Hey everyone, today I was thinking about the whole thing with exhaust systems and I came up with a whole bunch of questions regaurding exhaust systems and exhaust in general for my 98' Ram.

How much louder would my truck be if I just dumped the stock exhaust by the muffler?

How much louder would it be if I just ran open headers+cat? Would it be unhandleable, or just a really mean sound? Would it mess up any sensors? Do you think the cops would care?

Is there any way to get an American Thunder (dual) catback with a 40 series instead of a 50 series? The 50s were the only ones that I have seen that come for Rams for catbacks from Flowmaster.

If there isn't a catback with a 40, then is it possible to hook one up with the American Thunder pipes?

Anyone ever drill there stock muffler? Does it sound good, and if you did where should you drill it?

If anyone could answer these questions that would be really nice,

Thanks,
Mike.

 

Back when i was young and dumb (or just poor) I drilled about 10-15 3/4 inch holes in the bottom of my muffler in a GMC 1500 w/350 engine. It did not sound to bad but when i moved to Oklahoma it would not pass inspection. It sounds like your best bet is just to buy the muffler that you want and have a muffler shop custom bend you up some pipes in what ever configuration that you want. It should save you some money over a "cat back system" and I don't think that you will notice a performance difference in the seat of your pants.

good luck and i hope that i helped

 

no offense, but it is people like you that plague diamler chrysler, did they give u that mentality at a training session or what?

 

What?

 

dunno what Matrix's problem is, he seems to have a problem with everyone, but you should be able to find a good custom system with a couple mufflers for under 250$

hell, when I first got my truck I just had them install dual exits right after my stock muffler with tips for 180$

went back about 8 mos later and had them dump a 40 series flowmaster

it's loud as hell and sounds mean and throaty now

not to mention the rear is really clean with no pipes
now if only I didn't need a trailer hitch I'd do away with that and get roll pans

 

Well I hope this help's. One Any time you reduce backpressure in any type of motor that is good. Just dual exhaust will do that. Now if your willing to spend the ducket's(money) then I would get the Header's and dual exaust. There are many different kinds out there to. Shorty blockhugger's and your longtube. Shorty's will produce slightly more torgue and longtube's will give you more horse's. Realize header's naturally give more horsepower and torque but either one will give more of one. As far as dual exhaust goes this is just my opinion but Fl@$^&!#er has people fooled I would really look at MagnaFlow exhaust. You will also get that nice deep throaty sound. Again that is just my opinion. Here's more food for thought, if your just buying the muffler's and your gonna have a local shop make the exhaust. Try and make the exhaust as straight as possible. What I mean the less curve's in the pipe= less turbulance. Sounds stupid but trust me there is a difference. I hope this helps.

 

I (and I think many others) have to disagree with the notion that all motors benefit from the least backpressure possible; this is simply not the case with today's engines. Proper back pressure is required to help your exhaust scavenge, when you run too large pipes etc. and reduce back pressure by an extreme amount you end up having outside air being able to rush back into your exhaust and create problems. In addition, a huge loss in backpressure can also lead to loss of low end torque. Considering that low end is what most of us are wanting to improve in our cars rather than top end HP, reducing backpressure by an extreme will result in lost performance. I know for a fact that I and others on this forum have lost low end by mistakenely installing duel style systems that have not been engineered to provide proper backpressure. Not to say duels are bad, they just need to incorporate proper backpressure. No offene meant, just trying to clear things up.

 

In reply to Ruckstar, reading is fundamental! Nowhere in my reply did I say that the least backpressure is good for any motor. I did say that REDUCEING backpressure is good. As far as proper backpressure even you just ran your converter that will still give plenty of backpressure for your motor to run properly. I'm not tring to be rude I just want to clarify thing's. As far as your statement about to large pipe's that is true. I do know what I'm talking about with 10 years expierence with making custom exhaust for both street and strip.