A while back I got a 2.25 inch exhaust put on my 7a and noticed that I seemed to lose a little power compared to stock exhaust. My cat. is gutted and I have headers. Im pretty sure the loss in power was due to not enough back pressure but I was wondering if getting another cat. or a resonator might give me the amount of pressure I need to regain some of that power? any suggestions??

its not backpressure, its exhaust velocity. 2.25 is a little large for the 7afe, i'd suggest 2 inch or putting the stock piping back in.

when you dont have enough exhaust flow to keep the gasses moving along at the right speed they slow and cool in the exhaust system, this translates to what feels like a loss of power in the low to mid rpm. too large also can effect the scavenge effect of the header.

So would it make sense that since I have a gutted cat. that is just sort of messing with the flow and building it up in the cat. it is kind of slowing it down and then letting it cool. So do you think it would help to get rid of the gutted cat. to increase flow so it doesn't have as much time to cool??

i think going from 2.25 to 2 inch or to stock size will make the largest difference.

yeah I understand if I get smaller exhaust it will give me the backpressure I need but I just got this exhaust not to long ago. And Im wondering if I replace my gutted cat. with a bigger real cat. or a resonator/muffler if it would make my situation better or worse.