I have a 2005 Dakota ST 4.7L Club Cab with a 6'6" bed and a standard transmission that's 4wd. I've been looking for an aftermarket exhaust system for about a week now, and I've also looks around these forums to no avail. All the exhaust systems I have found (mostly from MF and Gibson) all say that they fit the 2wd model of my truck, but none of them specify if they fit the 4wd version. Kind of new to auto mechanic stuff and still trying to learn, but not sure if the 2wd version will fit a 4wd truck or not. Thanks for any replies.

 

First let me say welcome to DF and the G3 Dakota section.

Mine its a totally custom true dual setup. There are some good kits but most after market catback systems won't matter if your 2wd or 4wd. I've heard a lot of good things about Magnaflow Cat-Back System 16622 for our trucks.

There are other considerations also. The restrictive stock "Y" pipe, if you want to run headers, etc. Anyway here is the Magnaflow kit.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/MagnaFlow-Dual-Exhaust-2008-Dodge-Dakota-3-7-4-7L-Truck-/360276429092?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Part s_Accessories&fits=Year:2005|Modelakota&hash=ite m53e2260924#ht_2316wt_1165

 

Thanks for the welcome to the forums. I was thinking about getting a custom system if I couldn't find a good kit, saw a guy at one of the mechanic shops in town doing up a custom exhaust system for some old car and it looked pretty good when he was done with it, may ask him for a quote. Was looking at headers along with the exhaust system but didn't even think about getting a better "Y" pipe, gonna go browse and see if I can find one of those to price. Thanks dude.

 

maybe take it to an exhaust shop to see if they can bend some pipes up for you and install it with the muffler of your choice? or even get some price quotes?

i had mine installed about 3 weeks ago,he only had to bend up the driver side cause he said he had the passenger in stock
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/3rd-gen...-pics-vid.html

 

Any system that fits the 05 4.7l Dakota should fit your truck just fine, regardless of being 4x4. The club and
Quad cabs are the same length, and where the exhaust runs to the rear of the truck, both the 2wd and 4wd should be the same. The transfer case and all the 4x4 components come no where near the exhaust. You may be having a problem finding the compatible exhaust systems if you list your truck as an ST or the standard trans may throw off the search functions on auto parts sites. You should be able to find exhaust systems for your truck from flowmaster, magnaflow, gibson and mbrp. When these exhausts are designed, the manufacturers can't test fit it on every possible model of a certain truck, so they don't always list them as being compatible. For example, any cold air intake for a 4.7l dakota will fit a 3.7l dakota even though all the sites won't pull up any performance intakes for the 3.7l motors.

And welcome to DF. If you have any questions about a specific exhaust system, just post a thread. There will be someone here that probably has that same exhaust on their dakota.

 

Thanks for the info rengnath, that was what I was wondering, whether or not the transmission/4x4 components would interfere with the exhaust system. Found a few exhaust systems from FM/MF/Gibson but all of them either had only 2wd models in their installation guides or had the wrong bed lengths (that don't exist), so I'm guessing the manufacturers or retail sites just put down generic information for the vehicles. Thanks for all the feedback, love the site and have already gotten tons of info from here.

 

Welcome to the forum! Another option is to just find a local muffler shop and see if they will fab you up a dual system. Depends on how much you got in your wallet really, the Gibsons and MPRP's can get pricey for their kits, you'll want stainless pipes too, living in NY. I actually bought my dual kit of ebay, flowmaster muffler, pipes, clamps and hangars for under $200. BUT, I found a local place that would have done it all for me for $50 more and saved me the headache of installing it myself.

 

No problem ArmyGuy. Dont worry about install instructions; its as straight forward as possible. Once you get the old exhaust disconnected from the Y-pipe, you can just start hacking the pipes your removing and not have to worry about doing anything wrong because it all comes off. The new systems normally use the stock hanging holes or come with their own mounts.

If you dont have a lift, I would call around local shops to get any exhaust kit installed unless you dont mind working on your back for a few hours. Im only 20 and I couldnt be under my truck for that long doing an exhaust, plus if something didnt fit right I dont have a torch or welder to rig it up. I had my MBRP installed for $100 and it took them less than 30 minutes. Getting the stock system off is the tricky part, and an extra set of hands would be highly recommended.

 

Yea, I'll probably take it to a shop around here to put it on, I got jack stands that I use to work under the truck and do brake/tire work but I definitely don't have enough clearance to try to install an exhaust. My wife got me a K&N Cold Air Intake for me for my birthday and it's supposed to be here tomorrow I guess so we'll see how it turns out.

 

you will have a hard time deciding on if you want to listen to the intake or listen to the exhaust once you get that CAI installed...lol. It was really not that bad installing my system myself. I just backed her up on a set of ramps, had plenty of room, was on my back for the muffler install part, but for the rear end, I was actually able to just sit under the rear end once I removed the spare. It went pretty easy.