Looking for exhaust options - Pictures

[SnakeBitten2k14]

I picked up my Viper two weeks ago and already I've started doing some work on it. I've hard wired a battery tender to the car and the next thing I want to address is the exhaust.

The car already has hennessey headers with stock cats, stock resonator and then rear muffler delete. The car sounds good, but I can start to see potential discoloration on the side sills and I want to avoid anything further. As such, I'm looking to remove the cats but don't know if I should remove the resonator too. I took off the sill today to see what it looked like:

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I live in California, so I need to have a cat when I go in for smog. As such, I'm wanting a setup where I can easily switch between cat/catless. It looks as though the section from the cat to the resonator is welded together and it connected to the exhaust by clamps. As such, here are the options I'm thinking:

1. Option 1: Remove both cat and resonator section and replace with straight pipe. I'm assuming this will get rid of the heat but don't know if this will be too loud as it'll just be straight pipes all the way through (no cat, resonator, muffler)
2. Option 2: Cut out the cat and use clamps to clamp in a straight pipe. Prepare the cat that was just cut out to be able to be clamped in. Sooner or later I would buy the HF cat and use those to clamp in for smog instead of the stock cat. This will again remove the cat and a good amount of heat. I don't know how much heat the resonator contains (if any). The exhaust will be straight pipe other than the stock resonator. Will likely still be loud but more tame than option 1.
3. Option 3: You make the suggestion

Regardless, I will be picking up the Speedtactics side sill vents as well to help airflow while the car is in motion.

Here is how the car sounds now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9LrYBQbaqo

 

[Camfab]

Ok, let me clear up a few things for you. First off here is one of three set ups I have for my car. If you notice I've v-banded the exhaust to make change overs very easy. If your not familiar with v- bands I can post what they look like in detail.
Ok, as far as your exhaust goes, it's certainly NOT stock. Those flat band connectors are not OEM. It appears someone has halved the OEM cat and reconed it on the exit side. Your muffler does not appear to be stock either. I believe Hennesey used to cut the cats in half in order to make them hi flow so to speak. As an FYI the OEM full size cats are very good at their job and actually work great. Aftermarket cats are much lower quality. If I were you, I'd source a good pair of unmolested OEM cats and v-band them as I have done. A heavily modded car will pass smog in CA with OEM cats. If you need pics of anything let me know.

 

[Camfab]

As an FYI the pic above is showing my hi flow cat setup. I have a swap in set up using the factory cat as well. The factory cat only gives up 5 rwhp at 600 rwhp. In the old days when tuners didn't know how to tune the car they would urge cat removal because they were dumping so much fuel into the cylinders that the cats were melting down. This was particularly true of those running supercharged cars.

 

[SnakeBitten2k14]

Ok, let me clear up a few things for you. First off here is one of three set ups I have for my car. If you notice I've v-banded the exhaust to make change overs very easy. If your not familiar with v- bands I can post what they look like in detail.
Ok, as far as your exhaust goes, it's certainly NOT stock. Those flat band connectors are not OEM. It appears someone has halved the OEM cat and reconed it on the exit side. Your muffler does not appear to be stock either. I believe Hennesey used to cut the cats in half in order to make them hi flow so to speak. As an FYI the OEM full size cats are very good at their job and actually work great. Aftermarket cats are much lower quality. If I were you, I'd source a good pair of unmolested OEM cats and v-band them as I have done. A heavily modded car will pass smog in CA with OEM cats. If you need pics of anything let me know.

The car just passed smog a couple of weeks ago with the current setup. The car doesn't have any mufflers. What you see in the side is the OEM cat cut in half and the stock resonator.

I think the best is going to be option 2 where I have the muffler shop cut the exhaust on the other side of the cat and before the resonator. That way, I have a setup where I can just clamp in the cat and straight pipe.

 

[Camfab]

Maybe your not understanding what I was saying, I specifically stated that those are OEM CATS THAT HAVE BEEN HALVED. Secondly the muffler/resonator shown in your side sill is NOT the stock muffler/resonator. Thirdly the pic I showed you is the best way to modify what you have in order to swap the cats out. The band with a bolt just past the curved collector pipe is the v-band connector.
Also I'm sure your car passed smog with the halved cat, however for the future, especially if you mod the car it's a good idea to have a set of the non modified OEM cats around. By the way your car sounds great.

 

[Camfab]

This is what a v-band connector looks like before it's welded in position. If your car had the original factory header you would have seen that the factory uses the same type connector between the header and the head pipe.