Hi,

My 1995, 4 door has a leaky muffler. Not too bad but not getting any better. Looks like it took a hit or something. Tail pipe looks ok but once you start messing with it, who knows.

What is the cheapest solution that makes sens?

1-Get a cat-back off ebay for about $180 and replace everything from the flange.
2- Sawzall the muffled and Macgyver weld a cheap ($30) muffler.
3- Take it to a shop, let them deal with it.

What do you think?
I don't usually work on exhaust but If I manage to save enough I'll crawl under.

Don't care about performance, as long as it's reasonably quiet. I'm fine.
DB

 

I've bought a new exhaust(cat back from header to muffler), and I've done the mcgiver muffler patch job. So far, the cat back has lasted a lil over a year, the muffler came off a few months ago tho, everything else on the system is ok. Not as good as it should've been tho. And my mcgiver job has gone 6 months now, needs a new tail pipe piece, but the muffler itself is alright.

Honestly depending on the shop price, I think I'll be going there next time.

 

Could always see how your luck is at a salvage yard. I managed to get a complete section unbolted from the cat flange back in great condition when I worked the yard. Even though about a month later I had the stock muffler hacked off of it and a Flowmaster welded in it's place lol.

 

Hadn't consider used one, the one you got look good. Considering I can get the entire kit, including clamps, bolts and gasket for about $180 shipped. Watcha think something like that would cost me? Last time a called the local yards they didn't have a 94-97, I'll have the check if something came in.

Can you slip in off/on in one piece even if your working off jack stand height?

Thanks
DB

 

Pricing is really going to vary. I was employed there so it's not really fair to tell your what I paid for it lol.

I'm not 100% sure, but it's possible that a 98+ may work too. I did notice when I was searching for my replacement assembly that there were two different cat flange types; some had 2 bolt flanges and some had 3 bolt flanges. My 2004 happened to be 2 bolt.

I installed mine with the truck up on jack stands in the drive way. By no means is it an easy task to slip the tail pipe over the rear axle, makes it a ton easier if you get the spare out of the way first, but it's certainly doable without a shop lift or cutting it up into pieces and reassembling it or anything like that.

 

I removed the original muffler and tail-pipe and installed the Dynomax 17366 cat-back kit (Single - 2.5" Cat-Back System - Super Turbo? Muffler - P/N: 17366 - DynoMax® Performance Exhaust) in my driveway in an afternoon. I remember it seemed pretty easy. Then again, I don't have much in the way of rust on my truck like back east.

Don't know if it improved the performance of the engine but it does sound cool. (BTW I did NOT install it for the cool sounds, only because it was the most affordable option for me. )

 

Do you remember how long ago you installed it? And what kind of shape is it in now?

 

According to my records I installed in Sept. of 2017. Here are a couple pics I took:

 

Not too bad...

 

Pretty easy to replace muffler and pipe from cat back in driveway; do not really need jack stands.
I cut the pipe at the muffler outlet as the OEM muffler is quite large to make removal easier.
The new pipe went into place first, loosely of course, then I put a Flowmaster in and I think I had to add a small section of pipe as the Flowmaster was shorter.
Put the short pipe on the muffler outlet, raised it up, met the rear pipe, lifted into place as the pipe joints slide together.
I used clamps for awhile, but took to a shop to weld the joints.

The Flowmaster tucks-up above the frame rails and is not visible like the OEM muffler was....much cleaner look. It is louder than OEM by far, but not too bad.

Has been there for eight years or so with no problems.