hey im new here and i have a 99 chevy ls with a 5.7L. vortec and when i bought the truck it had cherry bombs in place of the stock muffler. it sounds alright but its not loud and it makes a sound like air is leaking but no leaks. i was wondering if i gutted the cats if it would be louder, sound better, or would it crackle too much.

thanks

cody

 

Leave the cats alone. If you gut them and you don't achieve your goal you are throwing codes and they aren't cheap to replace.

 

what could happen

 

It will screw up the reading on the o2 sensors and throw lights. Plus it will absolutely kill your torque.

 

yup leave em. is it the stock exaust or has it been changed to duals?

 

its a little A thing that runs the duals back into the stock outlet

 

so like a y pipe? anyways ditch the glass packs because you probably have little to no torque low end right now and throw a nice 3 inch muffler like a flowmaster or magnaflow or run duals if you dont care about achieving max horsepower. my buddy has his cats but hes running dual magnaflows and it sounds perfect. he has a 97 5.7 by the way.