I was going to pull the trigger on new gears, but I think I'm going to address the broken studs, restrictive Y-pipe, and generally inefficient stock manifolds first.

I'm probably going either Banks or Thorley for headers. Both seem to be well built and have good, thick flanges.

Now, the question: which muffler do I go with?

My stock one is shot. I *DO NOT* want drone, I do not want anything loud. A good low rumble is ok, anything beyond that is going to annoy me in the long-term. I also don't want the 6-cyliner rice-burner coffee can sound that some (most?) mufflers exhibit. No offense intended to any of you on here that have and like that sound. It's just not what floats my boat.

Flowmaster seems to be mostly hated, due to excessive drone. Magnaflow seems to have a reasonable sound. I read a post on here with a good review of Dynomax Ultra Flow SS. I also see some talk about the Dynomax VT. What about the stock muffler?

For what it's worth, I'm keeping the cat.

So, folks with headers, what do you recommend?

Thanks in advance.

 

Dynomax VT with no cat and stock manifolds has no drone, but is not quiet either. I'll get a few clips of mine taking off and cruising. Anything above 2300 rpm and you can tell its a V10 roaring away. I love the setup, but its not a quiet setup for those that want near stock sound levels.

 

I do not know if you are exiting the exhaust with duals or single muffler. The stock muffler is fine but will be expensive. A Borla is good but also expensive. I am like you with not liking a loud or rough sounding muffler. To go the less restrictive route with controlled sound seems to usually take a large chamber muffler which is why factory truck mufflers are so large. The Borla has a packing but is lifetime warrantied. Mr. Lingenfelter recommended Borla.

 

I am in the same boat as you Truckfella. My 99 was a complete Borla system, headers and cat-back. It had a nice roar to it. On my 05 I just cut out the stock muffler and swapped in a Dynomax Super Turbo 17792. I used the stock 3" tailpipe. It sounded ok as well. Now on my 02 I am either going with the Super Turbo again or a Magnaflow straight thru muffler. To keep it down I was going with a 24" or 30" case. Still haven't decided if I want to exit in front of the rear tire or out the back in the stock location.

 

Duals vs. Single: honestly, I hadn't given it much thought. Since it came with a single, figure I'll stay that way. Seems like having two exhaust pipes would be louder than two.

Regarding the location of the pipe, gut intuition tells me that having it most rearward would make it less susceptible to drone in the cab. But maybe I'm off on my thinking here.

 

Flowmaster 70 Big Block 2 or 50 Big Block is what I recommend. They have enough capacity to control drone and have a nice "thump" to them. I am running the Flowmaster stainless single 3" catback with the 70 BB2 on my truck now with the Doug Thorley headers and aftermarket cat. Prior I had the aluminized version of the same system. My dads truck is a crew cab like yours and I put the aluminized Flowmaster system on his too but he is running the stock logs yet. I had a Dynomax ultra flow stainless on my truck for about half a day after the Thorleys were put on because it sounded like a V6 Pontiac. That muffler sounded decent with the stock manifolds. Overall on the V10, mufflers with packing sound far worse than chambered mufflers in my experience. Plus the packing clogs up over the years and the sound changes and drone increases.

Keep in mind some guys say they don't have drone but actually do at certain rpms and loads, especially with smaller cased mufflers. Between all the combinations of manifolds/headers, exhaust configurations, mufflers I have had on my V10 and my dad has had on his V10 over the last 14 years I know better. Chances are you are always going to have at least a tiny bit of drone at one point in the rpm range depending on load.

Go with a large capacity muffler and keep sound output mild is the best way to go in my experience. The V10 can drive you nuts with a loud exhaust while pulling long trips at higher rpm. Especially with a before the axle exit. On these truck going with duals is waster IMO because you have to run the bulk of the pipe all down the passenger side. This leaves an unequal length system.

 

Been out of town for almost 2 weeks and just now catching up on email and forum stuff.

dkf: thanks for the lengthy reply. I'll definitely take your input into consideration. Hadn't considered the fact that packing in mufflers would break down and, therefore change the sound characteristics over over time. But it definitely makes sense.

 

just for the sake of conversation, the Magnaflow XL's look like they might fit the bill as well.

look to be a combination of a perforated core and a chambered muffler. I'd probably stay away from the smaller ones, but the larger round ones look interesting to me.

MagnaFlow Exhaust Products - For Trucks, Suv's, American Muscle, Diesel, & Sport Compact Vehicles