Had a new exhaust system put on the truck Tuesday. There were holes in the exhaust pipes going into the mufflers, and a broken hanger. The tail pipes were OK-ish; apparently they were the second pair since the exhaust pipes went on. But the whole thing hung too low, was hanging on the parking brake cable, was poorly fabbed, and had no-name mufflers.
So I had a local shop make up and install a new custom exhaust system from the flange stubs back. 2-1/4" aluminized steel, mandrel-bent, with Flowmaster 40s and a balance pipe. They did a really nice job, tucking everything up and having the pipes pretty identical from the xfer case back. The balance pipe Vs down under the output cone of the xfer case, behind the parking brake cable and in front of the U-joints. This keeps it away from the gas lines and tank selector valve, and it is still at least 3" higher than the sump on the xfer case. The Flowmasters are tucked up so the bottoms of the mufflers are in the same plane as the bottoms of the fuel tanks. The didn't use Ts for the balance pipe; they fabbed the connections in place. From the Flowmasters, they run straight out the back, inside the frame rails.
Haven't had a chance to jump on it hard yet to see if the balance pipe helps out the bottom-end torque, but it should.
As for sound, the rasp of the straight duals is gone. It has a nice bloo-bloo-bloo-bloo idle. Cruising at constant speed, whether 25 or 50, it is quiet, like, did-I-kill-the-engine quiet, even with the windows open. Get on it, though, and it sounds pretty authoritative. Haven't had it anywhere I could drop the quads yet, but you can hear the note change when the carb transitions from the cruise circuit to the power circuit. I wouldn't want it any louder, but this is cool.
All in all, I'm very pleased with the job they did.
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