Could leave it the way it is and put in a cut-out some place. Best of both instead of happy medium.

 

Yeah dude you need headers! I will sell you a brand new set of high flow racing headers with gaskets and bolts for 200. They give 20hp gain and 41 ft lbs of torque and will make your truck really scream!

 

^....bs

 

A chip would get you that but not headers.

 

when i 1st installed the highflow cat made it alot louder, the macinic that installed it told me it wouldnt make a diffrence and i almost didnt put it on, but i already had it so i said just throw it on, well he did and when he 1st fired it up he couldnt beleive it , proved him wrong and i was happy with the result

but right now im running no cats or muffler just streight longtubes andd it just sounds nasty i would reccomend getting a cutout if you want it loud loud, and you could always flip the switch to make it quite agian

 

my two cents, give it a month. IMHO new flows have a break in period where it sounds exactly as you described, weaker. give it a month or so

 

I had a flow 40 on my truck for one hole day that cut it off! Went cherry bomb. Now it's much better.

 

I am running 2 1/2'' pipe, then it goes to the 3 1/2'' exhaust tip.
Agreed, the truck will stay as is til I get some headers and dump the cat. The exhaust cut out is a very good idea thanks, might do that.

I could have the S44 with no cats and headers, then have an exhaust cutout on it so that I can flip it if I so choose at anytime. Definitely going to consider that. I do like straight pipes I'm not going to lie. Cops in WI ain't bad in my area about noise, but they ain't stupid they can tell if you have a muffler on or not. And if you lie and the cop has to drop to his knees to look under your truck you are SOL. The state cop that pulled me over in Green Bay for my truck being to loud, knew right away that my truck didn't have a muffler. He asked to see what I would say, and when I was honest and said its straight pipe'd he said I knew that just wanted to see what you were going to tell me. It saved me a ticket he said I'll let you off with a verbal warning.

 

The following may give a little insight as to another option for you.

Several years ago I had another Dodge truck. It was a '96 with an extended cab, long bed with a 5.9 engine. I had stock exhaust manifolds and cat. I wanted it to sound good, so I had a FM muffler put on with si/do. The 2-1/2" duals went straight out the back under the bumper. It was way too quiet!!! I was so disappointed to say the least. After a month or so, I went back and had them replace the FM with just a "y-pipe" and the sound was much much better! Not too loud, but had a nice rumble to it at lower rpms. When I hit the throttle, it really sounded good!

This would be among the cheapest routes for you. The y-pipe didn't cost that much. Just be sure to inform them that you want you FM if you have them replace it with a y-pipe. That way, down the road if you change the manifolds and/or cat to better flowing ones, you'll already have the FM to put back on.

 

I failed to mention my exhaust set up was listed in the signature of all my posts. That was done thanks to a gutted cat to cherry bomb with a turn out. that while it was louader it had no tone, cackled bad too, and it was illegal. Then quickly caught at inspection by a slightly overzealous mechanic. (It passed the sniffer/plugin part of the test)

Forcing my hand I quickly bought the two parts set up listed and prior to receiving/installing them had become worried that I would be disappointed by the quieter muffler (FM 70)set up but after blowing all that cash decided afterwords if I did not like it I would add a cut out after the new high flow cat and be done with spending for around 60 more for a cable latched cast model installed.




Lucky for me the new cat amped up the level enough that I can be heard and complimented regularly but when in overdrive at 80mph can talk with the person seated next to me or use a speaker phone and not have to shout at anyone for the ability/desire of "Hay look at me."