Went camping w just me and the dogs. Good time. The rack is super useful for gear and fire wood. Truck ran great.

 

Looks like a great camp spot!

 

Knocked loose the insides of one of my original cat converters a month or so back on some rocks. The rattling eventually made me worry that a bit would break off and clog up the exhaust. I couldn't find a shop around me that would weld in universals. One insisted that only OE catalytic converters would not cause engine codes. I didn't bother to explain the dubious abilities of the GEMS ECU and my doubts that it would notice or care that the catalytic converters were not OE. The other shop said they wouldn't be able to weld the setup in place because of the tight fit. I can respect that. I wouldn't want to take the chance of damaging someone else's vehicle.

So, I ordered the Davico Part #: DAV17072 Y-pipe. Found it for under $400.00.

48 state legal. Sorry California and New York.

After the new Y-pipe arrived, my son and I pulled the old one. We did resort to using the sawzall. The studs and nuts to the exhaust manifold came loose fairly easily. The hardware connecting the muffler to the Y-pipe was another story. Cut it off. Of course that meant I now had no muffler.

The new Y-pipe bolted right back up. We did need to do a little bending to get it to fit. Nothing we couldn't handle easily. Since the muffler also rattled and I had needed to cut off the connector bit that bolts to the olive, we just ran some straight pipe from the Y-pipe olive back to the bend before the exhaust goes up and over the rear axle. I was able to reuse all four (4) O2 sensors. I made sure they all went back in in the same order they came out. Front driver's side back in to front driver's side etc.

Considering I have never worked on exhaust before, everything went pretty smoothly. I have checked and re tightened the manifold connection. Don't seem to have any leaks there.

Sounds like a real V8 now. A little loud for my taste but my son and all his 16 yr old friends like it. I may throw a muffler on it later if I decide it's too obnoxious sounding.

Took a 220 mile trip this weekend. It's a little droney sounding on the highway even with the resonator still attached. Nothing a little music couldn't fix. The check engine light stayed off. And no pending codes. I'll keep an eye on it but it looks like these universal catalytic converters are efficient enough for the GEMS ECU.

 

I replaced front O2's, and made the rig throw a new error code: P1177. So I guess next I'll be poking around the fuel rail and/or inline filter.

 

Installed a good used Y-pipe w/cats to replace the one that had busted cats.
Also welded in a new muffler and lopped off the resonator. Used this one. http://smile.amazon.com/Thrush-17650...080062&sr=8-14
Took it for a spin and it sounds good. Has a nice rumble at idle but doesn't drone at speed and isn't too loud.

 

I was hoping I'd find a review on this muffler. Thanks for posting it up. I need to find an exhaust leak on the front portion of my system and start replacing some things.

Jason

 

Alright, IDK WTF is going on but that's not the link nor the muffler I posted. I posted to one on Amazon. When this page first loads it shows the correct link, but when its finished loading it changes to some different muffler on Newegg. I certainly hope this isn't some site sponsor shenanigans.
Here is the actual muffler I used.
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B...=sr_1_1&sr=8-1
Anyway, its a very short term review as I only installed it a couple hours ago. For $30 though its hard to go wrong.

 

Well..... crap, glad I didn't hit the checkout button... Has anyone run one of the Walker QuietFlow mufflers and any opinions on them. I bought one for a project and ended up selling it before ever installing it. Even though they are "QuietFlow" they still growl slightly from what I've read.

Jason

 

Found some bf goods muds on Craigslist, new for 560, couldn't pass.

She looks sweet now.

Odd thing though, it rained hard, I drove in some 2ft deep water slow. My O2 code went off. Same one on left bank. What gives?

 

Took some measurements for a half-rack.

J