Most recent automotive project/upgrade was this... nothing too major, but it was completely necessary
Paul (of CTW MOTORSPORTS)got me a great price on a magnaflow exhaust for my Daily-driver dodge ram pickup and when it arrived I went down to his hop in Hillsborough and we installed it in a few hours time. he also sold me more awesome auto detailing products and had a ton of tools at the ready (let alone a nice warm place to do the install.. instead of on my back, in the driveway, in 30 degree windy weather). Much thanks to Paul for the great price and shop use.
Copy and paste from my post on
www.ramforum.com:
This is just a post to document my install of Magnaflow exhaust kit #16700 on my 2006 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab 5.7 . I ran a bunch of searches on this site prior to even purchasing this kit, just to see what I was up against during the install and didn't find really that much info. I did check out all the exhaust videos/audio files on one thread on this site.. and I plan on making one of those once I have a proper camera and a person to film as I drive through the gears.
So, basically I added a full stainless steel cat-back Magnaflow exhaust setup to the Dodge Ram. Prior to this, the truck sounded so quiet and wimpy. It had the factory exhaust on it which includes three mufflers.. (well two mufflers and a tailpipe un-resonator). It was ridiculously QUIET, especially for a truck with a 5.7 hemi in it. Basically when I turned it on I just heard the pulleys and belt spinning... and while driving, I just heard air/wind... you could not hear any sound or tone from the engine or exhaust...even at WOT it was tough to hear anything.
I decided to get this system from my buddy Paul at CTW motorsports in Hillsborough NJ, and he was able to save me $130 off of what the normal online retailers charge! I paid $621.51 and it retails through most major suppliers for $749.83. I also decided to go for the dual tailpipe setup for cosmetic reasons because it looks way better than a single pipe lazily hanging out behind the rear passenger tire.
This is Magnaflow kit #16700. It included a 3" main pipe, SI-DO "single in - dual out" muffler, mandrel bent 2.5" tailpipes and 3" stainless tips. all pipes are stainless steel too. All band-clamps were included too.
I ended up taking a few hours out and installing this at Paul's shop since my other option was to install it outside in the 35 degree windy weather, on my back, in the driveway. Paul was a big help and let me use all his air-tools and facility. Thanks dude.
We spent about an hour removing the stock exhaust, which was 30 mins more than I had planned on. I was unaware that there would be several spot welds holding some of the pipes together where they joined up... so that slowed us down from simply unbolting and removing the components....to actually cutting the stock system apart.
The install went together very easily. We made sure all components were accounted for and assembled it rough on the shop floor. Then, starting with the main pipe we slid it all into place, working front to rear. The biggest issue we had was the mounting stud that Magnaflow makes you install into the frame to make this system a dual exit setup. We could not think of an easy way to get the provided nut to stay in place while we tightened the threaded mounting post (photos below). yet 1/4 turn at a time we got it threaded up. Otherwise all of the install was quite simple.
Photos are attached of the overall install, the different pieces of the system, and the finished setup. These are mostly for anyone considering this system, so they have a good idea of what is supplied and what is involved.
The video recording does it no justice. In real life, it sounds deep and throaty, but still mellow enough not to irritate my neighbors or create drone in the driver compartment. I only revved it up to 3500 ish rpms in the video link below, but it sounds best when the engine is under load and accelerating through the gears. I'll try to get a few videos of that one days soon. I'll try,but unfortunately it's been very cold here in NJ and haven't had time to grab anybody to go for a ride-along videotape yet.
side view of tips
the 3 vehicles I get to choose to drive. All with their own positives and negatives:
crappy video:
please... ONLY listen to it on an actual computer with real speakers. cell phones and small devices are unable to play low tones.
http://vid15.photobucket.com/albums/...5/DSCN2905.mp4
