New Exhaust - Cat and Muffler

New Exhaust - Cat and Muffler - Updated 3/12/07

Finally got it all on. Origonally was just going to do the cat and flex pipe, and run a cheapo Turbo muffler, but couldn't find one locally with center in center out, and just decided to go Magnaflow. The cat is a Magnaflow spun cat. Big gains in ground clearce, and now I can finally do the mounts for pass. side slider.

more.....

Heath,

The cat and muffler look great. How do they sound? What is all that white stuff forward of the cat?

Looks good. 2.5" or 3". If you could would you also post some pics of where the pipe comes out or is it in the stock spot? How does it sound. I was gonna go Magnaflow but use the oval instead of the round.

Heath, How big the pipe? 2 3/4 or 3 inch all ?

DTAYLOR said:

Heath,

The cat and muffler look great. How do they sound? What is all that white stuff forward of the cat?

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Sounds o.k. It actually reminds me a little of my wife's 350Z, or a BMW M3. Not exactly 'truck' sounding. Hoping it mellows a little, and I still have the stock reasonator on - don't know if off would be better or worse. I thought about a flow master, but I liked the shape of the Magnaflow better - I thought it'd be easier to install after trying to fit that offset outlet turbo oval case muffler in. I'm glad I went with the longer one - 22" case rather than 14". Stock muffler is 24" overall, this is 28" overall. I wouldn't have been able to run one that long though if I hadn't replaced the dual cats with a single 3-way and the flex pipe. The pipe that crosses over the frame is now a couple inches further forward on the frame. This was intentional as it will give me a better mounting location for the middle slider outrigger. Though I do think I'm going to put a little bash plate over that part of the pipe to keep it from getting crushed. Don't know if it's more susceptible where it is now or not, but I've always figgered it was likely to get hit. I pushed it up as close to the frame as possible, trying to get every inch of clearance.

I thought about one of these http://www.dnamufflers.com/DNA/main_DNA.html But they were $70-80 more expensive.

hummm.... the white stuff..... I was hoping no one would notice that. The front cat is welded straight to the down pipe. When you cut the front cat off, there is all of about 1/4" of pipe before you hit the O2 sensor bung. Soooooo..... I took a 2-1/5" ID to OD coupler, and notched out a section to allow me to slide it past the O2 sensor bung. Then I welded it. I weld o.k. off the truck. Upside down, trying to reach around control arms and swaybars and frames, my welding gets worse. It's on there solid enough, but it wasn't quite gas tight. I took some muffler mender dope and ran it around the seam, just to seal it. I figured if it didn't work (seemed to this morning), I'd either use JB Weld to seal it or take it to an exhaust shop and pay $30 for the 5 min it'd take them to weld it better than I did. All the other connections that I made, were either welded off the vehicle, where I could get a good bead all the way around, and hit it with a flapper disk, or they are clamped with stainless steel band clamps from Jegs. The traditional clamps you see are for the muffler hangers, I may weld the hanger tab to the pipe and take those clamps off to make it look cleaner, but it's not really hurting anything the way it is.

cruisertom911 said:

Looks good. 2.5" or 3". If you could would you also post some pics of where the pipe comes out or is it in the stock spot? How does it sound. I was gonna go Magnaflow but use the oval instead of the round.

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The cat is 2.5", as is the flex coupling. Then it goes to 2.25" to match up with the rest of the exhaust. Stock is 2.5 going into the first cat, 2.25" comming out. I wanted to keep the pipe that goes under the frame, so going larger wouldn't have gained me anything. Could have gone 2.5" all the way back if I was willing to pay a muffler shop I guess

Comes out in the stock spot. The pipe from the muffler back, including the stock resonator is stock. As it goes over the frame that pipe is smushed oval from the factory. So I may have a muffler shop replace that when I get some extra cash. Might try cutting off the stock reasonator too, though I have a feeling that'll make it sound worse.

I'll try to find someplace to host a clip of the sound. Describing it doesn't do much good, and saying it sounds good or bad is just an opinion. All the more I've driven it it to work 8 miles this morning, so I can't say I've really developed a solid opinion. It doesn't hit me as "Oh my gosh, I can't believe how great it sounds." or "Oh my gosh, I can't stand that, where's my stock muffler?"

I have something similar. I used 3" componets and pipe. I also used the Flowmaster 40 series "big block" muffler which is a large truck muffler. It quieted my system quite a bit along with a baffle from Jegs I installed after the cat. Sounds like a truck at low to mid rpms but it sounds more like an import when winding out.

Heath, Don't sweat it. I was not trying to be critical, just curious.

I'm sure that I'll explore my exhaust options once I get crushr running again.

nice and tucked up. if the mufler glue holds no sweat but I doubt it will hold long at all when you start flexing that frame off road. once the mufler glue goes you will start throwing codes as air enters the exhaust. let a mufler shop put her in the air and weld that up

nice practicle mod

I so need a new exhaust. Looks good, looking forward to hearing the clip!

you could just record a video and host it on photobucket.

