Exhaust Upgrade on Jack Stands

[Steveothekid]

Hi all,

I want to change my exhaust on my 03' Tahoe LT 4wd. I don't have access to a lift nor do i want someone else to do it. Is it possible to change the exhaust solely on jack stands? And if so how much of a pain in the ass is it going to be?

Thanks

 

[bottomline2000]

if i can change a transmission with the truck on jack stands I'm sure an exhaust can be done as well..at least a bolt in cat back anyway. Shouldn't be too hard..

 

[adriver]

Its going to be more difficult on the ground. Its not just moving it under the vehicle, but you are going to need a way to lift it up, and then hold it up while you install it. Do you have 4 jack stands or at least 6, maybe 2 jacks, or a 12 pack for your buddy? Before you even start, make sure the hangars are not welded on, or that you will need to weld in your new one. Not sure if you have rubber hangars, but if you don't you will need to (probably grind and) weld. You can buy clamps to hold on the piping, but they can leak, the cost of the clamps, and the risk of being stolen, its just better to weld it on.

No offense, but this is pretty basic. If you posted up for this, I recommend you just take it to a shop, and have them do it.

 

[Sasquatch]

I put a cat back on my yukon on jack stands in the garage and it was pretty easy. The only issue i ran into was i had to cut the tailpipe in half to remove it because a lack of clearance to swing it out over the axle.

 

[Thouse]

Its going to be more difficult on the ground. Its not just moving it under the vehicle, but you are going to need a way to lift it up, and then hold it up while you install it. Do you have 4 jack stands or at least 6, maybe 2 jacks, or a 12 pack for your buddy? Before you even start, make sure the hangars are not welded on, or that you will need to weld in your new one. Not sure if you have rubber hangars, but if you don't you will need to (probably grind and) weld. You can buy clamps to hold on the piping, but they can leak, the cost of the clamps, and the risk of being stolen, its just better to weld it on.

No offense, but this is pretty basic. If you posted up for this, I recommend you just take it to a shop, and have them do it.

I'm not sure that him asking = his mechanical ineptitude.

Me on the other hand...

 

[iamdub]

I don't know what all you mean by "replace your exhaust"- just the muffler, a cat-back, everything from the manifolds-back...?

I replaced my muffler a few weeks ago with a smaller one. Basically requires the same motions as a cat-back. I just set the rear axle as high as I could get it on jack stands. I tried to remove the muffler and tailpipe as one assembly by unbolting it from the cat and maneuvering it all around. I even jacked the body up to have more space over the top of the axle and dropped the spare to let the tailpipe swing in that direction but it still wasn't happening. If it was on a lift, I might would've been able to let it swing own to get that arch over the axle and slip it out, but even that might be a stretch. Ended up cutting the pipe from the exit end of the muffler and it came out easily.

Putting it in was easy as I just rehung the tailpipe in it's original location, bolted the new muffler to the cat (after welding on the short piece of pipe with the flange from the original muffler) and welded in a piece of pipe to mate the much shorter muffler to the rest of the tail pipe. Using clamps would've been easier and less painful 'cuz there was no room under there for my head with the welding hood on so I had to weld it by feel with my eyes tightly closed. I could feel the sunburn on my eyelids the next morning.

My point is, removing the stock stuff will require at least that one cut and installing a pre-fabbed cat-back should be an easy bolt-in affair as that's how they are designed. Replacing just the muffler can be bolt-in as well with the correct adapters and clamps. But, all is reasonably easy with jack stands.

 

[Rocket Man]

I installed longtube headers and a complete exhaust on my AWD Denali on jackstands. Just a PIA moving around under there as usual but not as hard as installing a trans was. If you can get it high enough to use a creeper it's better.