Not stacks or anything, I was just thinking of staying on the cheap side with staying with the stock cat but after the cat just going to 3" to a nice muffler then staying 3" to 4" after the muffler and exiting where the stock exhaust does just a little bigger pipe size, I want my truck to sounds good but look kind of like a diesel I know it's not one but I'm making do for now, I already put a lvling kit on my truck and will soon be getting tow mirrors and 285/75/16 tires now just thinking about exhaust, can't really afford true duals, my exhaust shop in my town said he could run 3 to 3 1/2 in pipe from the cat back with a nice muffler for 150, just wanna hear everyone's opinions!!

 

Just go with 3 inch. Will give good tone, and good flow for your V-8. Going larger will actually COST you power.

That said, most of the gains to be had from exhaust are the cat forward systems..... either a high flow cat/y combination from someone like magnaflow, and some shorties, or, longtubes, and a y. Cat can be optional, just depends on if you have emissions testing where you are.

 

If you are having custom exhaust work done anyways, just ask the builder what he would charge to make you a good y pipe.

You can leave the cat and replace it later once you can afford to, or have him make you a section of pipe to bolt into place in the stead of your cat and do the non-fouler trick. Then when you need to get an inspection done replace the cat and remove the non-fouler.

If he is only going to charge you 150 for the 3" pipe a y should not be too much more.

 

I'm not really looking for power gains if them come with that's awesome but I just want a good tone and a decent look to my exhaust, my muffler is starting to rust out witch made me think about doing this, i just want a reliable truck right now, gotta keep telling my self if it ain't broke don't fix it, even though it's tempting lol as of right now I was just seeing about doing this, in a couple years when it isn't my daily ill do more things to it, just wanted to hear some opinions on my idea

 

When you talk about him doing a y pipe for me are you talking about redoing the restrictive y in front of the cat or behind it?

 

In front of the cat. Were the manifolds come together.

+1 on too big = power loss

You need a certain amount of restriction in the exhaust system.

 

And don't forget that if you have a blown plenum gasket, it could (or will) ruin the cat if you decide to get a new one. So don't spend the money on a new cat unless the intake is fixed.