Catback worth it?
 

So ive been looking around the exhaust portion of the forum, and noticed alot of people are going with a magnaflow cat back system. Is getting a cat back system really more for sound or performance? also does anyone know if i can get a pretty decent low tone from a flowmaster super 44 axel back? I have heard the magnas and they sound good, especially with the cat back, but I dont want to spend over $500 just to get a little bit louder and deeper sound...

No, a few members have dyno'd their cars before and after, about 5 hp/tq gain in the upper end. Not worth the money for a complete exhaust. If you want the sound, get the magnaflow muffler and tip. You might see a 1/2-1 hp gain with that. Best bang for the buck is in a tune. Superchrgers are nice but figure about $5k to get it sorted right for about a 50% hp/tq gain. Sorry to bust chops or if anyone gets butthurt but the motor is pretty well maxamized stock.

I went for sound alone, its true that you might gain a handful of hp over the stock setup going with a cat back system, I just wanted a more aggressive sound than the stock "Politically Correct" burble. The added 4-5 hp is a bonus over stock, if you're just looking for an aggressive sound, do the muffler and save some money. That being said, I did cat back systems to get the benefits(minimal I know), of an integrated exhaust system.

I prefer to hear the tunes in mine..

If it had a V-8..... Oh Yes I would have loud pipes...:lol:

Begs the question though.. just paying attention to how the beast handles driving.. I'd have to agree with previous posts about the intake being sweet.. my concern is efficiency first, performance second. Is there anything anyone knows of that will cause an increase in efficiency with little degradation if not improvement to performance? I was considering a dual pipe exhaust setup to eliminate backpressure concerns.

Didn't know of any back pressure concerns ??

These motors breathe pretty well stock.. Yes they can be improved, but cost vs minimal increase is expensive...

But to each his own

Before going to the GMPP intake/exhaust combo on the '07(being my first HHR, its the guinea pig for mods)I carefully tracked mileage, after installing the intake/exhaust nothing changed, mileage stayed right where it was. A dual exhaust will maybe flow a bit better but these days back pressure isn't the issue it once was, back in the 70's and 80's exhausts just choked the life out of engines, not these days.

There is more power to be found in our engines, but they are set up for maximum efficiency right out of the box, you won't see improvements at the pump...but you'll probably notice a difference on your personal "butt dyno".

Mm.. appreciate the input. I perhaps misworded my question. I don't mean to indicate I know of "concerns" just that anything that would decrease efficiency is a concern. I'm a little dated with my knowledge of vehicles, my last being a 1960 VW Type II military transport.

So, the general consensus is that there isn't much that can be done to improve the mechanics of the beast, yes? I'm fine with that as an answer, as stock I can burn rubber around a corner before catching and accelerating nicely in my auto, and doing a combination of aggressive highway and city driving over 3/4 of a tank I get around 25-26 MPG. Hehe.

Well put it this way, gains vs dollars, will lean towards more dollars.
Just my opinoin..

Put a Turbo or Blower on & a Tune..

That is a concept. Being a naturally aspirated kinda guy, I can't say I understand the effects of the turbo or blower. Where would you recommend the tune be had from? I've seen alotta pro's and cons to that. Efficiency before performance for me! If either of those things causes a noticeable efficiency hit I'm out. :)