I was thinking about redoing my exhaust myself, and just going with a straight pipe back from the cat, and ending it off with some tips, but i was wondering how it would sound, i know it would be loud, but would it sound like ****, and would i lose too much back pressure? I was just thinking about doing it, it would be a good little weekend project.

Remember to put your car year, model and trim in your sig so we know how to answer your questions. Also, particularly on this question, your location under your avatar would be handy. I'm assuming you've already done your homework on you local noise pollution laws? Yeah, that would be hella loud, and you would lose back-pressure. I wouldn't go with too big of pipes, that'* for sure.

No, i was just gonna stick with the stock 2 1/2, but if i went down to 2 1/4 maybe even 2, would that make up for the no muffler?

I'm thinking it will. However, my knowledge/experience in this area is somewhat limited. Let'* wait for one of the more knowledgeable participants to chime in here...

Make an attempt to keep the stock width of the pipe. Its all about backpressure, you will lose horsepower and torque. You can up the diamter maybe a 1/4" but that'* it.

Honestly, if you want to do the exhuast, do it up right, you can get great sound and added performance if done right. Look into getting a high-flow cat converter, if you want noise, remove the stock resonator. I suggest a muffler option, MagnaFlow or Flowmaster and get a nice tip to futhur harness the sound quality and look.

From this you can look into air intake options for your car.

I have a Magnaflow muffler and straight pipe in front of it. I can assure you that a pure staight pipe will be very load on your car. My Magnaflow is fairly straight thru technology but there is some noise baffeling in it. I deffinetly wouldn't want to go any louder.

As far as loseing low end torque.... I have a 3" exhaust, but also a supercharger and few other engine mods, and I may not have gained a lot (if any) for torque because it is too free flowing. If you go straight pipe at a stock size you may actually lose a little low end torque from lack of back pressure on your SE.

My recommendation would be to at least get a performance muffler. The ones for the F-bodied cars work great (firebirds, camaros). A resanator is up to you. I have heard both ways on those. A catalytic converter is required by law on all cars that came equiped with one but there are a lot of people (in general, not all Bonnevilles) that run without one, such as myself. I have been pulled over once for my exhaust noise so it'* up to you if you want one or not. Personally I would recommend one and I might be looking into replaceing mine in the near future.

My $0.04....

i ran mine without a muffler for one night(before flowmaster got put on)
it was loud and bad sounding. like rusted off cutlass ciera exhaust. a muffler gives a mellow throaty sound (ALMOST v8 like)

So if thats the case, then I sound like a V10



Good advice guys, I think we are all on the same page here

For you, more like a diesel engine.

If you go with an aftermarket exhaust system and you want more performance one thing you can do is to remove some of the bends in the pipe. There are a few angles and corners in it (especially by the rear tires) that can be straightened out for a smoother flow. .

Performance Cat and Muffler. You won't like it if you do otherwise. Keep the stock diameter or you WILL lose your low end. Some of our members have already learned that lesson the hard way.

All of the advice we're giving you here is from our own personal experience. I fired up my car while it had the cat and no muffler (during the muffler install) and it sounded HORRIBLE. And I know it would kill my bottom end, too. Even with the other mods I'm running, just like SSEi95 said earlier.