Exhaust selection

Ok.... '14 1500 CC Hemi, DiabloSport tuner, HemiFever tune, Moe's Performance 87mm TB, Tstat, K&N full air, stock exhaust.

I'd like just a little bit of sound, but as much performance as possible. Not sure if headers back? Not sure if just cat-back? Can I do cat-back, and delete cat? Do I have to worry about drone, and MDS issues?

Or, do I leave it stock, and do an electronic cut-out? With a cut-out, can my tune work for both normal operation, and cut-out?

Cost isn't a major concern... mainly, performance, not too loud, best bang for the buck. Those are my priorities.

Thoughts?

American Racing headers(with or without high flow cats depending on your laws) to a Magnaflow 22" muffler to 5" Moe's tips. Just enough sound to give you a nice deep tone without being obnoxiously loud. You can also run an electronic cut out if you like.
Jay

for best performance go with full exhaust. Long tube headers either catted or off road mid pipe and really any catback of choice. we offer stainless works and Kooks for long tubes and mid pipes. for the catback the choices are endless. it really depends on what sound you are looking for.

My personal preference is the stainless works long tubes with high flow catted mid pipe and a Corsa cat back. awesome idle, mild sound cruising, and screams WOT, all that and no drone!

Check out CORSA exhaust.

Pull Ya said:

American Racing headers(with or without high flow cats depending on your laws) to a Magnaflow 22" muffler to 5" Moe's tips. Just enough sound to give you a nice deep tone without being obnoxiously loud. You can also run an electronic cut out if you like.
Jay

Click to expand...

^^^THIS is a GREAT Recommendation.

I have the Mufflex bolt-on which is a Magnaflow 24" ending in Moe's 5" tips. Even without headers I find this to be just right at idle and when accelerating with no drone on freeway. There is no doubt when I drive by that I have a Hemi, but no lynch mob waiting for me in my neighborhood for waking the dead.

Of course, you can drop big $$$ and have it sidelined for weeks and order a custom tune, but if you're not trying to break quarter mile records and instead its your daily driver, you can save some money for a better sound system.

Headers will actually make better use of your ported TB. Long tubes would be optimum, but anything is better than the factory mash-up that breaks bolts.

The stock Y-pipe is poorly made and getting rid of it would matter if you were going for perfection, but probably not on a daily driver.

Since you never know where you'll wind up in life I would not pull the Catalytic converter. If you're all bothered by it, replace the stock with a high flow after market unit. That way if you ever find yourself in Corruptifornia you can still pass the environmental inquisition--and since other states listen to those zealots they may adopt their silliness soon.

Thanks guys! I took your suggestions, and went with the ARH long tube w/ cat, Mufflex 24", and 5" tips. Still contemplating cutout....

Let us know what you think once everything is installed
Jay

Sorry for the delay....
Ok.... here is my honest feedback....
Very happy with the quality of product, fit and finish. All of that seemed really great.
The install on the RAM... blows! Did it in my garage, over about 1.5days, laying on my back. The manifold bolts/header bolts were a pain in the rear to get to. What a nightmare! But, that's all on RAM, nothing to do with what I purchased.
I did have the famous "ticking" at startup... which turned out to be a single broken manifold bolt, that turned out to not be flush broken.... so once the manifold was off, vice grips did the job.
As for final product/thoughts..... underwhelmed. :-( I hate to say it, but (considering the mods I've already done, listed above in the first post) there was no real "seat of the pants" improvement that I felt at all. Granted, I haven't done any "timed" differences... but, I never really had any "before" baseline to compare to either... so, that ship's sailed. As for the performance, I was underwhelmed, because I used to have a Dakota R/T 5.9, that I deleted the cats off of, and WOW!!!, massive "seat of the pants" difference. Going from a complete stock exhaust, to a header with high flow cats, and a new muffler.... no real gain felt at all. I did get in touch with HemiFever for the updated tune... but still... no dice.
As for the sound.... QUITE a bit more than I'd honestly wanted. Granted, I did headers back, so I knew I was risking getting more than I wanted... but, I just wanted the performance (which I don't feel I really got) with just a tiny bit of sound (which I got a more than I desired!). So, true honest feelings.... $2000+ not really well spent.
Now, the 20 year old me, is giddy and happy for the added sound! Sounds great, and makes me want to drive it harder. Which I love! But, the 36 year old, business owner, picky/sensitive-wife-having me.... not so thrilled. But, it's a done deal, it's on, and there's no way I'd want to wish that job on anyone else to do over again. lol.
The Moe's tips look GREAT! No doubt about that! No droning. 60-68mph is a little on the loud side (for me) when cruising... but, around here, highway speeds are more like 80mph, which sounds totally manageable. If you're around town, and can get the RPMs down real low (driving like a grandma), it's decently quiet.
All in all, not thrilled... but it is what it is. Matt (I think that's his name) from Moe's Performance was AWESOME! Really knows his stuff, helped me out the whole way, and really great overall experience.
If anyone has any suggestions on if there's something else that should be done to get more performance feel out of it, please feel free to suggest. I'm left underwhelmed from this $$$ experience, and thinking about the next thing to do... thinking NOS w/ 125HP shot....

