It will have no affect on mpg's. Sounds a lot better though

 

None? At all? Everyone is always saying that it'll give ya more power and yadda yadda.

I don't want to do it simply to be louder. Grew out of that long ago, lol.

 

You will notice your turbo spooling a bit quicker, and truck may feel a tad bit more powerful, but nothing much. I say do it, 7.3's aren't loud unless they have 5" exhaust or stacks...

 

Hmmmmmmmm. I was thinking of a larger diameter exhaust and a good muffler. May run straight pipes til then.

 

If you want just a little exhaust noise, go with a 4" kit, if you want a great sounding, slightly louder deeper exhaust note, go with a 5" kit. Stock exhaust that is straight piped just sounds raspy as hell, not in a good way imo...

 

4" is about the largest I'd go. Just to make things flow well, not interested in it to be loud.

 

I've run straight 4" pipes for years.

Never noticed any improvement in MPG. Wish it did.

The turbo is a good enough muffler. Only difference is the turbo whistle.

 

I have a 3" dp and 4" sp with flow through muffler, not too loud running empty, but not too crazy when under tow. Hitting some hills though moving about 20mph will make some noise.

 

So I started stock and that was a no-go due to the OEM muffler is a huge restriction, bad for EGT. Then I went 4" with straight through muffler. That was not too loud but the in cab drone was unpleasant, especially when towing, and especially when cold. Drone is no good. I added a resonator from ITE and now it is as quiet as stock but without the EGT and pluggage issues of the stock muffler.

I'm not a kid anymore either so loud and drone is not the right way to go. I could do loud but that drone. So lame.

 

My buddy just bought a diamond eye exhaust for his truck. Nice quality kit. I think I'm going go get that. It comes with a muffler, may swap it out. Not sure yet.

 

The factory muffler on my 96 seems to be straight through. When I removed the cat and installed a down pipe, I just left the muffler on because it keeps the "drone" away when towing and does not seem to present any back pressure. I monitor the exhaust back pressure with an Edge Insight, and it reads the same as the boost, which is considered ideal.

 

On an OBS the cat is the restriction. On a SD the muffler is the restriction. I used the stock muffler on my OBS and hit 399.8 hp but it was still an improvement to put on a true 4" exhaust with muffler, about 8hp on the dyno.