What's up guys? I've decided that if I am going to keep my truck I need to start fixing all the little things. The first thing on the list is exhaust. I have a 4.9, and it is all stock. Right now I have a leak on both sides of the muffler and the rest of the pipe is pretty rusty so i think I am going to replace everything. Now should i keep the same old cat, replace it, or get rid of it completely? Muffler or straight pipe? What size tubing? Also is this something i should be able to do myself? I have a welder and am confident with my welding but I have just never done exhaust before. My main concern is that I am going to lose low end as i have heard this is an issue with redoing the exhausts on these trucks.
Finally, should I replace my exhaust manifolds or is that overkill?
Thanks guys.

 

The stock exhaust is reletively cheap at most parts stores, If your cat assembly is in good shape you can reuse that and just do a cat back change. I replaced my exhaust last summer for about $50 using replacement parts. I was not looking into a louder exhaust or more performance just something that would exit the vehicle.

 

Were you able to reuse the stock hangers? Mine have all rusted off.

 

I would say take out the cat, staright pipe it, and get headers instead of manifolds, it will be cheaper and better sounding , you may lose low end, or you may gain, im not to sure about that, but go to summit racing if you are looking for headers. remember, loud pipes save lives

 

Well went to autozone, and its going to be $40 for the full pipe from the first cat to the tip. It is two pieces with space in between for the cat so I probably will just weld another piece in place of the cat.