I am a new owner of a 2004 Hemi 1500 Ram pick up and need your opinions regarding exhausts.

I have been to several muffler shops in CA, and all have told me that instead of just buying the full catback single side exhaust from Magnaflow, I really only need to just buy the muffler alone and install that. With the addition of a nice chrome or stainless tip, the mandrel bent stock pipes are already 3" and basically are the same tubing that comes on the Magnaflow system.

This scenario does not apply to you dual exhaust guys, as your set-ups will change completely. However I prefer the single side and do not want to sacrifice 1 ounce of HP. I asked the installers if they have heard of any drops in HP by not using the Magnaflow connection tubing, but they have all agreed in all shops that there should be no difference. The same scenario was also recommened to me regarding a Flowmaster muffler if I was considering that model, but I do not want it too loud.

So what do you guys think? Makes sense to me. Tubing is tubing, what is important is the way its bent. Minimal turns to not restrict the flow of air, and if it matches the Magnaflow bends, why wouldnt this work and save me $300??

 

I agree with the muffler shops and you dont need a entire cat back system.

 

if you can get rid of the y pipe in the stock exhust

 

i did that exact thing, i swapped the muffler with a nice tip, they have to take the resonator out of the tail pipe so you will either need a new tail pipe, or you can have them splice in a piece of tubing where the resonator was, which is what i did. The whole job was 230 bucks, it sounds great and didnt lose any performance. Theres no point to do a whole cat back because you already have the 3 inch pipes, lmk how it goes!

 

The stock tubing on the Hemi rocks, and would be good enough to handle many bolt-on mods. The muffler idea is the way to go. I mean, why waste the money if you can't improve on it? Good luck with your choice.[sm=smiley20.gif]

 

Just go with the muffler. Magnaflow part #12219 has a 3" inlet and outlet and should give your truck a great sound!

 

I just returned from a local exhaust shop. I currently have the stock muffler with a tailpipe off an '03 Ram Hemi on my truck. Friday, I'm having a MagnaFlow 14589 SI/SO stainless steel muffler installed with the '03 tailpipe. There is no good reason to change the pipes. They are already mandrel bent stainless from the factory, although they are 409 stainless and will develop slight surface rust.

The cost will be $179 to swap out the muffler. The MagnaFlow 12219 will require additional pipe and will not be as mellow sounding. It's also not a stainless muffler.