Would this be a upgrade for somone with a stock 5.3 catback?

 

I would just get a Magnaflow, I took my stock muffler off my SS on Monday, it makes a big difference. The stock is a dual 2.75 in and a dual 2.75 out but, it is really only a single out. The other exit is a resonater.

 

A ss exhaust wont even fit any 5.3 truck out their unless it has some serious reconstructive surgery from the cats back, plus the actual system would be to long for your truck. jsut get a magnaflow catback

 

So the muffler and tail pipe couldnt be used. I've been looking for the tip for awhile and found the whole catback for cheaper than ive been seeing the tips go for.

 

yesw you have a single 3 inch ina and ou currently. the ss exhaust is either 2.5 or 2.75 all the way from cats duals into the muffler and out of the muffler and has a y built in after the muffler to exit like a 3.75inch tip. jsut don't mess with it.

 

As a matter of fact, I have a full SS system being shipped to me right now to put on my 05 Z71.

If your mods are light (like mine) it is a nice enhancement or complement. Light being a drop in K&N and a Nelson 93 octane tune and electric fans.
The SS muffler flows 160+ CFM more than the normal truck muffler.
I had my Y-pipe cut and true duals ran into the SS muffler. The muffler shop tech had to take a steel cone and round out the D-shaped y-pipes to weld on the new tubes going to the SS muffler. I had to talk him out of making a Y-pipe to come off the muffler and single into the OE Y-pipe. Yuck!
The OE hangers fit like a glove. The tip don't look bad either.
The noise in the cab is JUST a tad more noticeable but not a resonation. It sounds better at wide open throttle too. My garage is under the house and the wife commented she could notice it being a little louder.
The normal truck muffler is not as restrictive as the after market vendors would have us believe. If you do not have a forced air intake or a high compression motor the only thing you benefit from a high flowing exhaust is more noise if you like that, in cab resonance, and more power in the upper RPM range only.
However you loose low end and gas mileage. I have been through all of this myself.
If you decide to put it on, keep as much of the 2 pipes going in as possible. They go, or bend under the torsion bar cross member nicely. My muffler was cut off short and the muffler shop tech just couldn't bend them as nice as they came from the factory.
The truck did run noticeably better all the way through the power band than with the OE muffler. My highway mileage improved by at least by 1 mpg.

Like I said, I have a full SS system being shipped to me right now to put on my 05 Z71. I am not going through all this trouble for an fancy tip. I hung out in the SilveradoSS.com forum performance mod section waiting for one of them to ask about headers. I would then private message them to please not cut the OE system off but un-bolt it and sell it to me. I got a unit from the donuts back off an 03 SS with 10k miles on it. Cheap. If you were to buy it from GM, just the pipes with the cats would cost $1300.00.

Here is the Webb page on my 03 truck . I am not going to update it to the 05 until I am finished dialing it in to my preference.

 

Thanks for the information.

 

Some time in Febuary I should be doing the install. From looking at them it should go right in. I'll post how it goes.

 

I had an SS muffler on my 5.3L Silverado for a while, I liked it. All the muffler shop has to do is get a Y pipe (mine used Magnaflow) and attach it to the single head pipe. The stock 5.3L exhaust comes to a Y and then is flanged onto the factory exhaust pipe that goes into the factory muffler. My shop welded the Magnaflow Y about 12" past the factory flange, where the pipe starts to straighten out. Then they ran two pipes into the SS muffler and hung the tailpipe in the stock spot. I sounded good, not loud and NO interior resonation at all. I figured if it flowed well enough for the 345 hp 6.0L engine, it would be OK for my 285 hp 5.3L engine. I use to have some pics but I think I deleted them when I sold the truck, I'll check when I get home.
Jim

 

Good info people hopefully ill be getting mine this week!