[Desertguy9355]

I was talking to a performance shop about the Challenger exhaust last week and they told me they can put JBA Shorty Headers and a JBA Catback on my car for 1847.50 (576.00 for ceramic coated headers, 600.00 for catback, and 671.50 for labor) with total labor being about 7 hours worth of work.

More money than I really want to spend , but I figured that I am basically getting the catback install for free because they have to take all that crap off anyway to get to the headers. Plus, tax return season isn't too far away.

Anyway, my questions are:

1.) Anyone have a JBA Catback or know anything about them? They don't seem to be as popular as some of the others.

2.) After having the shorty's installed, would spending the 600.00 on the catback even be worth it from a performance standpoint? Being in Cali I can't do anything about the mid pipes, so it seems like a catback wouldn't really do much.

3.) Either way I probably wouldn't see any gains without a tune, right?

 

[dodge boy]

You will probably pick up a few ponies without a tune but it won't be anything earth shattering.

 

[jkelly16]

7 hours is too long to replace those parts. JBA says 5 hours to install the headers which would include putting the midpipes and cat back on.

 

[18920]

Took the shop doing the work on my car exactly 5 hours to install my BBK's. In my opinion adding shorties and a catback (straight pipes) didn't make my car any quicker, but the catback sounds great and the shorties made the idle less tinny, and more mellow. But don't let that stop you from buying a set of shorty headers and catback, because they are the gateway to better performance down the road when you add more performance mods.

7 hours to install the shorties and catback seems average. It is 5 hours for the headers, and 2 for the catback. Shoot, I paid $680 just to have the shorties installed.

I am not running a custom tune. Just the Diablo 93 Oct tune.

 

[cdahl383]

WilliamsRT on here dyno'd his car after installing headers and picked up 0hp. From what I've read it seems like a catback exhaust is only worth about 5-10hp if that. The stock 6 speed exhaust system is pretty free flowing as it is. More of a sound mod than anything.

But if you are going to do more to the car in the future doing these mods now will definitely help out down the road. Plus it will sound cooler now too.

I ran the 91 canned tune on the Predator for a while and liked it. Then I got a custom email tune and that was even better. After you get the headers and exhaust put on I would definitely look into getting a custom email tune. Well worth it.

 

[Matt W]

X2 what Carl said...Although I could have sworn WilliamsRT was on the dyno with long tube headers. Maybe I am thinking of somebody else.

I haven't heard a JBA cat-back in person so not sure what you should expect from that in terms of sound.

Any modification sounds better than the stock set up.

 

[cdahl383]

You're right Matt, it was longtube headers, not the shorties. I would assume the longtubes would pick up more over the shorties though. I think the point WilliamsRT was trying to prove is that in relatively stock form, the stock 6 speed exhaust flows quite well and there isn't much if any room for improvement over it until you get to higher hp levels where more flow is required.

I've read threads where guys claimed they picked up 8-10 hp with shorty headers and 10-15 hp with longtubes but then WilliamsRT ended up getting 0hp, so who knows. I think the bottom line is there isn't a whole lot to be gained hp wise until the rest of the engine catches up and needs it.

How do you like that Borla Atak catback Matt?

 

[ply67cuda]

You're right Matt, it was longtube headers, not the shorties. I would assume the longtubes would pick up more over the shorties though. I think the point WilliamsRT was trying to prove is that in relatively stock form, the stock 6 speed exhaust flows quite well and there isn't much if any room for improvement over it until you get to higher hp levels where more flow is required.

I've read threads where guys claimed they picked up 8-10 hp with shorty headers and 10-15 hp with longtubes but then WilliamsRT ended up getting 0hp, so who knows. I think the bottom line is there isn't a whole lot to be gained hp wise until the rest of the engine catches up and needs it.

How do you like that Borla Atak catback Matt?

I believe Phil's post showed that on stock config, the LTs didn't do anything for HP or TQ until you got to the very top of the band. However the shortys did a few HPs and some TQ because the backpressure and scavenging points are better aligned with what the stock motors are throwing out. Now if your motor is heavily modified and breathes better the LTs will give more on the top end of the rpm range.

 

[cdahl383]

I see, that makes sense. So the shorties are still worth something on a relatively stock setup? Good to know!

 

[2014challyrt]

WilliamsRT on here dyno'd his car after installing headers and picked up 0hp. From what I've read it seems like a catback exhaust is only worth about 5-10hp if that. The stock 6 speed exhaust system is pretty free flowing as it is. More of a sound mod than anything.

But if you are going to do more to the car in the future doing these mods now will definitely help out down the road. Plus it will sound cooler now too.

I ran the 91 canned tune on the Predator for a while and liked it. Then I got a custom email tune and that was even better. After you get the headers and exhaust put on I would definitely look into getting a custom email tune. Well worth it.

Where did you get your custom email tune?

 

[gmanstan]

While your changing headers might as well try the solo hi flo cats.I picked up 35rwhp with the addition of 6.4SRT headers,solo cats,muffler delete ,CAI and a few tweaks to my 91 tune. And no codes,factory headers and clean I'm sure I'll be able to get by smog checks.

 

[cdahl383]

I actually heard a Challenger with a JBA catback on it the other day. It sounded really good. Guy said he only paid $550 for it, not bad. Not sure on performance though.

 

[Matt W]

Carl-

Sorry didn't see your question..I love the Borla exhaust. It is awesome. There is the slightest of drone and I mean slight at around 2000rpm and it is loud on a cold start up but mellows out within minutes. Driving home on the freeway at around 70 mph (I figure most police dudes will give you the extra 5 miles per hour) in sixth gear it is as quite as you could want. Cruising around town the cabin is pretty quiet. At WOT it is sick sounding and to my ear when you down shift it sounds extremely aggressive. To be quite honest despite being expensive ($1200.00) I feel like it was worth every penny. If you check out the Borla videos on Youtube for the Atak I can honestly say that it sounds pretty close to what you hear in those videos. In all honesty I really didn't appreciate how good it sounded until my wife did a few passes while I stood outside. When I realized what everybody else was hearing I was grinning from ear to ear. Windows down while driving is great to, a lot of times on the way home I will shut the radio off for a bit just to listen to the exhaust sound.. It was expensive (around 1200 bucks but worth every penny. You could probably get really close to the same sound with straight pipes and their mufflers..

 

[cdahl383]

Cool man. Sounds like a nice system! I liked the S-type and Atak systems on their Youtube video. Maybe one day I"ll fork out the dough. I'd really like to get a set of rims and drag radials for the car though and now that it's just about paid off I'd like to save up for a truck for next winter. Probably another year or two on the stock exhaust for now. But so far I really like the Borla exhaust, Solo, and Zoomers. Those are my favorites right now.