I had taken my muffler off today and drove to the local parts store and bought a new muffler. Straight pipes sound freaking awesome. So I ask, besides the more than likely ticket I'll be receiving from the city coppers..Is there any mechanical problems that will result in leaving my truck with straight pipes? Low end loss of power, high end loss of power, Etc....

 

This is by no means an 'experts' opinion, but the first thing I did when I got my truck was take the muffler off. That's the way it is today 14,000 miles later, and the only thing I can see that it's done is get a lot of compliments and thrown the engine light on. My local Autozone says it's an emmissions code, but it doesn't seem to have effected anything. On my old truck with the 4.7, I did the same thing and noticed a huge decrease in my mpg, I suppose it's something to do with the o2 sensors. I haven't really seen a big difference compared to what other people are saying their getting out of their HEMIs and this one though. Weird thing is though... my engine light will go off sometimes.... anybody have any ideas why this might be?

 

Any idea why removing the muffler would throw the engine light on or could it be coincidence in relation to something else? I have wanted to replace the muffler with a straight pipe also but don't want to ride around with an engine light.

 

I have drove around all day with it off and I have not had a code yet. I have drove around about 300 miles total.

 

You guys do know that the muffler is there for performance reasons right?

 

Actually I didn't know that. Explain if you would, because I have never heard that. I've known people to run stright pipes on other vehicles before and it boosted their performance

 

All cars that are NOT turbocharged need some kind of back pressure, at least thats how I was taught, taking off your muffler will give you better flow but you will lose ALOT of bottom end torque. My suggestion to you is to throw some glasspacks on it and just keep replacing those. They are cheap and extremely nice sounding.

Once you throw a turbo on a car, you want little to NO backpressure to allow your turbo to spin freely. With naturally aspirated motors, you need some kind like I said before.

Hope this helps.

 

EXACTLY what he said.

I have been reading a ****load of stuff regarding turboed vehicles (SRT4 mainly) for the last two and a half to three years now (I think), and backpressure is something you need..... it gives you more low end torque, and without it, you lose all that. Now, on a T/C vehicle the turbo is sending all the exhaust gases (if I recall) out of the back, and some people just go with a dump exhaust, which is usually ended where the cat would have been usually. Now, in theory, you could go with just turbo and no piping, but that would make the engine bay, UNGODDLY hot, so this is why they go with as little piping as possible.

Hope this helps.

 

I have an 03 reg. cab shortbox and I took my mufflers off at 18k miles and have yet to have the check engine light come on. It gets really noisey and annoying on long road trips, but it makes a mean cackle in the lower gears. I get around 15-16 mpg on the highway and am too scared and don't really want to know what I get in town. Everyone I talk to say that headers are the way to go, but I hear both negative and positive on them. Let us know if you put mufflers back on or just keep the "Cowboy Pipes"?

 

I have an 03 reg. cab shortbox and I took my mufflers off at 18k miles and have yet to have the check engine light come on. It gets really noisey and annoying on long road trips, but it makes a mean cackle in the lower gears. I get around 15-16 mpg on the highway and am too scared and don't really want to know what I get in town. Everyone I talk to say that headers are the way to go, but I hear both negative and positive on them. Let us know if you put mufflers back on or just keep the "Cowboy Pipes"?