Yes they are stainless. The old vbands I used were mild, but not male/female, and they were not stuck together so that was nice.

 

Cool, ya I've used the male/female that were mild steel before and they are a bitch once rusted.

 

Just a tip, if any of those nuts on the stainless bolts or t-bolts are stainless, change them out for zinc coated nuts. The ss nuts on a ss bolt will gall and seize up very easily!

 

always use never seize when using a stainless bolt and a stainless nut

 

Is that the muffler I gave you? It's from a 2008 if so. I'm surprised there wasn't any packing material in there.

 

The one I cut up is from an 07 tahoe I think. The one I got from you is actually on my truck now

I put some antisieze on the vbands during final assembly, so I hope that works.

The fuel pressure thing continues. The FP gauge in the cab has never been "right" as far as pressure goes, but is consistent so I just go with it. I hotwired my main pump on and looked at my mechanical gauge right on the regulator and its 20psi. I adjusted the regulator all the way down, 20psi. All the way up, 20psi. I pulled apart the regulator to inspect the diaphragm and it looked perfect with no rips or tears or strain from what I could tell. Put it back together, still 20psi. Unhooked the after rail hose to the regulator and ran it to a gas can to test pump flow and it came out like a garden hose so I think flow is good.

Not sure what else to try but a new diaphragm for the regulator. It is strange all of this just by replacing the fuel filter (with the correct aeromotive part and same micron rating) and a 1ft section of hose.

 

Those mechincal gauges on the regulator go bad all the tume. I have gone thru 4 of them. I have tried tons of brands. Surprisingly the summit cheapo one has lasted.

 

Truck is harder to start, electric gauge reads lower than it usually does (whatever the number is), mechanical gauge is lower, I cant hear the pump loading up like it usually does, and the adjustment screw on the regulator doesn't do anything. So 5 things tell me the regulator is bad so that's what I am going with

Still struggling to figure out what happened though. Only thing I can think of is when the hose came off during running it somehow damaged the diaphragm even though it looked fine to me.

 

i still have the 4" dual magnaflow muffler exhaust i got from you when you decide to change it up again next week...

 

I have a DISO big magnaflow sitting in storage also but wanted to try the stock mufflers route this go around. I've had a lot of mufflers.