I am considering putting a 3" exhaust straight from the down pipe with no cat on my '96 Talon. I already have a Pacesetter header, Flowmaster exhaust and a hi-flow cat but I'm not satisfied. If I'm going to redo it I want to maximize performance. Has anyone had experience with this kind of system? Does lower back pressure affect torque enough to notice?

Personally, I wouldnt go above 2.5" exhaust on a NA engine. It seems to me that it makes you lose more horsepower then gain it. Putting on my 4-1 header definately made my car noticeable slower upto about 4.5K rpm.

if your only mod is headders then 3" is wayy too much for you (should only think about 3" if you are pushing about 300hp). 2.5 will be sufficient and even then i believe you will loose some low end torque.

When I posted this question I forgot to mention my other mods and plans for the near future. I also have an Iceman cold air intake and just ordered an AF/X underdrive pulley. I plan on getting my tb bored and porting the intake manifold. I also am going to put in new cams this summer. I'm guessing this should put me just over 200hp. Does that affect advice on exhaust? Thanx for the qwik feedback!

believe it or not...those mods aren't going to give you 200 HP. You're not going to get 200 HP (to the wheels) in a 2GNT without some kind of forced induction.

3" on that setup is overkill. 2.5 would be best imo
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Chris
96 ESI 5 spd
Milwaukee, WI

Yeah, bullox is absolutely right, there is no way your pushing 200 with those mods (sorry to burst your bubble). With those mods I think you'd be having a good day if your pushing 160 WHP. Anyway, as others have said, you'll lose way too much backpressure if you go 3". If you have plans to go turbo in the NEAR future I would say you can go 3 for now, realizing you'll lose the BP. My suggestion would be 2.5 or LESS. Best of luck making a decision.

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Yes officer, the windows are mirrored.

1999 GS Special Edition

You can actually probably even stick with the stock piping and just get a higher flow muffler. Thats probably the best (I should have done that but im going turbo so its okay :))

I have the APEXI WS 3" (GS-T model). I really couldn't tell a loss of power, but I put on my SAFC the same day so who knows?:thumbsup

Run 3 bro its alright as long as you run iether a stock cat or a highflow cat. You just need to have a little backpressure on the motor. I ran 3 inch thermal research on my shit for like 2 weeks before i went turbo and it was fine. plus that is one thing on the car you will not need to upgrade. late mike

Does thermal research make an exhaust that bolts right on for the NT's or did you use the GST version. I've been thinking about getting an exhaust from them soon.

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Yes officer, the windows are mirrored.

1999 GS Special Edition

don't go past 2.5" in a NA, heck 2.5" is enough for forced induction already.

just for reference here is how my whole system goes, 3 inch is a bitch to work with I"ll tell you that. THe dude actually got it to fit over the lower arm by kinda rolling my trunk which is cool cuz I won't scrape it but it also makes a lotta bends. But looks really clean ^_^

gst version bolts right up. sensors and everything.late mike

"I'm guessing this should put me just over 200hp"

Mine makes "just over" 200HP. :thumbsup

Just wanted to thank everyone for the advice. The general opinion seems to be that I wouldn't notice a performance difference between stock and 2.5. I decided to just keep the 2.5 catback and put an Apex'i N1 on. Thanx agian.