I'm looking to upgrade my exhaust. I want low restriction, but I do not want loud. Does anybody have any recommendations?

 

I have the flowmaster 50 series, good sound on throttle, but not TOO loud on cruising.

 

if you don't have emmisions the absolute best less restriction is taking out or gutting the cat!
(BTW-If you dont know what a Cat is, Catalytic Converter)
if your cat is bolted on u can just unbolt it and shove metal piping or somthing that'll break the web inside the cat, then bolt it back on, really helpss. You'll feel more power with it off too....

Gutted/pulled cat- High Flow

Stock Muffler-Quiet with deep tone

Pluss get a Air breather for it.

 

How will this affect the O2 sensor?

 

Cause errors........busting out your cats is the last thing you want to do........you can look into legal racing cats......and Flowmaster 50's are on the quiet side they are a 3 baffle system and offer a nice flow.......you can call their tech line and get a lot of professional advise for free and that will take all the guessing out of it for you

 

what? it causes errors? ugh cats..... there so restrictive, I hate them, your car runs so much better without them. not to mention sound better. if you leave the O2 sensor on how would it cause errors??

people do it all the time cause everyone knows catless systems are the most high flow, mainly aftermarket exhaust systems are for show/sound, the real power adders are symple straight pipes, like mine, it runs so much better without the restrictive cat.

and I know people with no cats, there cars run so much better and lasting them longer and more reliable. they have no errors??? only tons more HP n TQ and alot faster. pluss much better MPG. my friend has a 302 and had flowmasters, sounded nice, but he got talked into straight pipes and is it ever meaner, faster and gets better MPG, when he got his new catless pipes, he said giving normal gas I switched gears outta 15mph, now giving the same ammount of gas he switches outta first at 25mph, just with adding exhaust. now I didnt realize how much my truck was sluggish until I added straight pipes, it feels like somthing else and turns heads everywhere because of the atractive race car sound.

hey see if you like the exhaust sound without glass packs, cause you'll get more power out of it without mufflers, the 5.2 sounds like a beast with or w/o mufflers.

 

The cat helps clean up all the crap coming out of your engine so if you remove the cat the o2 sensor will be reading this and I imagine start leaning out your system becuase the sensor will determine you are running rich. There are ways around this I have heard but IDK... As far as the exhaust I have heard borla makes a good loud exhaust without interior resonance like the 40 series flowmaster but then again you may not even get that problem in a truck but apparently it is horrible in the D's...

 

The front O2 sensor is the one that controls mixture, and the gasses will be the same at that point with or without a cat. The O2 after the cat only detects a drop in unburned oxygen due to the cat, and when you remove the cat there is no difference in the oxygen content between the two sensors so the second one SHOULD report a catalyst system inefficiency error, but it's really random since some people can go catless and others just putting in a high flow cat or headers can cause the error.

Dakotasport - perhaps your cat was clogged, causing your problems. It does happen and you'd notice a definite lack of power.

Yes, it is a restriction in the exhaust, but no, I don't recommend gutting it. Check into it a little, iirc if you get busted for it you could face a $10,000 fine, not to mention with an illegally modified exhaust setup no muffler shop can legally work on your truck without returning it to OEM spec, or they too are subject to the fine as well. Does that mean you can't find a shop to work on it? No. There are plenty.

The other thing is that yeah, straight pipes sound awesome, but it's rude as hell to your neighbors and the general public. You like it when somebody fires up a harley outside your window at 3am? Loud exhausts can also land you in trouble with the law.

 

horatio is right on all points. you will most likely activate your check engine light due to the downstream O2 sensor. furthermore, straight pipes can be very obnixious for neighbors and anyone else. gutting the cat? why dont you do yourself and the state you live in a favor by getting a high flow cat.

 

umm, ya, I still have the O2 sensor on it, besides the sensor was sitting infront of the cat witch made no sense but anyway, ya I kept my aftermarket muffler on it so its not as loud as it could be, its just deeper.

Oh and ya, my Cat was pretty bad, I got it replaced but I wanted to try without cat because EVERYONE here in Oklahoma told me to do it, told me how much better it would be, lol even the shops that werent aloud to do catless pipes told me to look for a shop that does, so i've only been doing stuff based on what other people tell me to do, most of them work in shops too. I just want the best Perf. without spending alotta $.

BUT I guess truthfully he dousn't needa take out his cat though, cause in the long run it'd prolly be better for an engine that needs high flow exhaust, i dont even really need it but with all the stuff im doing it helps alot and its one of the lest expensive things, ya my ECU work helps with all the stuff im adding, I can't decide if I want to just buy a chip or spend alot more for a programmer?? I really dont want to spend alot though..........

though theres no emmisions tests here i'm still worried about it. so i dont really want to but it crosses my mind about putting a cat back on, just because of paying a fine but no one here gets introuble for it i think... Whats the highest flow cat I can get??? and how much they run.

[quote/]Horatio::
The front O2 sensor is the one that controls mixture, and the gasses will be the same at that point with or without a cat. The O2 after the cat only detects a drop in unburned oxygen due to the cat, and when you remove the cat there is no difference in the oxygen content between the two sensors so the second one SHOULD report a catalyst system inefficiency error, but it's really random since some people can go catless and others just putting in a high flow cat or headers can cause the error. [\quote]

Horatio, I dont have a sensor after my cat?? maybe thats why mine worked for me... I just had one sensor infront of the cat... ya'lls come with 2 sensors???