hey guys looking for pointers as this is a new field for me... doing a cat delete on my 97 5.2 1500 while I was up there I found the time to pull the headers and put on a set of longtubes. now I need an actual pipe system. Ive been told I can get pipeing from homedepot… is there truth in this statement or will it kill my truck. or is there a better way to get good pipe

 

Typically what you would do, is buy some straights and bends, then cut them to fit - tack them with a welder, make sure it goes where you want, then MIG or TIG it together tight. I'd get a couple slip-ons so you can pull it apart if you need to fget access to something. SummitRacing has kits available, as does JEGS and others. I don't know what you could buy from homedepot, but I don't think they carry the right stuff.

https://www.summitracing.com/search?...pipes&N=402750

 

You would more likely be able to get pipe from someplace like Midas, or any other muffler shop.

 

You might want to purchase the mufflers you want on the truck online, then take the truck to a local muffler shop to install the pipes and mufflers. Its hard to beat letting a muffler shop do the job, since they have pipe benders + welders and can complete the job quickly. I find that local muffler shops tend to be less pricey that the large chains, at least in this area.

 

If you go local, make sure you get aluminized pipe, standard steel will rot through fast. I'll never forget when I got surprised at inspection time and had midas put on a pipe. It was shot before the next inspection. Local shops don't have mandrel machines, so they bend the pipe with inferior tools and put a bunch of wrinkles in the bends.

I had stainless bent and installed after my midas experience, and in 2 years the front pipe was leaking at the exhaust manifold. Installer made the exhaust a little short and had a bunch of tension on it. That was the last time I ever had anyone touch the exhaust on anything I own.

 

I wondered too if it was possible to do a cheap diy home exhaust setup, or is clamp on worthless and it's welded or nothing ..? My cherry bomb extreme is quite loud and I wouldn't mind even a flowmaster super 50 suv muffler even dumped around the cab or maybe over the back axel, I don't think dual exhaust is really all it's cracked up to be, with it and a cold air intake I never magically got 20+ mpg with my 90s v8 truck with auto trans like so many people fibbed about online about over the years lol

 

I put an AP dual exhaust catback setup on my 2000 Ram. Two 2.5" aluminized tails exiting at rear bumper, a stainless muffler (1 input, 2 output), an intermediate pipe, clamps and hangers... $180 delivered to my door. Duals are harder to setup, you want to make sure the left tail doesn't get in the way of the spare tire or rear soft brake line. Leave everything loose until you are satisfied where it is, then clamp them. I have a MIG and skills, but prefer to just clamp on ready made - unless not available. Then most everything gets welded, minus a couple good places to be able to drop it out w/o cutting.