I put a body lift on my Tahoe a couple months back and hate the way the stock exhaust hangs below the bumper so I was going to get my exhaust dumped over the rear axle and while doing so I was going to do the exhaust and just be done with it. I know nothing about this and I'm looking for a setup that will sound good and hopefully improve on power a little bit. I love the way the cat back looks but if its gonna be dumped and it's only for looks then I think its pointless. I'm looking to spend somewhere under $400 or so and I plan on doing an intake and a tune later down the road when i has more monies to spend on the Tahoe. Any help is great. Thanks.
Help! Need new exhaust set up
- Thread starter wbreaux
- Start date
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iCalvin
Member
Depending on your definition of exhaust setup, the prices will vary. Honestly, there is not much gain I can see with a catback exhaust besides it flows better which can have its pros/cons. The difference is mostly mental (or butt dyno) that is why I don't bother spending mad money on a exhaust system for a truck. From what I can tell from my experiences with my older 5.3 silverado which had basically a straight through muffler and a electric cutout, I lose heaps of noticeable torque until I swapped the muffler back to the biggest magnaflow. With the exhaust cutout open, the truck had horrible launches but with it close and with the magnaflow I can spin the wheels by just tapping the pedal (cable throttle ftw) with the heavy LTZ wheels from the Avy, this is with the stock 2.75 inch piping, it was my first truck and I didn't have hundreds to spend to make noise basically.
Most people I know just swap mufflers, and if you know how to weld, it's the cheapest way, though getting it welded should not cost much at all either. My first muffler that I got I had a shop weld it and cost $50 I believe and that included the turndown. I do believe they gave me some discount (owner knew my parents) as they charged some of my friends $80-100. That doesn't matter though as different shops charge different amounts, I just gave you a rough estimate for how much it cost to weld so that you won't get ripped off ( I saw your post in another thread that was asking for the price so thought I would include this.)
As for muffler choice, I would recommend just swapping mufflers as catback exhaust systems are just a big waste of money IMO, or at least the ones I saw. Everyone has a different preference for sound and noise level. When I was 17, which wasn't that long ago, I wanted the loudest muffler/setup I can find, but now I guess I grew out of it and have a stock muffler with a resonator delete with the SLP tips. The loudest setup I had was for a NBS 5.3 Silverado and that was a flo pro Super V dumped before axle. I love/hated it, as it had so much drone, the quietest I had was well stock, but besides that I had a 22" magnaflow 12589 I believe which was slightly louder than the stock one on the Avalanche. Sounding good is all preference so I can't recommend anything.
Just realized I wrote a lot... Guess I'm bored.
Most people I know just swap mufflers, and if you know how to weld, it's the cheapest way, though getting it welded should not cost much at all either. My first muffler that I got I had a shop weld it and cost $50 I believe and that included the turndown. I do believe they gave me some discount (owner knew my parents) as they charged some of my friends $80-100. That doesn't matter though as different shops charge different amounts, I just gave you a rough estimate for how much it cost to weld so that you won't get ripped off ( I saw your post in another thread that was asking for the price so thought I would include this.)
As for muffler choice, I would recommend just swapping mufflers as catback exhaust systems are just a big waste of money IMO, or at least the ones I saw. Everyone has a different preference for sound and noise level. When I was 17, which wasn't that long ago, I wanted the loudest muffler/setup I can find, but now I guess I grew out of it and have a stock muffler with a resonator delete with the SLP tips. The loudest setup I had was for a NBS 5.3 Silverado and that was a flo pro Super V dumped before axle. I love/hated it, as it had so much drone, the quietest I had was well stock, but besides that I had a 22" magnaflow 12589 I believe which was slightly louder than the stock one on the Avalanche. Sounding good is all preference so I can't recommend anything.
Just realized I wrote a lot... Guess I'm bored.
After you install new exhaust, if you sell your old cat-back system, please let me know. I am looking for a good condition used 07-up Tahoe cat-back.
On these trucks, full exhaust systems ARE just for looks, and more sound. Unless you're running forced induction, you'll be hard pressed to outflow the stock piping.
Get the muffler of your choice (magnaflow 12589 mentioned above is a popular option), then have an exhaust shop bend a few pipes for you and weld it all together. I can't see it costing you more than $250, muffler included. No reason to buy a name brand catback.
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