So Ive decided that my exhaust is too quiet. I was wondering if cutting out the muffler would help make it louder. I plan to go to a muffler shop and have them generally redo an exhaust for me. I know these things have a pretty good setup from the factory but I dont want to drop 700 on a stainless steel flowmaster or anything.

 

Here's my experience; It took me quite a while... but I finally got the rusty 12 year old exhaust clamps off the exhaust. I tried to use a socket wrench, but the nuts just snapped right off, I eventually used a hack-saw to cut the clamps.

The exhaust comes off in a couple different sections... the tailpipe, heat shield, and it snakes up over the rear axle and into the back of the muffler. Then the muffler itself comes off, it's about 3.5 feet long, it's huge.

I would suggest spraying some penetrating oil into the joints. It will make it easier to wiggle the different sections apart. To be honest, I had to take off the rear tailpipe and muffler all in 1 piece.

I then drove my truck up on top of the muffler, and wiggled the **** out of the tailpipe to get it seperate from the muffler. I also used the hack-saw to cut little slits in the muffler joints to give it some more room to break free.

I took a little drive around with the muffler off, it sounded GREAT at idle, but it sounded like absolute crap while driving around. So then I went to the local parts store and picked myself up a glasspack muffler. I had one on my old truck and it sounded great.

Well... On this truck, the glasspack didn't really sound all that great, I found it too loud. So then I decided to pipe the exhaust all the way out the back of the truck. It sounded "okay" at best - and I eventually just put the stock exhaust back on.

If anything, I would go with a flowmaster, several guys here have done so - and it seems to sound just about right. But honestly, I think I'm going to leave it alone, it's a 12 year old truck... It's not fast... It's just great transportation.

-rob