Thanks for the info. I'm new to all this truck stuff.

 

Mine's the Gibson Swept Side (single in, single out, exits behind passenger side rear wheel). It sounds like a truck, but not a loud truck. It's a pleasing deep note that rumbles nicely but not obnoxiously at idle, and roars (but again not obnoxiously, at least not inside the cab) when you open up the butterflies but quiets down again when cruising. At cruise it's still audible, but not roaring. I've got only one narrow resonance band that hits when the engine RPM is at around 1400 (guessing, no tach) and the load is a tad over cruise but not much over cruise. Any change in throttle position or speed takes it away.

The first night it was in I had it exiting ahead of the tire and all it did was make more noise in the cab. There was no perceptible performance decrease adding the remaining few feet of 3" tailpipe behind it even with the jog over the axle tube.

Compared to the stock cat/exhaust that I had before, the improvement in low end and mid-range with the Magnaflow direct-fit cat and Gibson Swept Side behind it is perceptible and welcome. I was expecting some compromise in off-idle performance and was nicely surprised to find improvement there. Since I didn't get my transmission ordered last week as I'd planned, I won't know for another week or two how it behaves at WOT in the top-end. That'll probably be too late to help you any, I guess.

I'm so happy with it that I don't feel any need to try anything different, and when this one eventually rusts through it'll be replaced with the stainless version. I should qualify that: My goals in modification are to improve bottom end and mid-range because that's where my truck spends most of its time and does most of its work. Running down the highway at 75MPH I really don't care what it might do at 4800RPM. If it doesn't fall over dead, I'm happy.

 

I agree with you. I do spend my time on the highway, but I am not running any races. I want the low to midrange grunt that puts you back in your seat. I am not looking for anything obnoxiously loud, just a deep mean sound. My exhaust is rusting through in many places and needs to replace in the future, but it passed inspection so I have time to figure out how I want to replace it. Let me know when you get your transmission fixed, how it works at WOT. I might have to look in to the direct fit cat by Magnaflow. I even thought about going to true dual exhaust but that seems like a lot of work. Have to add another cat, O2 sensors and all the added piping.Don't know if it is worth it for me right now.