Looking to put an exhaust on my 97 Dodge Dakota 5.2L V8. I something affordable but that sounds nice, possibly something to help get better MPG? Also looking into an air filter. Which one works best? What do you have? How do you like?
Thanks

 

Well, I have a 03 Quad Cab, but I'll offer any help I can give.

First off, if you're planning on getting exhaust, you might as well go dual (true duals not necessary, most people just buy a new muffler with 1 in/2 out piping). For this, I would reccomend it's probably a 3" pipe now, meaning you'll want 2.5" out piping. Personally, I am using the Flowmaster 50 series. Many people decide to buy the 40 Series, however I have some major dislikes with it. Primarily, it's made from aluminum, where as the 50 series muffler is high guage stainless steel (much better in my opinion). Secondly, I enjoy the quiter interior sound this muffler provides (it's about 3x quiter inside the cab itself with almost the same exterior sound). As for the tips, bulk it back up to 3" (my truck tips are shown below, start as 2.25 or 2.5 and then tipped to 3" for a better look.) This added about 2-3 mph as well as hp and torque.


Now as for an air filter, see my picture below. This is a Home Brew cold air intake made from inexpensive PVC pipe. I just did this 2 weeks ago, hence why it's still white and not painted with a heat resistant black paint. To do this, you just need to remove the air box, and purchase a 45' and 90' pvc turn pipe, one 3" diameter straight pvc pipe (youll need about 3 feet for safe measure), and a spare connector (the piece banding the piping to the original intake). The filter is just a replacement K&N Filter, I'll edit with the exact model after i research, but this is a start. This increased my mileage by 1-2 and added some horsepower as well as torque.

 

wow thats really sweet intake..i never would thought of that... thanks for all the info!!

 

No problem man, I personally had the idea recommended by a mechanic buddy of mine. Unlike the Cold Air Intake kits sold for these dakotas that are rated horribly, mine works amazingly thanks to it's positioning all the way in the front next to where the box use to get its air, as well as the size filter I'm using. Just an fyi, you can use a cone filter instead of a straight cylinder, this one was just bigger and seemed to offer more air flow in my opinion.

Good luck with your truck!

 

thanks..let me know what model filter that is if you get a chance!

 

anyone have any pictures of a single exhaust system? not sure if a dual is for me... i do have a hitch and reverse lights mounted underneath so im not sure if it will fit. plus i think my tires are considered oversized.. does anyone have pictures of a dual or single coming out behind the rear tire? thanks

 

All I did was throw the 14inch Oval Magnaflow muffler on my Durango. Flows better and sounds like dual exhaust.

As for the air intake, a drop-in K/N works just as good and less expensive.

Muffler was 60 bucks from SummitRacing and the K/N drop in was 50 from the Auto Parts store.

 

I know a trailor hitch won't be a problem, simply because I am about to add one to fit in between my two existing pipes. However, if yours are too wide to begin with since the older truck frames were originally much wider, you may consider the 45 degree cut (this will eliminate any possible problems), but oversized tires won't make a difference in getting the 90 degree cutout behind the wheelwell, unless you did some major modding and changed your wheelwell size.


As for the drop in filter, they work decently, but the cylinder filter has 2x the surface area making it much easier to draw in air ultimately helping to optimize performance. More importantly, it draws in COLD air from just in front of the right wheel well instead of drawing in hot air from right around the engine. It cost me 52.99 at a local autozone (waiting till AM to check the filter itself for size). The PVC totalled about 10-15 bucks at most. For a tad more, it's a good deal

 

i am def interested in the 45 degree cut, which is what i have now stock.. so i wont mind the look, but i wanna do it dual..

 

if i take a straight exhaust and cut and weld in a 45 degree bend would that work? also is 2.25" exhaust a decent size? does anyone know stock size?i found this on ebay and was wondering if this a decent deal? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...:IT&ih=009