I recently had my mufflers cut out and replaced with straight pipe, bad move. I need a less restrictive exhaust.... Did this even help any? I mean I have a few mods like Superchips, CAI, fastman TB, TB Spacer, and all. I feel like its not doing much without a decent exhaust. I am scared to buy a $500 exhaust setup and it sound horrible like my straight pipes... I considered headers too...I just need a few mods to beat a friend of mine that's bugging me without having to gut out my heavy truck. I have alot of extra weight in it which is his advantage. Any other mods I should do? Any help GREATLY appreciated.

 

get rid of that tb spacer. its just a paper weight.if anything it is creating a negative affect on your power. straight pipes do nothing unless you are catless. installing a 180 thermostat will help. cooler engines build power. a 10.00 investment.

 

Yeah I am going to take it off I believe, I need to figure out what kind of exhaust to go with... I really need help here.

 

I wouldn't take off the spacer, it isn't going to harm your mileage or performance at all. Though the helpfulness of a TBI spacer is widely debated, few people will tell you that it harms your performance. The whole idea behind the spacer is to allow more time for your fuel to atomize, thereby increasing the amount of fuel burned during the combustion stroke. So, tell me how it would hurt performance?

Honestly though, keep cats and keep a muffler. Catalytic converters and mufflers are a definite plus for a regular street car, unless of course you enjoy the volume and the smell that your car very well could create without them. Avoid Flowmaster though, or any other chambered exhaust system, those make your exhaust slow down by weaving their way around inside the muffler. They sound nice, but avoid them if you want performance.

As far as less restrictive, with those minor modifications, your stock exhaust set up should be fine. Before you worry about the piping, muffler, etc. I would suggest purchasing a pair of headers as your first major upgrade in your exhaust.

If you really want to up your HP and torque, make sure you start yourself off with a good cam, a nice pair of headers, and then maybe a new exhaust system.

I may not have been a lot of help, but feel free to ask more questions and I'll try to help you out.

EDIT: I realize that this is an old post, but I also realize that a lot of people seem to ask this. Plus, I was already almost done with my response before I looked at the date of his last response. :-\ My bad.

 

well i will say i dont agree with illest on the tb spacer and the leaving the cat and the mufflers on ,i have a 2001 durango in bone stock form i had a set of headers put on with straight pipes and 40 s flownasters it gave me 221 hp to the wheels stock was 201 then i kept addind performance items ,the tb spacer will affect performance if you upgrade your to a 52mm tb also on the dyno there was no difference in power ,the same can be said with the hypertech programmer i only saw 7 hp to the wheels with it ,,,,,,,,,no my durango does over 415 hp naturally aspirated and i can tell you what mods do what on the dyno hope this helps

 

cut that cat off

 

leave the cat on, but gut it and install a Fastman Simm to keep that MIL off