I have also installed the Muscle air cleaner which allows more air into the system. This all means that in an already lean burning engine....
I too was under the impression that the engine ran lean, hence the glowing hot exhausts and pinking at higher rpm. When I talked to the Garage 56 people, who did a lot of dyno runs on the standard and modified systems, they said it runs rich through most of the rev range and particularly higher rpm because of the restrictive exhaust and air filter of the standard system. As the ECU is not easily reprogramed they designed their Stage 1 system to take advantage of this rich mixture to make some extra power when the engine is allowed to breathe better.
Helping the engine with a better flowing air filter may improve things from a heat point, although the standard exhaust is probably the main problem. The G56 system is great and doesn't glow in the dark but it still burns you if you are careless, the wrap is a good safety idea. G56 exhausts retain the standard cats without problems by the way.
