i want to do a little exhaust modification to my truck and want to know what some of you guys have done and what you guys like best. On my last truck (1993 Dodge Dakota 5.2) was straight piped to a cherrybomb, and i love the sound but it was really a beater so i could hack it up. Mow that i have a truck that is nice i dont want to cut off the cat but still want a good sound at idle and of course, at acceleration. I know im not going to get a real loud sound since ill still have the cat attached and im not wanting to just cut off the muffler. I want to dump it out in front of the rear tire but dont know what sounds good on the 4.6

 

Just do a cat back dual exhaust. It sounds good and is pretty loud. Have the exhaust place cut the pipes where they y into single pipe and make it true duals.

 

Don't do true duals, it will cost you HP and torque. False duals split after the muffler produces a cleaner deeper tone, flows better, and is cheaper too.

 

I am running magnaflow si/do. Sounds nice. If I had it to do over I would do a deltaflow Flowmaster 2 chamber. The magnaflow doesn't drone though, which is nice.

 

I Have si/do with a delta 40 flowmaster,it has a deep throaty sound and not excessively loud.

 

I also have true 2.25 inch duals with an h-pipe, magnaflows on my mercury grand marquis 4.6. Sounds very nice, low rumble at idle, kind of a snarly howl on the big end. Once again, no drone.

 

"True" duals on these trucks are a big no no. There has to be some sort of cross over pipe or the exhaust pulses will fight at certain RPM and create a loud annoying cackle and drone. For the best performance I would recommend using an X-pipe. H-pipes are great, but they don't work as well on these trucks because there is no easy way to make the pipes from each bank symmetrical (so the H-pipe is less efficient). If I had to re-do my exhaust system I would install 2 hi-flow cats, then do 2.5" pipes into a x-pipe, then into 2 Magnaflow mufflers (how ever you decide to dump the pipes out the back is personal preference) I have mines 45'd out the back with 3.5" SS tips. The reason I say Magnaflow is because flomasters are a chambered style muffler (which IMO doesn't sound as good on these modern day EFI engines)

 

ok i should have mentioned this in the original post, i am going to use the stock routing for the exhaust. I would love to do all custom work but i dont have the time money or tools to do it. I have to look again, but the exhaust piping on the truck seems to be in real good condition, but if i have to ill get some new piping. Im thinking of finding a muffler with a 2.5 inlet and a 3in outlet. I was thinking of putting the muffler about a foot or two away from the cat the the rest be piping to the tire. Ive wanted to put a tractor muffler on a truck of mine but i wont try it with this truck lol

 

i have a 2.5in straight pipe off the cats. cost me $100 at the muffler shop to have bent, nice rumble at idle, quiet enough at cruising speed and sounds nasty when you get into it. these trucks have 4 cats on them no need for a muffler.

 

so i could get rid of a couple and make some money? lol didnt know they had 4 of em, sounds like to many to me lol ill have to get under the truck to really plan on what is goin to come out of all this

 

i just purchased my 2001 and it had great sounding duals. now yall made me have to look and see how it was done. i will report back later.

 

The first 2 are a "pre-cat" (not worth any money) they all work together. There's not really any point in changing the tubing size if you are keeping the stock y pipe and stuff. I would just cut off the exhaust where you want you new muffler and then route it in front of the rear tire (if that's what you still want to do). Before I got my dual exhaust system I had a cherry bomb glass pack welded in place of the stock muffler. It wasn't very loud but it had a nice tone.

 

Well you could use 4 smaller ones like Ford does on many of the truck models, or you can use 2 larger ones like GM does and then deal with them breaking apart all the time. Ford learned a long time ago that 4 smaller units gives just as good if not better efficiency, and better heat management, which helps prevent them from breaking apart in harsh off-road environments, which their truck fleet often sees among its construction fleets. This is part of why on most of the trucks they moved away from the huge cats they had some many issues with in the late 80s early 90s.

 

i wont cut any of them off, i dont want to mess this truck up like i did my last truck. if i dump the exhaust in front of the tire will i have to make a new hanger? does anyone know how many hangers are on the exhaust?

 

I had my stock muffler replaced with a 40 flow master yesterday. It has a little rumble in the cab from about 1500-2200. I like it. He fired up my truck to show me how loud it would be if I just straight piped it. It was very quiet at idle but I did not like the rattle at higher RPM.