I would like to pick up some horsepower on my 2003 maxima while going completely catless at the same time.

My question is based upon really only going catless as the main priority.

Option 1 gutted stock manifolds and catless from there out

Option 2 i30/maxima/VQ30 stock manifolds and aftermarker catless y-pipe

Option 3 Ebay VQ30 headers and y-pipe, those cheap 150$ ones

What would be my best option?

 

why are you so set on going catless?

 

I'd like to have some launch control/2 step and no lift shift goodness and feel catless would be the way to go for this.

 

Going catless wont have much of an effect on this. Go with decent headers, OBX/Cattman. Or, gut the OEM's.

 

Mine are gutted and I'm also catless. Car came that way.. I don't know about performance gain. But the drone is annoying on the highway

 

I have the cheap headers on my 2003 but i would have bought the obx had they been available when I needed them. There was a set of used cattman headers for sale but i wasnot goin to pay 900.00 for them.

There is another thread on this topic going right now.

 

How was the fitment on your cheap headers? Those are the 4th gen/vq30 models right?

Curious if I would be better off gutting stock cats in manifolds or going with the cheap headers

 

Yes.

And fitment was fine after I removed their cheap bolts and installed grade 8 fine threaded.

 

They started remanufactruring OBX so why not just look at them: http://www.ebay.com/itm/OBX-Racing-Sports-SS-Exhaust-Manifold-Headers-02-03-Nissan-Maxima-3-5L-V6-NEW-/171193815084?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Model%3AMaxima&hash=item27dbf2502c&vxp=mtr

 

Does anyone know if you have to remove the bolt(s) holding the rear mount in place to install these as there is only 2 flanged connections vs the three that the shortys and cattman have?

 

If the obx headers were easier to put on then those shorty headers then it might help my decision to buy them. I'm just a cheap bastard with almost 0 spendable income.