Trans Am Exhaust Upgrade

A while back, probably 3 or 4 months by now, I got an itch to do some upgrades to what is often the closest thing I have to a daily driver. The car I’m talking about is my 1997 Pontiac Trans Am WS.6.

I bought my loveable junkyard dog back in the summer of 2012 for $1800 with the sole purpose being to give me a car that I could take to college without fear of getting stolen, crashed, or otherwise defiled. Over the years I have grown attached to this car and I’ve been through the ringer with it by my side.

In its first summer I broke a heater hose 20 miles from home, during its first year I broke the factory 10-bolt rear end and the 3-4 shift fork in the T-56, twice in its life I had a lifter bleed down causing a rocker to fall off.

The car has 167,000 miles, smokes on startup, and the piston slap is deafening. Despite all of this, it is still running and I can’t help but to reward the car that has given me so much.

So, back to the beginning of the post. 3 or 4 months ago I went on a buying spree. I had no free time but apparently an abundance of available funds.

I ordered Stainless Headers and Y-pipe, a Flowmaster Cat-Back, poly engine mounts, new Oxygen Sensors, Oxygen Sensor Extenders, a Walbro 255 pump, new fuel filter, fuel pressure gauge, 30lb fuel injectors, Bosch Platinum Plus spark plugs, MSD spark plug wires, and a UMI camber brace.

Today I set out to install them all and here are the preliminary pictures, enjoy.

Original manifold showing the EGR Pipe that had broken causing a massive exhaust leak and poor O2 readings.

The original owner booger welded a Flowmaster in place of the stock muffler

New chinese/OBX long tube headers

Y pipe and Flowmaster cat back kit

Everything tucked up nicely and the new O2 sensors and harness extensions fit just perfect. We welded in an extra 02 bung in the Y pipe right after the collector for the wideband O2 sensor.

Once it was all installed it was amazing, we only had to remove 1.5″ from the end of the Y pipe and the entire setup slipped together and clamped. Hardly any fabrication to speak of.

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