I ran the truck over to the exhaust shop at about 8am this morning. First
off let me say that open headers are LOUD!!!!! Nothing like trying not to
attract the attention of the local men in blue with an open exhaust. Lucky
for me, all of the ones I saw were already busy with someone who caught
their attention before I came by :) Anyway, I showed the guys at the shop
what I needed done, they said no problem and 15 minutes later, I had the
reducer welded in as well as the Y-pipe slip joint welded up. When I left
the shop I of course had to test out my new goodies, so I pushed the go
pedal about half way down. It did not feel much different, but the exhaust
note had changed very slightly. Not any louder, just a little deeper. Then
the next 10 miles or so was on the highway and I noticed that the truck
accelerated a bit easier than I was used to when I was already doing 65. A
couple of times I glanced down and noticed that I was doing over 75 and had
to back off. Then I had to get off the highway and head for home. I turned
at the stop light and once heading straight I pushed down again. Cool, now
the rear tires start squealing at half peddle where before it used to be
close to the floor before that would start, another :) I had to get ready
for work and was thinking of a place where I could open her up from a stand
still without first having to turn a corner. I remembered such a place on
the way to work, so I gave that a try. I did not stomp it, but instead just
rolled on the throttle. The back end of the truck was wiggling from side to
side all the way through the intersection. This truck has never been able to
do that, and I still did not floor it. BIG :) As the computer gets used to
the new exhaust it will be interesting to see how strong it will run. An
interesting side note is that on the way to the exhaust shop I was running
open headers. The front O2 sensor is in the Y-pipe, so it was getting it's
shot of exhaust, but the rear is behind the cat converter and it was getting
nothing. Still, the check engine light never came on. The truck also had
some serious power problems with the open headers. Gut less pig was one of
the phrases that came to mind. I'm very happy to report that this is not the
case with everything buttoned up nice and tight. All I have to do now is
stick the CARB sticker under the hood.
John
98 Dakota CC Sport 4X4, 5.2L, Auto, 3.92LSD, T&H Package, Mopar Headers,
Power Everything, Rhino Liner, SnugLid, Nerf Bars, Tinted windows, DDBC
http://lonestar.texas.net/~jndneff/dakota/headers/headers.html
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