Thought I would start a new thread to bring together some of the earlier ones regarding the change to a Magnaflow secondary cat and muffler, with 2.25 pipe (and a little turn down chrome tip).
Power is definitely up. I would have to guess about 15-20 HP gain. Empty in town, very zippy, gets to speed limit quicker than before. Lightly loaded on highway, really nice acceleration. With about 300# of people, 400# of interior cargo, full gas tank, and about 150# on the receiver platform, the trucklet did fine. Less need for a downshift in my automatic. Will drop out of OD, but will not go into lower gear (to about 4200 rpm) on long hills, as it used to. That is on its own, no manual input. Anyway, runs real good, better performance, and sounds real cool!
As for mpg, with all that "junk in the trunk" I saw no improvement. I do believe that it is some better with lighter loads. So about 18-22 in town, depending on conditions and which of the family (daughter, wife, me) is driving. On hwy, 22-24 depending. I drive reasonably rationally. Use cruise control a lot on the freeway, and some other places.
ANyway, I would recommend this as a performance booster, without all the falderall of other methods.
Cost to me (installed) was $475, which included new donut in left side, replacement of a missing bolt on the left (cause for the burned donut), welding broken bracket at the right side manifold connection, ...only difficulty was getting the new bigger pipr bent to fit around the axle and such.
Also replaced the OEM stereo with a low end JVC. (Single din so now have another useless little dash pocket.) Can hear it fine, but there is more noise in the cockpit from the noiser muffler. No longer the quiet little church mouse trucklet.
Pat
