to know that the ZL1 shouldn't have that issue if I ever decide to go that route.

...otherwise I wouldn't have done it.

On my 5th Gen I had to pulley down to get back the lost boost from headers. No issue at all on my 6th Gen.

[mlee]

Originally Posted by CharlieRomeo

I thought about a tune but im still trying to keep the warranty at least for a little bit. Granted, I understand that modifying the car at all pretty much voids the warranty but the mods I've done so far can be reversed fairly easy and are basic enough that some dealerships might just look past them.

I want to wait until I was ready to put on long tube headers and change pulleys to start looking at a tune. I didn't think a tune would be THAT beneficial at the moment considering the light mods I've done. My mods are only a ROTO dry, Soler TB, AWE touring cat-back with PLPs and I have the N/X LT4 lid waiting to be installed.

Yeah, tune is bad advice at this point. Seems to me like the TB could be giving you issues. Try swapping back to the original if you still have it.

[PROMETHEUS]

I have the Track Edition, Catback AWE, along with the Soler TB. Havent experienced any lose. Although at the beginning with the new exhaust, on occasion I found myself in the wrong gear. Kinda like having your ears and gears in sync.
IMHO I wouldn't tune the car, unless you are prepared to lose your power train warranty.

[Bow Tie Fanatic]

Originally Posted by CharlieRomeo

So, just installed my AWE Touring cat-back exhaust with performance link pipes last week. Let me say, I absolutely love the sound of my car now. I knew it would be louder but I slightly underestimated the new sound with installing the PLPs. Regardless, I absolutely love it!

The point of this post is that I feel like I have lost some responsiveness in the low end range. Its kind of hard to explain. The butt dyno just isn't feeling the same "umph" that I was feeling before. The week before the exhaust install, I installed a regular ROTO-FAB dry intake and a Soler TB. With those mods, I was loving the new intake sounds and I could feel an improvement in throttle response and improvement in the overall responsiveness of the car as a whole. I have 200+ miles on the Soler TB so the re-lean should be well developed by now. After the exhaust install, responsiveness just feels "meh" sometimes.

I'm just curious if anyone else has experienced something like this when installing a full exhaust and getting rid of the secondary cats. Maybe someone with more knowledge on the topic or background can drop a nugget of information or two. I don't know if backpressure is a thing or not with supercharged engines but its the only thing that sticks out with my previous experiences with modifying cars.

I live in Northern Virginia so I have very few places to actually open up the full length of my RPM range. So I spend a lot of time in the low end of the RPMs. Maybe...the louder exhaust sound is making me think I'm farther in the RPM range than I actually am. Maybe it's just me. I don't know.

Thanks for reading my essay. Cheers fellow ZL1 Peeps!

I felt the exact thing after having my muffler removed 2 weeks ago. I even reached out to two other people on the forum to ask their opinion. Definitely not as responsive and feels like the initial hit seems weaker at any rpm. I track my car so I was doing it to get rid of 40 lbs (behind the rear axle) but am wondering now if I screwed up. Oh well I may reverse it before hitting the track next month.

[CharlieRomeo]

Originally Posted by Bow Tie Fanatic

I felt the exact thing after having my muffler removed 2 weeks ago. I even reached out to two other people on the forum to ask their opinion. Definitely not as responsive and feels like the initial hit seems weaker at any rpm. I track my car so I was doing it to get rid of 40 lbs (behind the rear axle) but am wondering now if I screwed up. Oh well I may reverse it before hitting the track next month.

Exactly what you said. I just couldn’t word it correctly. The initial hit just doesn’t feel as strong as it once did.