Do I need a whole cat-back or just a muffler?

[Adonis BHK]

I want to put a new exhaust on my KK, but I'm a little confused.

I've heard some say that the only restrictive portion of the stock exhaust is the muffler, and that the piping is great. Change the muffler, get better performance and sound.

My main reason for swapping the exhaust is performance. I took the KK on a long road trip this weekend with four guys in the jeep, and going up hills sucked....hard.

I would mash the pedal and the revs would shoot up to near redline, but it just wouldn't accelerate. It was unnerving having the engine working it's *** off but going nowhere.

So with performance being priority number one, and a nice rumble second. Am I better off to just swap the muffler with a universal flowmaster or borla, or should I spend the cash and go for the full cat back setup from magnaflow?

Also, I do plan on adding an intake, but I'm holding off to see what volant comes up with before I decide.

Thanks guys!

 

[Mr_Nick]

In my opinion...

The vast majority of your performance gains from adding an exhaust system on an otherwise stock engine comes from the muffler. I would suggest just replacing the muffler. The pipes don't have any really bad bends or kinks in them from the factory, and I highly doubt that a larger diameter pipe would increase power much, if any.

Slap a muffler in there, then intake, then a chip or computer reflash.


I know what you mean about lack of power on the highway. With my 6-speed, I have to downshift into 3rd at highway speeds in order to pass anybody.