Hello again everyone...I have for some reason considered the possibility of cutting the stock muffler off my 96 1500 (360ci).

My few questions: would this take any kind of long-term toll on the motor? I would leave the cat on, just get rid of the muffler.

And the last one: would this produce a pretty decent sound? Most of what I've heard sounded pretty good, and a lot of these videos were Rams with the 318.

 

i won't hurt the motor.
i'll be pretty loud.

if you want it to be loud, cut the cat off too, and run a couple of straight pipes.
put your O2's more or less in the original spot, at least the front one.

 

Great...now when you say loud do you mean a 'good' loud or a crappy car with a junk exhaust kind of loud?

 

beauty is in the eye of the beholder....

if you're about 16-21, you'll probably think it sounds good.
at 55, i'd hate it.. but- we used to run straight headers and thought it was great. we could hear each others cars for miles away.

in general, a straight pipe or straight header will sound better than a hollow can, or gutted cat, or a muffler with a hole in it.

 

I have the 360 with cat and no muffler and I think it sounds perfect. Going down the road driving normal with the radio on I can't hardly hear the exhaust. If the rpm's get up to 3k or more you can tell but other wise not really.

 

Description says 360, no muffler, with cat:


Description says 360, no muffler, no cat:

 

Got it...looks like it'd be worth it. When it gets cut...do I need to replace it with a regular section of pipe? Can I just leave it with the exhaust exiting underneath the truck and possibly put an angled tip that would direct the exhaust down?

 

start by sawing it off with a saws-all and making a clean cut. save your muffler and pipes so that if you decide to reinstall it, all you have to do is reclamp or reweld the pipe back together. that way none of this costs you any serious money.

do you have inspection or emissions testing that you have to pass?
if not, just leave it chopped off.
be aware that putting on a turn down will create a big dust cloud if you drive dirt roads.

 

Apparently Ohio DOES have emissions testing, but only in 7 counties (none of which are even close to the county I live in). So does this mean I can remove the muffler+any pipe after it and leave it be? I'll probably throw a cheap turn down on the pipe, no dirt roads I drive on a regular basis.

 

Unmuffled exhaust sounds like ***, you can still be plenty loud with a quality muffler and sound good doing it.