New to the forum. Exhaust questions

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

EvanM85

Junior Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2018
Posts
7
Reaction score
0
Location
Bemidji MN
Ram Year
2005
Engine
5.7
Hello everyone. Well as the title says I am new to this forum and I have exhaust questions. If it's ok with everyone I'd like to give my background story (a short one) to get started. I started off with ram pickups with an 00 1500 with a 318. Soon after the purchase I swapped out the 318 for a 360 and removed the muffler and left the cat. Loved how it sounded then. Now I have a family and 3 little rug rats. Super loud exhaust isn't what I'm looking for anymore. I got rid of the 00 and got an 05 1500 5.7 hemi. Love the engine. Bought it in 2013 with 73000 miles. I was getting around 14 to 15 mpg until I hit 90000 miles. I would like to free up the exhaust flow a little but keep it tolerable. I pull a 17 ft camper and I don't want to hear the loud drone of exhaust as I pull it. I like I nice moderate tone. What I'm thinking of doing is removing the cats and the resonator and installing an aftermarket muffler. I prefer borla but that's a higher price than I'd like to pay. I'd like to stay stock size of exhaust tubing and single in single out. Anyone have any comments on what would be a good deal and what you think of what I'm planning on doing?
 

MADDOG

Not RamForum Staff
Supporting Member
Military
Joined
Dec 26, 2011
Posts
14,443
Reaction score
9,877
Location
Arizona
I'd say leave the cats, put in an 18" - 22" Magnaflow muffler and a resonator. It will sound good and won't drone when cruising down the highway.

Just my .02...

Welcome to the forum.
 
OP
OP
EvanM85

EvanM85

Junior Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2018
Posts
7
Reaction score
0
Location
Bemidji MN
Ram Year
2005
Engine
5.7
Thanks you for your inputs. I'll keep this all in mind.
 
OP
OP
EvanM85

EvanM85

Junior Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2018
Posts
7
Reaction score
0
Location
Bemidji MN
Ram Year
2005
Engine
5.7
Does anyone know how restrictive the stock exhaust is on an 05? Like I said in the beginning when I bought this pickup at 73000 miles I was averaging 14 to 15 mpg. I hit around 90000 and my mpg went to 8-9 mpg. At 100000 I performed a full service on the pickup. Engine oil, front and rear diff, full set of platinum spark plugs, replaced front end ball joints upper and lower, replaced outer tie rod ends and sway bar end links, and threw in a drop in k&n air filter. I did splurge on myself and got a set of 20"x10 **** ceepek dc2s. For tires I went with **** ceepek trail country (set more for on road). Just the other day my CEL came on. I checked it with my scan tool (blue point microscan 3) and it was bank 1 sensor 2 o2 sensor. I cleared the code. Stayed gone for a day. Decided to check wiring at the sensor. Notice a little pinch point and short to ground. Repaired the wire and relocated the harness. CEL did not come back. Driving for 120 miles and the CEL came back on. Same code. Left it on this time. Rented a skid steer to move some snow. Pulled it with my pickup. CEL went away on its own after pulling the heavy skid steer. Is there a way the cats on these pickups get plugged? Or is it just in the o2 sensor itself where it gets plugged and can't read correctly anymore. I'm open to all thought and opinions. Please share.
 

MADDOG

Not RamForum Staff
Supporting Member
Military
Joined
Dec 26, 2011
Posts
14,443
Reaction score
9,877
Location
Arizona
Cats can plug up if you have an overly rich fuel mixture or oil leaking into the exhaust path.
 
OP
OP
EvanM85

EvanM85

Junior Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2018
Posts
7
Reaction score
0
Location
Bemidji MN
Ram Year
2005
Engine
5.7
Thank you again for the replies. This will help me decide what to do for my exhaust. I don't think I have oil leaking into the exhaust due to the fact that I'm not losing any oil and I don't see the smoke of burning oil out the exhaust, but I will look for signs of oil in the cats. I'll leave the cats on and replace the 02 sensor that keeps coding. I'll check the other 3 sensors and replace if I feel they need to be. I'm going to look for a magnaflow muffler. Is there any type of magnaflow muffler I should be looking for? Or are they all the same? I haven't looked into magnaflow and since I have looked at flowmaster and seen they have different types of mufflers that's why I'm wondering about magnaflow. I've been looking at the threads under the exhaust section and kinda get overwhelmed with how many different set ups there are.
 

Joe.G

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2015
Posts
273
Reaction score
13
Ram Year
2004 SLT Quad Cab Short Bed
Engine
Hemi 5.7
I had a bad cat, you can tell by checking the before and after cat o2 sensors, o2 sensors are also wear items so I would replace those also.
 

chrisp2493

Always Modding
Joined
Oct 30, 2016
Posts
3,006
Reaction score
1,870
Location
Warren, OH
Ram Year
2003
Engine
392 Hemi
ec18befdefb5b52804957c5077747235.jpg
Cut them out! Haha

But seriously...I have longtubes, y pipe, no cats and a Borla Pro Xs muffler and there is NO drone at all. It’s very reasonably quite at cruising, especially since I have a cammed 6.4 now. The muffler sounds great, especially at acceleration. It passes the wife test, she has said multiple times how much quieter it is then the other mufflers I’ve had before. I know you said price is a hard point, but it’s only about $120-$130, not terrible for a muffler. If you message Nick from Got Exhaust, I got a nice forum discount and free shipping, highly recommend checking him out
 
Top