a few exhaust mod questions

[elrojo63]

planning on a doing a 3 inch DP on my 97. Will i need to get any extra heat shielding or special stuff for the install?

Does a 4 or 5 inch exhaust really help any more with mileage over a stock with muffler and gutted cat? If the downpipe is only 3 inches wouldn't anything bigger be just a resonator? I'm going for mileage only and don't want to spend money where it won't help anything

[Fordman247365]

not going to see much result in the mileage dept. from exhaust, gut cat, your choice with or without muff but will do better without the muff. definately put the 3" dp on, I wrapped mine with heat wrap

[PAYDIRT]

I did a 3" down pipe, gutted the cat, kept muffler, DIY intake and TS chip. I see a nice increase in power and mileage, as long as I drive normal, the problem is, its hard to keep my foot out of it. Too much fun !!!

[Soot_Life]

as far as gas miliage the best thing for the best price would be a diy intake and a 3"DP cat cut cut out and replaced with a straight pipe same with the muffler. all that would run you about 300$ tops..

for about 400 you can get a 4" system turbo back would be less worklouder and lower egt's

a chip will help with about 1-2mpg alone but they are 400-500

depnending on your tire size/if you pull a trailer a higher gear ratio could be your best bet but thats a big chunk of money.


as for wrapping up the DP the way i have learned it keeps the bay cooler and your pipe hotter. with the increase in airflow i would not worry about it heating up as much as your factory dp.

[cndrm]

The 3" DP will help in ways that are difficult to describe. The difference is huge. Getting rid of, or gutting the cat will also make a huge difference. If you want to keep the stock exhaust, then just do the DP and get rid of the cat. An exhaust size over 3 1/2 or 4 inches just yields more sound. As far as I know, there's not been any proven benefit to an exhaust over 4". (just that most of us love the sound of our trucks, and we want everyone else to enjoy it with us )

After opening up the exhaust, the cheapest intake option is the DIY, which is very popular. It can be completed for "around" $50-$60, give or take some for geographic location. (and sales when applicable)

Beyond that, it starts costing good $$$$ to get these trucks/ motors to breathe better and make more power. I'm not interesting as much in the power, as I get far better fuel economy than pretty much everyone I've ever talked to, or heard of here.

mike