I'm sure that I'm going to get a lot of flack on this one. Here's my
opinion on the exhaust system question: The cat-back systems you can
buy only do marginal good, they promise up to 10 sometimes 15 horsepower
and 1 or so miles per gallon. I haven't heard anything on the actual
mileage reports, and the best increase I've heard of being dyno'd off an
engine that only had the cat-back thing done is 9 HP. For the 400 to
600 dollars these things cost, the only satisfaction i can see is the
noise factor, which is extremely fun. On my '99 5.2L 4x4 CC I was
thinking about a cat-back. Then i went and talked to a guy that would
do it at a reasonable price, and just asked him about a straight pipe in
place of the muffler. This only ran me about 50 bucks and I love the
sound that truck makes now. I don't have a dyno, but I could feel a
slight difference in the engine, mostly it is throttle response. I had
a miniscule gain after putting a 10" open element air cleaner on the
truck, and taking the muffler off added to that slightly, I am guessing
I gained between 7 and 10 HP total, since below that it is very
difficult to actually feel a difference. Therefore are the exhaust
systems worth the money? I don't believe so. I do wish someone would
come up with a complete dual set I could but on the truck, that would
actually give some gains.
-Bryan
>
>
> Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1999 07:29:20 -0500
> From: "S.Buccellato" <s.buccellato@larc.nasa.gov>
> Subject: DML: Exhaust Systems! Are They Worth IT?
>
> Question? I went to a buddy of mine who does exhaust(30 years plus
> experience) and he stated "putting an exhaust system on my 97 Dakota
> would be a waste of money". Why you might ask? As I did too. His
> reason was that the computer controls all of the fuel and other
> associated devices which controls your mpg and horsepower output. He
> said that no improvement would be able to be seen or noticed. I
> questioned him and pointed to many articles which stated different,
> but
> he stuck by his guns and I feel his experience carries a lot of
> weight.
> AHH SO confused now. The reason that I wanted to put an exhaust system
>
> on the truck was for better gas mileage. I'm just looking for some
> input from everyone on this subject.
> Thanks
> SAL
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
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