3" Straight Pipes Installed

[Slurppie]

Originally Posted by pciley

Thanks for the props all, thought I would be getting an even mixture of praise and flames. Nobody has chimed in to say "Should have kept it stock stupid!" or anything like that

You should have kept it stock stupid!




...sorry but had to

[juma]

Jet, the Gibson kit was my inspiration. It was a TRUE cat-back, the Banks is just a "Resonator back".. falsely advertised. The Gibson (as far as the pics that were posted on this forum of the kit out of the box) came with replacements for the resonators, looked like pipes with elongated bulges in them. I thought the diamater of those were only 2" though... so upgrading to 2.5 (and removing the resonator off the kit) should increase the performance. Good luck!



no. the gibby is the same as banks. I think it is the JBA that cuts out the resonators. juma

[ColoTitan]

What flanges and gaskets would I need to replace the resonators with the stock exhaust?

[pciley]

Originally Posted by ColoTitan

What flanges and gaskets would I need to replace the resonators with the stock exhaust?

Depends on what pipe diamater you want..

Look at Jet Tech's thread. He just added 2.5" straight pipes too.. guess that itch is contageous I think its a 'must-have.'

He had his done FAST! like within a day or two of my posting, so he MUST have been able to purchase the flanges locally, or had a speedy shop cut them. Ask him where he got his 2.5" flanges and gaskets.

I tried them without the gaskets, as the flanges from Banks are VERY smooth, but I had the "ticking" of an exhaust leak from the left side. Even after torquing the hell out of the nuts/bolts, it still leaked... so gaskets had to go on.

OH, if you go with 3" pipes, good luck finding the flanges.. I had a shop offer to "custom make" them from 1/4" plate, but it was alot more than the $4-$5 a piece that Banks wanted.

If you are going to get pipes to mimick the stock exhaust's pipe diamater, (2"?) then you will probably find those generic flanges hanging on the wall at your local muffler shop, along with the gaskets.
Good luck!

[TITAN21]

Originally Posted by pciley

Depends on what pipe diamater you want..

Look at Jet Tech's thread. He just added 2.5" straight pipes too.. guess that itch is contageous I think its a 'must-have.'

He had his done FAST! like within a day or two of my posting, so he MUST have been able to purchase the flanges locally, or had a speedy shop cut them. Ask him where he got his 2.5" flanges and gaskets.

I tried them without the gaskets, as the flanges from Banks are VERY smooth, but I had the "ticking" of an exhaust leak from the left side. Even after torquing the hell out of the nuts/bolts, it still leaked... so gaskets had to go on.

OH, if you go with 3" pipes, good luck finding the flanges.. I had a shop offer to "custom make" them from 1/4" plate, but it was alot more than the $4-$5 a piece that Banks wanted.

If you are going to get pipes to mimick the stock exhaust's pipe diamater, (2"?) then you will probably find those generic flanges hanging on the wall at your local muffler shop, along with the gaskets.
Good luck!

damn paul that looks good. check your pm.

[pciley]

PM'd ya back.

I'll be hitting up Cali Speedway for that September date for sure. Have to get yours on by then Johnny!

This should be a kicka$$ match for your Headers and Banks. Has to sound better on your truck, no doubt.

[the head]

Did you use the Banks flanges on both ends of the pipe (a total of 4 flanges for the project)?

[pciley]

yes, and 4 gaskets too.. one on each flange just to be safe. I have no patience for diagnosing exhaust leaks on a hot set of pipes... guess I should invest in some mechanix gloves

[the head]

Well I'm now at this point of mods. I talked to the guy at Banks and he was saying that since the flanges aren't part of the kit, per se, that they normally don't sell them. So I told them somone else has bought them that way and he's going to check with the manufacturing side to see what they can do. Lovely.

Anyway, instead of running a straight pipe I'm going to stick something in there to reduce the noise. It'll either be a race catalytic converter or the Moroso spiral flow mufflers since they are apparently decent flowing. A lot of people are using them as resonators. I don't think I could handle anything louder than the Banks on the rest of the stock exhaust. I guess if this doesn't work out I could always install some of the cone inserts I've seen to help with the noise (although it would start defeating the purpose of a freer flowing mod, huh?).

[the head]

Coolness - Banks stuff is on the way.

[smoketitan]

so I am a little confused--the straight pipes come right off the cats?? do you pipes come out the rear or are they side out??

so you feel the straight pipes smooth out the acceleration.

I have my magnaflow setup with mandrel bent pipes,and the only thing I hate is when I hit the gas the engine stalls a little at 2700-2900rpm, and then boom all the power kicks in again once I get over 3000rpm---I tend to use the manual shifter to pass this threshold manually as the ECU seems to want to stop a this 2700 to 2900 range then shift down

[the head]

It's all welded together. Check out the pics that started this thread. Personally, I think this is a pretty big restriction in the system so it should help with acceleration.

[the head]

Well after searching various forums and so forth I decided to go with the Moroso Spiral flow mufflers they sell for a "resonator". I went with a 3" muffler for each side. There wasn't much out there as far as resonators are concerned for power and sound other than people saying 'they work'. So I was basically reduced to just get a set and try. I considered the Flowmaster race mufflers, some of the bullet style race mufflers, and even short glasspacks. I knew the bullet styles didn't do much for sound but the Morosos are supposedly quieter than those with very little flow loss.

So granted this isn't going to flow as much as the straight pipe 3" setup that Pciley went with but I'm trying to keep the noise down so we'll see how it goes.

As usual, I'll post dragstrip results when I get them made and tried - both on the motor and with the nitrous.

[pciley]

Originally Posted by smoketitan

so I am a little confused--the straight pipes come right off the cats?? do you pipes come out the rear or are they side out??

so you feel the straight pipes smooth out the acceleration.

I have my magnaflow setup with mandrel bent pipes,and the only thing I hate is when I hit the gas the engine stalls a little at 2700-2900rpm, and then boom all the power kicks in again once I get over 3000rpm---I tend to use the manual shifter to pass this threshold manually as the ECU seems to want to stop a this 2700 to 2900 range then shift down

The exhaust manifolds are welded to the cats and the pipe comes down from the cats to a flange and hits the resonator sections and then to another flange to your cat-back exhaust system. All I did was remove the flanged section between the "cat-back exhaust" (which really isn't cat-back ) and the cat exit tubing. Yes, it does smooth out the acceleration. I used to have The Head's same complaint about that apparent lag in the power band although it occurred at different RPMs for me.

The head, if you don't like the noise, you won't like a straight pipe, so good to try out those Morosso's. The drone when I'm towing at 65 mph up a LONG grade when I lock it down in 4th, seems to be right at the perfect RPM to give a nice headache. Better to speed up or slow down or not have free-flowing straight pipes altogether. I am able to find the sweet spot most of the time and keep it in the quiet zone unless I want someone to hear it.

I don't really care about the noise, or better said... I am more enthusiastic about the performance gains than about having a "quiet" truck, hence the CAI with Ram Air and the Banks cat-back.

Everyone will find their happy medium. Some will keep their stock exhaust and even complain that that is too loud
Straight pipes would be for the more performance-oriented owners.