I have a Dynomax Super Turbo muffler, and I think it sounds great for a V6. 6 cylinders don't make a nice noise if they are too loud, it's just the way it is. I have heard 6 cylinder Dakotas with flowmasters and im my opinion they sound absolutely terrible. I got my muffler because it's quiet, but still has a nice low rumble, and flows better than stock. It cost around $80 I think. I just posted some more videos of my truck in anotehr thread, check it out and if you think it sounds good then I would highly suggest that muffler.

Also, if you are going to turbo or supercharge a V6, just get a V8. It will cost 1000's of dollars for a turbo or supercharger.

 

I guess I will go with that one then.
Also I was driving around today and I noticed a number of other dakotas, and mine seemed to ride higher then some others. Mine is not lifted, and the ones I saw were QC 4x4's, but they just seemed to ride lower. If it means anything, the ones that looked lower were SLT models.
Sorry to bother you all with so many questions...

Oh I almost forgot. I did a few 1/4 mile runs, and I averaged 17.4 seconds @ 76.5 MPH. Not impressive at all.

 

But see...your time is faster than my truck, but MPH is lower. That's exactly what I was talking about as far as your truck having more torque but less HP. You would actually beat me in a 1/4 mile race, even though I would be catching up to you at the end and would actually be going a little faster. Intake + exhaust should get you close to 17 flat and get your MPH up to 80+. I have no idea why your truck seems to ride higher, is it a sport model?

 

It is a sport model. I see what you mean about the torque, if I get it just right, I can chirp the tires when I launch. After that, it is a lot less impressive. And the moment it shifts into 3rd, it falls on its face. That is a bit of a problem, because it seems to shift at 50. I guess that's why I have little to no passing power.

 

you have the 3.9 with the auto right? Mine shifts about the same, around 50 mph on the highway, but if I put my foot into it to pass, or get back to speed, mine will almost set you back in the seat and go. I dont have any problems with that part, but it seems mine falls on its face around 75-80 mph and dosent wanna be pushed any father, and it dosent like to keep speed, it is constantly shifting to keep a solid speed.

 

These issues that you both speak of are due to lack of HP, not torque. Torque is what presses you into the seat, HP is what gets you from 60 mph to 90 mph. Free up some power, let that thing breathe. Intake and exhaust.

 

3.9 with auto yep. I also hit a wall at about 80. Feels like I could floor it all day and not go too much faster. And maintaining 75 or 80 on flat ground seems a little challenging (constantly hunting between 3rd 4th). And on a hill I can't really maintain higher than 70.

 

Sounds like the engine is choking to death.

 

Hopefully that will be solved by the intake and exhaust that are on order I still think this thing sounds like crap when it revs (above 3500). Will that ever change?

 

It will definetely sound deeper with the intake and exhaust. When I first got my truck it sounded like it had emphysema....just wheeeeeezing it's way up through the rpm range. The upper RPM sound has alot to do with the profile on your camshaft, but I don't think you really wanna mess with that too much.

Your truck is going to sound different (and more than likely have a deeper tone) than my truck because of the way they are designed. My truck has overhead cams and no pushrods. Your truck has one single cam and pushrods to to the work of opening the intake and exhuast valves. Pushrod engines can still rev like an SOB, look at top fuel dragsters. My uncle had an old Z-28 with a 383 stroker that would rev to 7000 rpm. But that's because the camshafts were designed to make power at high rpm, and the engine could get enough air and fuel into it to still make power that high.

Think of your motor as a big air pump. Engnies have a very specific air/ fuel ratio...I think it's 14-1 or something like that...so let's just say it's 10 to 1 to make things simple.

Lets say that unit of measurement is a gallon. That means if you can get 10 gallons of air per minute into your motor, you will burn 1 gallon of gas. Now, if you can get 15 gallons of air per minute into your motor, you can burn 1.5 gallons of gas....and that means you will be going a hell of a lot faster. Gas needs air to burn properly. You can't make fire without air, so even if you have 100 gallons of gas inside of a tube with no air, you could toss it in a fire and the gas wouldn't burn until the tube burst open and the gas was exposed to the air. Then you would have one bigass explosion.

Your engine is just creating lots of smaller explosions in your cylinders and thats what spins the motor. Get more air in there (by installing a cold air intake) and your motor will be able to use more gas (making more power) and you will be going faster.

The next step is getting all that used up gas and air OUT of the motor, that's where the exhaust (high flow cat, muffler) comes in to play. It allows the burned up air and gas to escape the motor easier and faster so you can burn more air and fuel.

Basically this is whats going on-

Your new intake will allow more air into the motor, your engines computer will realize that there is lots of wonderful fresh air coming in, and compensate buy dumping more fuel into the motor, which your nice new spark plugs will light on fire and make lots of fantastic little explosions inside your engine....then, your nice new high flow cat and muffler will allow that burned up air and fuel to go out and create some global warming to be replaced by more air and fuel, and sooner or later your doing 100 mph and Honda Civics are scurrying to get out of your way.

Long story short is that yes the intake and exhaust will make your truck sound alot better. It's never going to sound liek a V8, because it's only a V6. The best you can hope for is that it sounds good for a V6. And a good sounding V6 is still a hell of a lot better than a good sounding 4 banger.