I am haveing my entire exhaust redone once I get my set of the new Pacesetter LongTubes and have been thinking about my y-pipe construction. By searching all the manufactures of f-body aftermarket y-pipes I have found two different distinct designs. Most use a jointed pipe design where the passanger tube goes straight back and the driver's crossover simply joins into the existing pipe. Usually these use a single size(mainly 3") pipe going from the collector all the way back to where the I-pipe joins. Examples of this design are the Pacesetter, Kooks, Jethot, TSP, etc. The second design uses a merge style collector to join each bank. This usually incorporates two different size pipes, smaller tubes from the headers merging in to a larger tube leading to the I. Although it is not the sole collector used, the Flowmaster collector seems to be a popular choice. Examples of this design are the QTP, Mufflex, SLP.
Is one of these designs/concepts better than the other for all around performance gains?

 

I would like to know this as well. After seeing what some of you are saying about removing cats, I think Im going to need to have mine removed and go with an ORY.

 

you mean this?

seems this style would work alot better
by letting the exh pulses sort of blend together.
instead of crashing into the other side of the opposite pipe
and possibly the other pulse, causing restriction

I would rather have this style
at least the exhaust pulsses are straight when they come
together

IMO
I would reccommend running the driver side over the xmember
and tie in at about a 45 after
It will keep your tranny cooler cause the pipe is no longer
under the pan
Its out of the way
Its a shorter distance for the driver side opposed to all those 90s
and I just done this to mine and it sounds damn good


anyways I thought you had an x
why the change?

 

why spend the money to have one custom fabbed? Why not just get the pacesetter one that is already coated and everything.

 

How much is the pacesetter one? Id like to get a Y pipe and put some electric cutouts in place of the cats.

 

It's about $120.

 

Gamedawg... I do currently have a 2.5" true dual system dumped before the axle. I after the h/c it got really loud in the cab and I want something quieter as well as a single pipe to put my wideband in so I can read both banks rather that just one like it is setup now. Plus, I am selling my current headers and exhaust as a whole to a friend so he dosnt have to hack up his Y-pipe for the headers.
btw.. that is exactly the collector I was refering to. I will mention your 45* angle idea to my exhaust guy.

 

To the best of my knowledge, the Pacesetter Y-pipe is not coated. Secondly, since I am having the rest of the exhaust done, I can have my exhaust guy build me one for less than the pre-fabbed pacesetter which is not guarenteed not to need modifications to fit. Plus I have recently recieved information from a competant engine/exhaust buider that the flowmaster merge collector will work just as good or better than any thing out there. So here is what I believe I have set my mind on:

 

What did you decide? Im thinking of going with the Pacesetter Y. I have to fab up some **** anyway since the retard that I paid to install my headers botched the whole job.

 

kenny, if you want that manual cutout i have you can have it. i know you want electric tho. just looking at the sketch and it has one in there. would serve it's purpose for the time being if the install didn't cost too much till you got an electric one.