Exhaust Upgrade on Lifted?

[gmartin1215]

Know this is the forum for lifted and off roading, but curious about an exhaust upgrade. My muffler and part of my pipe are using out so I need to replace soon. I was thinking about a cat-back upgrade, but started wondering if it really would be worth the investment for a lifted Tahoe. Its not like I will be racing this vehicle, but wondering if an upgraded exhaust could help with HP and MPG any. Or if I should save my money and just replace with a regular system.

What have you guys done?
Is it worth doing an exhaust upgrade?

 

[Doubeleive]

exhaust is more or less for sound, you "can" squeeze a couple pony's out of it with headers and a tune, etc.
but just changing to a catback really won't gain you much of anything other than some nice sound.
some systems might create unwanted "drone"
some of us like it loud, it's a personal choice.
being lifted or not makes no difference............

 

[gmartin1215]

Thanks. I was wondering just that.

 

[Dustin Jackson]

@gmartin1215 I had a Borla 40085 XR-1 3 inch wide muffler installed in place of my factory muffler. Sounds good, not too loud.

If you want performance gainz I would recommend headers and gut or delete the cats.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

x2 on what @Doubeleive stated. Magnaflow, Corsa, Borla, and Gibson are favorites, though there are other brands, as well. There are also some clone knockoffs of these brand name mufflers, that sell at far lower prices and sound the same.

So, go to YouTube and listen to the various muffler sounds, and decide on which one meets your own personal tastes.

 

[gmartin1215]

Any concern with losing too much back pressure by modifying the exhaust? Say, if I go with headers, cat delete, and a better muffler?

 

[Joseph Garcia]

Any concern with losing too much back pressure by modifying the exhaust? Say, if I go with headers, cat delete, and a better muffler?

Not that I know of, but others on this Forum who have actually made these mods will chime in.

 

[09_4WD_YUKON]

check out Black Widow exhaust

 

[Trey Hardy]

I noticed a decent increase when I upgraded the Silverado. It had stock manifolds and cats and true duels with super 10 flowmasters and 5” tips I added 1 7/8 Longtubes ported heads and throttle body and took the cats off added a x pipe to eliminate the drone/frapping it’s super clean sounds great it’s quiet cruising but will set car alarms off if you redline it I love it well worth it get a tune afterwards especially if you don’t already have one to tune the rear 02 sensors out and note the mods to adjust everything it’ll be well worth it side note watch out for troopers if you take the cats off depending on your state and it’s super gassy smelling but mines mostly due to the big cam but it doesn’t bother me

 

[Trey Hardy]

Any concern with losing too much back pressure by modifying the exhaust? Say, if I go with headers, cat delete, and a better muffler?

X pipe and mufflers will make up for the back pressure. Shoot me your number and I’ll send you exhaust clips if you want or YouTube what you are looking for. speed engineering headers are the best bang for the buck and I’ve had two sets now no issues minus the driver 02 bung nothing a hammer couldn’t fix

 

[Charlie207]

Needing backpressure is a myth that's been disproven many times. You need to let the engine breathe.

Usually what happens is people will say they feel less low-end power via their uncalibrated butt-dynos because the engine is slightly gaining mid and high-rpm power due to better flow.

Like others have said, the stock exhaust on these SUVs isn't the bottleneck in performance, they already breathe beyond what the engine can push through them.