It's amazing what....

[Southern Pride]

A difference closing off all exhaust leaks can do...I have had a little gap in between my exhaust manifold and the piping where it meets and bolts up there...One of the bolts broke out of it and so it had a bit too much gap on one side, and all it needed was a little compressing to make it tight again with no exhaust leakage.

Point being I have had that exhaust leak since forever, so yesterday I got out there and put a C clamp on the one side (recommended by my exhaust shop guy) since they couldn't get it to it yesterday, but anyway, I closed it up and since the ehxaust leak was so close to the floor of my truck it always made the worst noise it made my engine sound soooo OLD! I dunno if yall know what I'm talking about or not but it would CHUG at like low rpm's when I was getting going and I thought it was my engine but nope it was just that tiny bit of exhaust escaping and bouncing off the floor of my truck, NOW You can't hear the engine AT ALL inside with windows up, all your hear is the deep throaty exhaust from the pipes.

I also noticed before with the exhaust leak that if I put the truck in park and left it running to go into the store and come out the CEL would be on for an IAC valve failure (which I knew it wasn't that already replaced the IAC) but I have a tiny vacuum leak coming from a broken bolt head on the throttle body, SO I figured it was that causing my rpms to raise a little and throw the IAC code, then as soon as I would get in and put it in DRIVE, the CEL would go away since there wasn't an vacuum leak once in drive. Ever since yesterday when I closed up the tiny exhaust leak the CEL won't come on anymore in park I also noticed when I do put it in park the rpms aren't quite AS high, they dropped by about 100 rpm

but I still got to replace that bolt head causing the tiny vacuum leak but it just amazed me what a difference having a completely sound exhaust system did difference in the way the truck sounds...I mean it sounds like a brand new one now instead of chug chug chug chug when I get to going low rpm...Feels "tighter" too don't know how to explain it but that's the word I came up with. Any thoughts or similar experiences!?

 

[blackcoffee]

Exactly my problems. REALLY need to fix my exhaust leaks. I mean its not straight hick or anything. Its just that chugging sound from the headers and the leaky donut gaskets. Also the CAI / TB needs to be cleaned. Thanks you've influenced me to fix it ha.

 

[Southern Pride]

Yeah I didn't know you got tows? Looks killer but YES I never thought much of it since it wasn't real hick sounding like not too loud but it would bother me SOOO much passing people or dirving next to a wall you could hear it ticking and I had no idea that chugging was it I thought that was just my old engine but nope It made one hell of a difference. Truck now runs, feels, and sounds as good as it looks ;D

 

[Vigh_J]

Yeah im in need of some new headers as well... driver side has a slight tick to it. But im just going to redo the whole exhaust i think (longtubes)

 

[Southern Pride]

See I really would love to throw down on some longtubes but I hear so much talk about how they leak @ gasket and doughnuts and need re-torquing after experiencing my truck with 0 Leaks I will never let that happen again. What are ur thoughts vigh?

 

[Vigh_J]

I just love long tubes... had them on my 80 chev dual 3" with 40 series flowys... Loved It and want it back lol but i wont be going 3" this time

 

[Southern Pride]

Gotcha well did they leak or ever get loose? I'm sure there are some good ones out there that don't have problems but I just wouldn't take a chance until I knew exactly which ones they were but not trying to spend $400 on headers either. I just HATE my TBI exhaust manifolds they look like bricks Main thing that makes my engine bay not look clean. How much power would longtubes add for a TBI would it be pretty noticeable?

 

[Vigh_J]

For the TBI i would think that it would just give you more bottom end.. and yea i had to replace the collector gaskets as often as once a year, cant remember what brand headers they were now. In the end i think its worth it IMO. So what you have to tighten a couple bolts here and there gaskets are cheap'ish... also the last ones i bought were copper and only ran them for a couple months before i sold the truck, so no telling how they held up.

 

[Southern Pride]

I gotcha I see your point but things like that I don't want to have to keep up with. I want to install it once and not ever couple weeks a leak creaps in and I have to adjust it...I dunno call me crazy or lazy but don't wanna mess with it.

 

[Vigh_J]

Coming from the guy that rides 2 stroke dirt bikes lol