Thanks Heath, gotta a guy in our club did a Magnaflow (14" oval) w/ stock cat and ran it back to the stock resonator on his lx. Looks good and sounds pretty mellow. I do see what you are saying about the sound of a import while winding up. Not to bad but I have not heard it from the inside of the truck. Thanks for the pics. I'll post some when I get mine done.

Man I am dreading the day I do my exhaust. I had major trouble when I was trying to sell my S-10 to get my cruiser. Those dang flex pipes kept whistling and kept people from buying the truck. I must have made 5 visits to two different muffler shops and dropped $800 before I got it fixed enough and someone bought it.

Bluetribal said:

Man I am dreading the day I do my exhaust. I had major trouble when I was trying to sell my S-10 to get my cruiser. Those dang flex pipes kept whistling and kept people from buying the truck. I must have made 5 visits to two different muffler shops and dropped $800 before I got it fixed enough and someone bought it.

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$800 would replace the whole system on an s-10 I'm sure.... If the flex coupling or flex pipe (which is a different deal) was whistling, there was something wrong with it. There is a flex coupling like this on just about every FWD car out there.

Bluetribal said:

Man I am dreading the day I do my exhaust. I had major trouble when I was trying to sell my S-10 to get my cruiser. Those dang flex pipes kept whistling and kept people from buying the truck. I must have made 5 visits to two different muffler shops and dropped $800 before I got it fixed enough and someone bought it.

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You need to find someone who will work with you. I have never used flexpipe.

Yep! That muffler glue crap isn't going to last. Bite the bullet you cheap bstd and go to the muffler shop and have them weld it up right.

I've had a couple of custom exhausts done on my 80s.

My 91 exhaust was awesome. No cats (later to sell I added a dual dodge cat double in single out). 2.25" pipe the rest of the way out.

My 94 has a 2.5" I'm using a competition style round performance muffler. And initially it sounded like crap. Then the muffler guy added a 10" resonator on the end and now it sounds OK. Still not as good as the 91. When I'm on it hard it really opens up, around town or on the interstate you can't hear it. The weird thing is when you do hear it is it is coming out of the center now. It is a natural spot for my ear. It is up high an he did a bologna cut so it shoots down right in front of the rear bumper. No more backing into tailpipes!

There are two types of flexpipe. One is sort of corrugated like copper pipe for a water heater. That stuff sucks. It will start leaking fairly quickly. The stuff like Heath used is pretty good stuff. That is a woven flex pipe. Usually they are stainless these days and will last a long time.

One thing I'm wondering. Could an earlier like 94 crossover be used to move the exhaust over the frame on the later models if you swapped out the cats like he did? If that would work, I could send you one Heath. I have an entire 94 exhaust that is in perfect shape (well dirty and some surface imperfections but solid) from the cats back.

ginericfj80 said:

Yep! That muffler glue crap isn't going to last. Bite the bullet you cheap bstd and go to the muffler shop and have them weld it up right.

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I may be a cheap, but my folks were married at least two years longer than your's were when I was born, so I ain't no bstd

Problem is last time I took a vehicle to get welded by a local shop, it was the Trooper, and they stripped the studs pulling the connector off the manifold, screwed up a $40 gasket when I took to back for them to fix their mistake, and then I ended up spending $100 to have a different shop cut out the studs and re-tap it all. So I guess I'm saying I don't have any shops here that I trust.

Wonder what a flow master reasonator would sound like behind a magnaflow muffler?

http://store.summitracing.com/partd...part=FLO-15110&N=700+-162914+115&autoview=sku

Update 3-12-07

The Cherry Bomb Glasspack thread had me looking back at this thread and thought I'd update.

1. Yes, the muffler mend stuff didn't last at all.

2. The sound got to be annoying. I fixed in a couple steps.

1. Took ressonator off - didn't really change the sound much.
2. Had muffler shop bend a new tailpipe that exits inside the frame rail
right at the back. They did it out of 2.5" tubing. Made it sound a
little better, and got a better seal to the muffler.
3. Cut my new tailpipe up, took out the spare tire winch crossbar, and
put in a Cherry Bomb Turbo as a resonator. Much quiter now.

3. The expensive band clamps didn't work worth a crap.

4. The flex pipe innards let go, so it's been replaced with a solid piece.

5. I built my slider outrigger too close to the cat, and it banged on it when ever I started it. This weekend I cut the down pipe, and shorted it to move the cat up for more clearance.

6. Changed to different style hanger to hold the possition up higher better.


Things I'd do different if I was to start all over:

1. Go with a turbo muffler or flowmaster to begin with.

2. Use the offset center cat to gain clearance.

3. Take the thing into an exhaust shop and let them do the whole thing from start to finish! When I shortened the downpipe, I was finally able to weld up my leak at the O2 sensor, and now I have a leak where I cut the downpipe cause the 2.5" tubing is ever so slightly too large and doesn't seal well with a clamp, so it needs to be welded. Just did the cut and modify Friday night and Saturday, and haven't gone back to weld it in place of the clamp, I hope I'm able to get around the whole thing - I might just ask a muffler shop to weld it and eat the $$.