Installing A New Cat-Back Exhaust On A 2001 Trans Am - Shout it Out!

This is what you should be looking at from underneath the car. Be careful that you don't move the bracket too much, otherwise you may loose it in the frame rail, and that would suck.

The hangar bolts onto the bracket, and now you can see why you went through all that trouble. This gives the tailpipes a solid mounting point, and stops them from moving around.

It will be much easier for you to install the muffler assembled with the tailpipes already on. We tried without, and gave up shortly there after. Slip the brackets over the pipes and connect them to the outlet tubes of the muffler. Look for a small drain hole on the bottom as a point of reference.

The muffler was much easier to put on this way, and the over-axle pipe went on easily. The system was coming to shape now.

Looking at the Pro Series 3.5 tips from the top reveals only half of their beauty. Corsa tips are truly stunning, and are embossed with the Corsa logo. They also feature a rolled edge that's thick, and looks bold.

After applying grease to the rubber grommets that connect to the newly made brackets, we were ready to put on the tips. We aligned the tips by following the lines of the bumper, rather than the popular use of a level. We thought that if the car sat a little lopsided, then the crooked tips would only accentuate it, so we went by eye.

Here it is in all its glory. As you can see, there were still some adjustments needed at this point, but it was put together. We made the adjustments to the muffler position, as well as the tips, and then we tightened the clamps with a 15mm socket to 45 lb/ft. The use of an impact gun is directly prohibited because it may cause damage on the clamps. We hand tightened them, but the use of a torque wrench is ideal.

This looks a lot better. After about an hour of work, the rear of this Trans Am was highly improved. The tips filled the bumper openings perfectly, and made us wonder why Pontiac didn't have something similar from the factory.

After we started the LS1 to roll it off the lift, it was evident that it sounded much meaner. The idle really allowed you to hear the cam lope, but wasn't overpowering and loud. We quickly followed up with some wide-open blasts in the alley that kicked the rear sideways and provided a sinister sound that echoed off of the buildings. It then went back to being tame. On the highway from 2,000 rpm to 3,000 rpm, the cabin was whisper quiet-awesome!