Thanks for the long detailed feedback. If you switch back to your stock oem tips it will quiet it down a little.

LOL! Oh yeah, that for sure will quiet it down! Good thinking! lol

Put a 22" Magnaflow on it. That will quiet it down. Also getting a revised tune will help w/ gains

Dang that's a lot of money spent to not be happy with the main results. Do you think saving what you spent for a forced induction system would have been a better route?

I did go with the Mufflex 24".... and I did also get the new tune from HemiFever....

Your truck could be pulling timing from something hitting the headers causing false knock. Is your dip stick hitting and what header bolts did you use? Send a datalog to Hemifever

Luis, I've DEFINITELY thought about forced induction... but from what I've found, at $6,000+ for a setup, I just couldn't justify. My wife would have my head on a platter. lol. Going with the $2k+ was tricky as it was... but, company write-off. haha.

Shouldnt be that loud at all then w/ that set up

Gary.... unfortunately "loud" is subjective... and, for 36year old me... it's not obnoxious by any means, but more than I was looking for. For 20 year old me, sounds great! lol
Also, not sure exactly what you're referring to with the false knock thing (I'm not a true gear head, just a DIY'r)... but if you're referring to my comment of the "ticking", that was prior to the change out. The OEM manifold had a broken stud, creating the ticking. Once I did the headers, with new bolts, the ticking is gone. As for dip stick, nope. Header bolts, the ones supplied with the ARH headers.
As far as sending the data log, I think that's a good idea. I asked him if I needed to, he said no. So I didn't bother, though I thought it would be beneficial.

Sorry to hear you got loud instead of gitty-up.

I waited almost four years comparing mufflers before taking the plunge and never went with headers because I worried (as an old man) I'd get what happened to you based on past experience when I was a young gear head. I am surprised you felt nothing in the butt dyno, because just ditching the OEM boat anchor lightened your truck by about 1/2 a ton and headers typically weigh less than cast iron factory manifolds.

As you alluded to, I suspect your dissatisfaction is an age thing, because I frequently hear RF members brag about their tiny little muffler choice, muffler delete, cat delete and/or straight pipes and I 've always thought to myself--obviously young, single or living in the sticks.

Did you keep the resonators? That isn't a muffler, but does attenuate noise at certain frequencies associated with drone. If you left them off you have just that much more noise. Contrary to someone's comment above, the tips don't change total sound. They make the sound deeper because of their 10" length at the greater diameter than the OEM tips.
For what its worth, you could have made it worse by going with a chambered muffler.

billiards4me said:

Gary.... unfortunately "loud" is subjective... and, for 36year old me... it's not obnoxious by any means, but more than I was looking for. For 20 year old me, sounds great! lol
Also, not sure exactly what you're referring to with the false knock thing (I'm not a true gear head, just a DIY'r)... but if you're referring to my comment of the "ticking", that was prior to the change out. The OEM manifold had a broken stud, creating the ticking. Once I did the headers, with new bolts, the ticking is gone. As for dip stick, nope. Header bolts, the ones supplied with the ARH headers.
As far as sending the data log, I think that's a good idea. I asked him if I needed to, he said no. So I didn't bother, though I thought it would be beneficial.

Click to expand...

Age doesnt so much have anything to do w/ it. Im pretty much the same age w/ a wife and toddler. The wife doesnt mind, she knew what she married when she married me when we were younger(a gear head then, a gear head now). Lol My little boy well....that lil fella is a mini me gear head in the making and loves when the truck cranks up. Lol

The false knock I was refering to wasnt about the old set up but about the new set up. ANYTHING touching the new headers/y pipe will cause the computer to think there is a knock in the motor and in turn cut timing back which would cut power. That might explain your lack of gains in a set up that should have netted you a good gain that can easily be felt expecially w/ a custom tune. If nothing is touching such as dip stick, frame, motor mounts, steering shaft, trans cross member, etc then if you had used Stage 8 locking bolts(not sure what you used) will also cause false knock due to the locking clips chattering on the bolts. All that can be seen in the datalog that Hemifever should look at. At the very least Sean should look at your log

The stock tips will take some of the sound out of the set up. Would be worth a try