I was wondering how open the exhaust is on the earlier than 2003 trucks? I went to the muffler shop to get a custom made exhaust, and after the truck was put on the hoist, I noticed that the stock y-pipe, cats, and tubing all looked very large and well done.

I just had a Flowmaster 50 3 chamber put on, with a 3" single pipe, to the rear with the tip turned down, and cut so that it is hidden. I then modded my airbox a little and put a drop in K&N filter in it. I felt a pretty good seat of the pants feeling for just two mods, and the truck pulls noticably better at any rpms after 3000.

Are the exhausts on our trucks pretty open on all the 99 and up trucks?

The stock pipe is about 2 1/4" pipes to a 2 3/4" pipe on the y, and the cats look pretty huge. Now for around town driving, it feels like I lost just a hair of torque down low, but it is well made up when the rpms climb. I could only see the most obtrusive part of the exhaust, which are the manifolds, and the monster muffler.

For those guys that did headers, and simple catback, how much gain did you guys see? Anyone got before and track numbers!

 

Didn't really notice a big gain between anything i replaced on my exhaust, the predator programmer was the largest noticable difference, the UPD, headers and slowmaster probley made the programmer most effective. But of course I have my eye on some FLP headers..........

 

Yeah, I was surprized by the stock pipping, and it was making me wonder if I wanted to get the $1300 exhaust that FLP has. FLP's looks awesome but, I was really impressed on how open the stock system looks allready, and wonder the merrit of that system for that price.

I know, it costs a lot of money to go fast, but $1300, I am sure that would work pretty damn nice with the new slowmaster that I have put on. Right now I have mustered about another $3000 to play with, and $1300 seems like an awefull lot for the exhaust.

Now I know long tube headers would probably be the best way to go with those high flow cats, but it makes me wonder if it will be worth the money. I have run JBA headers on about 4 different vehicles now, and have allways liked the extra midrange torque that I have gotten, but I am still debating The Other Guy headers.

Oh yeah, should have the Predator today, in the mail!

 

I was running a muffler and tailpipe off of a 2002 Tahoe for a while and the truck ran really well with it. I had a 70 Series Flowmaster before the Tahoe muffler was installed. I wanted quiet and the Tahoe muffler looked like a good set up and it was, I lost ZERO performance with it. It was a mandrel bent 3" pipe and the muffler had two pipes coming out of it. Only one was for the exhaust, the other was actually an inlet for a resonation chamber to keep things quiet in the cab. I gained some low end with it but really didn't loose any top end either, it was quiet but it did flow well. After about 5 months I decided I wanted some rumble again and installed the Manaflow muffler I have now. I originally kept the Tahoe tailpipe and just put in the muffler, I actually lost some performance and it was louder than I wanted. Then I had the single 3" tailpipe replaced with dual 2.25" pipes and the low end came back and it made the muffler much quieter in the cab. If I ever want quiet again, I'm putting on another muffler from a Tahoe or Suburban, they are actually pretty good.
Jim

 

How do you like the sound of the Flowmaster 50? I am considering doing what sounds like the same setup... Is it excessively loud?

 

To me, NO. To you, hard to tell. It drones a little at 2100rpms on the freeway, but not enough to bother me at all. If I turn on the radio to a normal level, you can't even tell the exhaust is done, unless you mash the throttle. It has a nice deep sound inside the cab and out, without being raspy, or harsh! It is about the volume of having a quite conversation with someone in the truck with you, like when you are parked and the motor is off.

I like a little sound of real V8 to come into my cab, to let me and everyone else know that I am indeed driving a V8.

If you want quiter, then go with a 70 series or 60 series Delta, or 3 chamber, and it will be nice and quite except for when you mash it. Any mod to the exhaust you will hear in the cab, just how much makes the difference. If you want more power or performance a 50 series or 40 series 2 chamber will give more power, but a whole lot more sound. It will be wicked, but will probably bother you on the freeway, or almost any road. This exhaust is right about average for a catback, increase of sound that is. I have put an exhaust on every vehicle that I have owned, and this is about par with that.

 

Like I said hodgee If I could do it all over again I would have put on FLPs and yeah i considered the $$$$ all the way. The head pipes seam look peformance like (my truck has 3" head pipes I think the 1/2 tons have a y pipe?) But the factory pipes are compression bent meaning, in a angle bend the folds are inside the pipe, the outside looks smooth. Mandrel bent pipes will easily outflow factory items.

 

Yeah, mendrel bends do flow better for sure, but if each bank of the motor is coming into 2 1/2" pipes, even with stock bends, that is pretty damn good flow for a 5.3 motor. I know that it would get a better gain after getting the charger to run the mendrel system, but until I get the charger I don't see the point. I guess I will get this in the long run, but just not now. When I ran 450 hp out of a 302, I had used 2 1/2" piping per side that worked perfect. I originally ran 3" per side on a H pipe duel, but lost a lot of torque and drivability with the charger I had, and I was running 11psi of boost.