Loudest exhaust without the dreaded clap?

[xFuZzYx]

Hey there tyf! I've been thinking about this for a while so I figured I'd ask this wonderful community what they think and know! When I get my taxes back I really want to upgrade my trucks exhaust To Help increase my power and fuel economy, so I figured now would be as good as ever to ask. Currently my exhaust consist of the following:

-Stock headers,
-Stock cats,
-Stock y pipe,
-I had the rest of the stock exhaust cut off after the stock y pipe and had a 2nd 2.5" y pipe installed after the stock one,
-2.5" pipe all the way back,
-4" tips (meaning no mufflers).

I would like to upgrade my exhaust to give better flow to increase power/mpg because I drive my Tahoe all around the country and on these road trips I am able to resist the urge to drive aggressive just to hear the exhaust meaning I will actually see the gains. Even a 1 mpg increase is worth it to me when I'm driving 14 hours 1 way only getting 12 mpg on the highway on average lol.

I would love to just do long tube headers to dual straights 2.5" pipe to 6" tips and completely cut out my cats with my mufflers but every time you hear someone that has no cats or mufflers their exhaust has that obnoxious "clap" sound that I would love to avoid. So what I mean is I want to make my exhaust as loud and free flowing as I can without giving my truck the disease known as the "clap".

My current thought process for my new exhaust is:
-Stock headers/long tube headers,
-High flow cats,
-2.5" straight pipes,
-6" tips.

Now here come my questions and where I want everyone else's opinion...
1) Should I do long tube headers over my stock ones? Will this only impact the sound or the performance? If it impacts the performance will it hurt/help/not change my fuel economy? What is the best bang for your buck when it comes to long tube headers?
2) What brand of high flow cats does everyone recommend?
3) Should I do a x-pipe/h-pipe after the high flow cats or leave the exhaust true dual straights?
4) By switching to high flow cats instead of just removing the cats all together so you think that will prevent my truck from "clapping" or do you think I will still get that?
5) If I do the high flow cats, can I get my truck reprogrammed so that the o2 sensors don't throw check engine lights so I can still get it inspected with this exhaust setup? (I'm not worried about not having mufflers for my inspection, only talking about the cats with this one) And if I can do that, how much would it cost?
6) Would anyone recommend that I run different sized pipes besides 2.5" the entire way back? I've heard that 3" pipe is too big for the 5.3's and the smaller the pipe the more "clap" the exhaust has but IDK if this is true or not...

So yeah, if anyone can answer those questions and chime in with any other experiences/opinions that they have it would be greatly appreciated weather it is good of bad, thanks!


EDIT: I now have a video of how my exhaust currently sounds for reference:

 

[Big Buttons]

Speedengineering long tubes and their true dual exhaust. Will sound very nice.

 

[xFuZzYx]

Speedengineering long tubes and their true dual exhaust. Will sound very nice.

Thanks for the quick reply, how much do they cost and what sort of gains should I expect to see from them?

Also I just edited my original post and added a video of how my exhaust currently sounds if you want to check that out.

 

[sumo]

Definitely longtube headers. Stock headers and cats are restricted. I did American racing headers 1 7/8 with a catted y section(I'm supercharged). I'd recommend 1 3/4 for na.
I kept my stock 2.75 piping, replaced the muffler with a magnaflow, deleted the resonator and used volant tips. My truck sounds very mean, I don't have a raspy sound nor does it pop.

 

[Javie]

Hey there tyf! I've been thinking about this for a while so I figured I'd ask this wonderful community what they think and know! When I get my taxes back I really want to upgrade my trucks exhaust To Help increase my power and fuel economy, so I figured now would be as good as ever to ask. Currently my exhaust consist of the following:

-Stock headers,
-Stock cats,
-Stock y pipe,
-I had the rest of the stock exhaust cut off after the stock y pipe and had a 2nd 2.5" y pipe installed after the stock one,
-2.5" pipe all the way back,
-4" tips (meaning no mufflers).

I would like to upgrade my exhaust to give better flow to increase power/mpg because I drive my Tahoe all around the country and on these road trips I am able to resist the urge to drive aggressive just to hear the exhaust meaning I will actually see the gains. Even a 1 mpg increase is worth it to me when I'm driving 14 hours 1 way only getting 12 mpg on the highway on average lol.

I would love to just do long tube headers to dual straights 2.5" pipe to 6" tips and completely cut out my cats with my mufflers but every time you hear someone that has no cats or mufflers their exhaust has that obnoxious "clap" sound that I would love to avoid. So what I mean is I want to make my exhaust as loud and free flowing as I can without giving my truck the disease known as the "clap".

My current thought process for my new exhaust is:
-Stock headers/long tube headers,
-High flow cats,
-2.5" straight pipes,
-6" tips.

Now here come my questions and where I want everyone else's opinion...
1) Should I do long tube headers over my stock ones? Will this only impact the sound or the performance? If it impacts the performance will it hurt/help/not change my fuel economy? What is the best bang for your buck when it comes to long tube headers?
2) What brand of high flow cats does everyone recommend?
3) Should I do a x-pipe/h-pipe after the high flow cats or leave the exhaust true dual straights?
4) By switching to high flow cats instead of just removing the cats all together so you think that will prevent my truck from "clapping" or do you think I will still get that?
5) If I do the high flow cats, can I get my truck reprogrammed so that the o2 sensors don't throw check engine lights so I can still get it inspected with this exhaust setup? (I'm not worried about not having mufflers for my inspection, only talking about the cats with this one) And if I can do that, how much would it cost?
6) Would anyone recommend that I run different sized pipes besides 2.5" the entire way back? I've heard that 3" pipe is too big for the 5.3's and the smaller the pipe the more "clap" the exhaust has but IDK if this is true or not...

So yeah, if anyone can answer those questions and chime in with any other experiences/opinions that they have it would be greatly appreciated weather it is good of bad, thanks!


EDIT: I now have a video of how my exhaust currently sounds for reference:

Hello hate to re-animate this old thread /question but did you ever figure out the best header/muffler combination for your 02 tahoe. I am literally re-living your exact same situation!

 

[livingez_123]

I'm an old man and I loved my long tubes and Magnaflows On my 01 Denali.
My 05 is getting a little different treatment.