I bought an 03 dodge ram 2500 hemi and want to do some mods so please bare with me and my barrage of questions for the forum:

Whats the best intake system manufacture out their?
I know KN is good but what about other brands (airraid, brute, volant...) ?
And what about cold air intakes I see that KN doesn't offer a cold air system (that I saw) are they worth it for my model...? any negatives?

Whats the best exhaust system (flowmaster, dynomax, others....)?
And whats the best way to go about the new exhaust, have a shop custom build or buy a kit?
I was planning on doing dual system out the back.
what about sizes for a cat back system (3" in to a 2.5" out; or a 3.5" in to a 3" out)? is bigger better (like she said) or is the 2.5" ? (the local chop shop said 3 to a 2.5" duals is fine, but I wasn't to confident in his opinion)

Of coarse I am looking for the most hp, the best sound and some added fuel efficiency would help.

Thanks for all your help

 

Well, there really is no "best" when it comes to the mods you mentioned. It comes down to preference. Do you want to wake up the neighborhood when you start up your truck or just have it loud during acceleration? I can tell you what I put on my truck, and let you decide for yourself.

I went with a 40 Series Flowmaster dual exits. Its extremely loud, lots of interior resonance, but I love it. Went with 2 1/4" pipe. You could probably go up to 2 1/2", but wouldn't go any larger than 3". I did that at first and lost some low end. The 2 1/4" brought it back.

I'd have a shop custom make it, its cheaper than buying the kit, having it shipped, then paying someone to put it on. Mine cost $300 out the door for the muffler, tail pipes, and tips.

I put a K&N CAI on, didn't notice much difference in MPG, but it made the exhaust sound deeper. And its kinda cool to hear the air sucking in when under acceleration, but not sure if it's worth it.

You also have to remember, its HARD to gain MPG when you put an exhaust on. Simply because if you like the muscle car sound, you are gonna be on the accelerator a lot. That cuts into your MPG. Now, if you pay $300, put these mods on, and drive it like a granny to gain MPG, then you just wasted your money. Make it loud and enjoy it. Afterall, if we wanted fuel economy, we'd have gotten hybrids.

 

I agree, preference is the first thing you want to look at.
The intakes are all the same, find the one with the better deal. I hear a lot of people are putting on jeep liberty intake tubes, the tube bypasses the box with the baffles and will essentially give you a cheap CAI.
As for exhaust hit the net and download soundclips go with what sounds best. All the top brands flow equally well.
You want to build an intake and exhaust that flow well, no bends or restrictions rather than going with larger pipes. 2.5-3" is plenty.
With these mods I was seeing up to 17mpg in town until the pcu adjusted itself,was really cool for a while. Damn, I cant wait till they make a tuner for the 04's!

 

The most popular intake and exhaust combo that we have seen is the Volant intake (VOL-16857), and Aero-turbine muffler (AT3030).

We can sell them as a package for $445 w/ *FREE shipping!