Still looking for some help / opinions here.

Thanks guys !!

 

OK, gang, I decided to go with and I ordered the Aero Turbine set up today. I decided to stick with the rest of my exhaust and just replace the rotted out muffler with the turbine. Should be here tomorrow and hopefully it'll be a weekend project. When I finish it, I'll post up some new pics.

Thanks guy's for bearing with me and helping me out !!

 

I have the magnaflow exhaust on my truck and it was an easy bolt on process. Took way longer to remove than reinstall. I will admit that the truck is louder but it sure sounds sweet. I went with the 5 inch turbo back on a 2005. A friend went 4 inch and sounds about the same.

 

Do you have any sound clips or pics?

 

OK, gang, the Aero Turbine is installed .... now for the story.

First of all the guy's at Aero are top notch. I ran into a situation over the weekend and Justin at Aero helped me out BIG TIME !! I'll get into that in a minute. I'd also like to mention that the guy's over at Verocious are also really cool. I placed my order over the phone on Wednesday, and it was delivered on Thursday. I used the promo code and it saved me $50.00. I'd highly recomend them not only for the savings, but also for their customer service. A rare treat indeed !!

The story ...

I don't know how many of you guy's live on the east coast, but we had a hurricane ( downgraded to a tropical depression ) whip through here last week. I was on vacation in Wildwood NJ and I knew prior to leaving that this hurricane was going to ruin at least one day of the trip, so I decided to take my new muffler along and have it installed on that day instead of hanging out at the hotel with the ladyfriend and the youngsters. Sure enough, one day was ruined by rain, and off to the muffler shop I went.

I whipped into a Meineke. When I told the guy about the specific installation instructions he laughed it off and said that they install hundreds of them and that he and his crew was well aware of how they were installed. He said that they weld their exhausts instead of clamp them, so he won't be needing the clamps that I came down with. When he got the truck into the air he showed me how the pipe between my resonator and my existing muffler was 4", and not the 3.5 that my new muffler was. He recomended that I just loose the existing resonator and just run the downpipe straight into the new muffler and finally out of the tailpipe. I was a little worried, but decided to go with it. All was good.

The job is done, and the truck is pulled into the parking lot. I pay the guy, and before I hop into the truck I take a peek at my new chrome muffler. I'm shocked !! I whip out the registration card and the instructions and to my horror the muffler was installed backwards. There are 2 distinct rings on one end of the muffler and the instructions CLEARLY show the rings towards the back. I tell the owner that the muffler was installed backwards and he insists that it isn't. He tells me that his guy mounted it in the same direction as the arrow. I knew right then that he was lying because the muffler doesn't even have an arrow on it ( but it probably should in order to avoid this kind of confusion in the future ). The owner again insists that his crew installed it correctly and that it wouldn't be the first time that a manfacturer had drawn the picture wrong. He told me that if I wanted him to drop the muffler and re-hang it, that if it was in fact installed correctly, that he was going to charge me again for re-installing a muffler that was ( in his mind ) installed correctly the first time. I agree, but only after we call the manfacturer's number written below the instructions. I call Aero and I spoke with a guy ( Justin ) and told him what was happening. I asked him if it was at all possible that the instructions were drawn wrong and he told me that it was impossible. He also said that this happens often where muffler shops think they know how to install it only to do it wrong. Aero's are different than traditional mufflers so they are installed wrong. ( This is where the arrows WOULD have helped ). He told me that he was glad that I had called, and that if I had left it that way that the truck would have run worse instead of better than before. I had him speak to the muffler guy, and the muffler shop removed and re-installed the muffler again this time the correct way. Had they clamped it, this would have been a fairly easy task, however since they insisted on welding it, it became a major pain in the ***. Oops ...

Onto the good stuff ...

The truck runs like a top now !! Prior to installing the Aero, I put new rims and tires on my truck. I went from 16" 245's to 17" 265's. The truck looks awesome, however it felt VERY sluggish after installing them. Not only was it slower out of the gate, but it felt as though it took a lot of effort to not only get it to, but to keep it at 70 mph. I was very bummed about this, but at least it LOOKED cool !!! LOL !!!!

Things are different now !!

The truck is now as quick as ever out of the hole and cruising at 80 mph is just as effortless as it was with the 245's on it. I haven't done a gas mileage test yet, but I'm hopeing it'll be better. I WILL say that the truck seems to be "breathing" better. It doesn't feel labored at all. I don't have an EGT gauge, so I don't know if it's any better or worse, but it feels GREAT !! It feels like a brand new truck again !!

The sound ...

This was a MAJOR concern of mine. I almost went with the 4" Magnaflow exhaust, but after hearing some of you guy's complain about the interior noise I quickly ruled that out. I almost went with the 4" Magnaflow anyway and just ditched the Magnaflow muffler for the Aero, but since my tailpipe was brand new I decided to just replace the muffler. I'm glad I did. I don't know if eliminating the old resonator or not was a good or bad thing, but the truck sounds exactly the same way it did when I drove it into the shop. Before having the Aero installed, I was driving around with a stock exhaust minus a tailpipe ( because it had rotted out of the stock muffler ) Sure, it was a little louder inside the cab as a result, but by no means was it unbearable. To me, it sounded like a truck. As far as outside noise goes, again to me it sounds like a truck. More like a big rig almost. At an idle if I lightly tap the gas, it DOES kinda sound like a wet fart, but that's the only time it sounds like that. I think it sounds just fine.

So, to sum it all up, I now have the stock downpipe run straight into a 3.5" resonated Aero Turbine muffler and finally out through a stock tail pipe. To me, this is the perfect exhaust system. It sounds great and it performs great. I couldn't be happier !! Thanks again guy's for all of your help !! If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

 

Sweet, glad to hear that you like it. Believe it or not, the wife, baby, and myself were in Ft. Lauderdale last week visiting family. We put the storm shutters up on my wifes moms house, her office (she owns her own business), and tortured ourselves by waiting in the lines to get gas,,,, all for nothing,,, it was a tropical dud. lol. anyway, I'm glad to hear that you like it. So if I'm understanding correctly, you removed the cat, put the aero in its place and ran straight pipe out from there. I'm thinking about doing the same thing to mine. I know what you mean about the direction, I made double sure that the guys that installed mine understood how it went on, and then I watched them do it. They said that they had never seen one like that before, and I'm a bit ****, so I watched. I noticed that mine ran a little freer with it, and I love the sound. Inside it can be heard, but not bad, while outside, it sounds like a diesel, it'll turn heads, when I drive by, people know its a CTD.

 

Yep !!

First of all, there was a little bit of confusion on my part as to what exactly the part before my original mufler was. I assumed it was a cat because I never saw or knew what the heck a resonator was. In my mind, anything before a muffler HAD to be a cat !! It wasn't until someone here pointed out that what I had was more likely a resonator and not a cat that I then became schooled on what a resonator was.

LOL !!

Anyway, WHATEVER it was that was before the muffler has been 86ed. My set up now consists of a downpipe running straight into the resonated Aero ( I have the 3.5" XL ) and finally out of the tailpipe. The truck not only "feels" good, but it sounds good as well. I couldn't be happier. Hopefully the cherry on top will be some better fuel mileage. We'll see.