95 K1500 Stock 5.0 needs exhaust; Recommendations welcomed

[johnnyclack]

This truck is stock, has 102K on it I bought it new and with the TBI it has been a dog. At some point I would like to free it up a little but for right now the original exhaust system has rusted out and I am looking for help/suggestions. I am not a big fan of headers, I am old school and back-in-the-day I used to sell speed parts and I sold a boat load of headers for various applications and they all had problems with gaskets/flanges leaks. I know times have changed but I am not interested. If I were to go headers it would be in my 79' K-30 which has the GM 350/355 crate motor spitting fire.

What I need help with is }

I don't know if I go single or dual exhaust; what size outlet pipe for either application; stock or performance muffler ?; anything else I need to know...

Thx

[rickpilgrim]

On headers, modern direct fit shortie headers use GM factory style hookups with no gasket to pipe, and I use copper flange gaskets with stage 8 fastners and never had a leak in 8 yrs on my trucks.
On topic I like the 96-98 exhaust, it's dual to the muffler and there's plenty of 2 in/out mufflers to run dual tailpipes. On sizing for 350 I like 2 1/2" pipes as their more " rumble" sounding than 2 1/4" which sound more "rapley". Dual 2 1/2 will cover you to about 400cid and no worries about future mods needing exhaust mods

[johnnyclack]

""On topic I like the 96-98 exhaust, it's dual to the muffler and there's plenty of 2 in/out mufflers to run dual tailpipes. On sizing for 350 I like 2 1/2" pipes as their more " rumble" sounding than 2 1/4" which sound more "rapley". Dual 2 1/2 will cover you to about 400cid and no worries about future mods needing exhaust mods""

Yea' I like a lot things on the 96' & up over the 95' (last year for the TBI as well) Not sure I want to spend the $ to come off the heads

I am thinking/looking at the Cat-back dual systems on E-bay or/maybe Rock-Auto. They are talking about 3" on the input side of muffler and 2.5" out the back; what Ya' think ?

[iluvmy72]

TBI's are dogs period. Unless you add vortec heads, don't waste your money. I once thought the same things with my TBI and ended up not gaining what I had hoped for which was horsepower and gas savings....My 94 was the 454. It was a gutless wonder. I put headers and with a high performance dual exhaust. Still gutless after 96,000 miles.....didn't change a dang thing. You do however have a pretty good option though. It being a non-ODBII truck, you can put whatever engine you want in it.

[95 S_Trucker]

Originally Posted by rickpilgrim

On headers, modern direct fit shortie headers use GM factory style hookups with no gasket to pipe, and I use copper flange gaskets with stage 8 fastners and never had a leak in 8 yrs on my trucks.
On topic I like the 96-98 exhaust, it's dual to the muffler and there's plenty of 2 in/out mufflers to run dual tailpipes. On sizing for 350 I like 2 1/2" pipes as their more " rumble" sounding than 2 1/4" which sound more "rapley". Dual 2 1/2 will cover you to about 400cid and no worries about future mods needing exhaust mods

On 96-98, only the 5.7 trucks got dual pipes before the muffler. 4.3 and 5.0 trucks still had a y pipe with one converter.

[johnnyclack]

I talked with "the" local exhaust shop, does I lot of work for the auto/truck enthusiast he is well known in PDX and surrounding area.

Darrell suggests running a single 3" from the cat back through a series=50 Flowmaster. Willing to do that $245.00.

He will run a dual 2.5" cat back system using Flowmaster (my choice), but I was told there was nothing to be gained but looks. I guess I need to determine how important are looks. The truck is a 8.5, stocker on a scale of 10 being showroom condition.

What ya' think??

[rickpilgrim]

On my big block 98, I have hooker headers mated to the stock dual exhaust (3")
to muffler and a walker dual 3" in and single 3.5" out that works fine. And yes, the only advantage to bigger than 2 1/2" dual is if your planning to modify your motor to the above 375 flywheel horsepower.

[OutlawDrifter]

a single 3" system is more than sufficient for your pickup. i would also put on a high flow cat if you intend to keep one in place.

i would skip the flowmaster and get a muffler that actually flows better, the dynomax super turbo flows more cfm than a 3" 50 series. lots of choices out there.

headers, a better flowing y-pipe, and a 3-wire heated o2 sensor would do wonders for your fuel economy.

[johnnyclack]

Originally Posted by OutlawDrifter

a single 3" system is more than sufficient for your pickup. i would also put on a high flow cat if you intend to keep one in place.

i would skip the flowmaster and get a muffler that actually flows better, the dynomax super turbo flows more cfm than a 3" 50 series. lots of choices out there.

headers, a better flowing y-pipe, and a 3-wire heated o2 sensor would do wonders for your fuel economy.

Not sure this 95' truck has an o2 sensor on it ?

[OutlawDrifter]

Originally Posted by johnnyclack

Not sure this 95' truck has an o2 sensor on it ?

it should, as it came from the factory with one. it will also throw a code without it! unless the tbi system is gone and you're running a carb.

[rickpilgrim]

Originally Posted by 95 S_Trucker

On 96-98, only the 5.7 trucks got dual pipes before the muffler. 4.3 and 5.0 trucks still had a y pipe with one converter.

I cannot verify that as my carpenters truck is a 97 K1500 ex cab 5.0/305 truck and when we changed 4L60E trans for him his truck is the dual/single system much like my 98 crew 5.7 truck. It looks like OE but he's only has it for 4 yrs and doesn't know any history of it.
3" with high flow Y pipe and cat will be good for a stock 350 TBI truck that doesn't rev very high but $245 for cat back sounds high to me as I just did header flanges back dual 2 1/2" plus H pipe on my 86 for $324.51 and they provided all material plus labor for that.