i went ahead and put a Holley FlowTech Red Hot glasspack on (will post picture and steps i took, later). it doesnt sound too bad, and was quieter than i thought itd be. it sounds more like a turbo muffler than a glasspack, and not really that loud. if i can, ill get a video and try to post it. maybe youll like the sound?

 

i agree,i also made a heat sheild and heat painted it, the less hot air sucked
in from engine bay the better,but i would recommend replacing that cheap
ebay filter with a K&N filter,i got a new 1 for 33 bucks And as for muffler flowmaster
40series is a great way to go,got mine for $57 on ebay,if u wanna go cheaper get a
summit racing flowmaster copy for $30 suppose to be same design but i belive not as loud/deep.
Those 2 will improve throttle response,torque,and improve mpg around 1-3mpg more

dont mean to thread jack u with my pics but heres how mine came out so u get an idea

 

Ant that looks extremely clean. The heat shield especially! I wish I could make a heat shield to go around mine, but I don't have the time to right now. Mine is shield-less currently and she has some high temperatures (as high as right below the notch for 210! Yikes! :/ ). My problem is my filter is slanted at an angle. I basically had to custom fit mine because my body lift. How long did it take you to make the heat shield? Did you use a template?

 

i love that black on blue! still not sure if i should do blue or red though. my blazers the "dirty" silver color.. and even with the glasspack alone, i could feel quite a bit more throttle response! but it still isnt no V8 haha

 

i use the ebay CAI, i like it.
for exhaust i went to 2.5 inch and dumped it right after the muffler...i love the sound.

 

the glasspack i put on isnt any louder than a cheap "performance" muffler. it DOES sound better, dont get me wrong. but its just alittle too quiet. my cousin has a full Flowmaster exhaust system on his '96 Chevy .5ton, 4.3L. it sounds like a V8 at idle, but a pissed off bee when he gases it. i dont like the pissed bee sound, but i love to idle. i just dont wanna spend $500 to get it to sound like that

 

As far as your intake it's not a Bad setup. You can always slap a nice K&N on it later on. but the Exhaust you can get a magnaflow 18 in Muffler and a high flow cat with 3 1/2 in Tip sounds great both at idle and cruising down the road, even with some Big Smo thumping and the Gnarly Mud tires roaring. Thats just my 2 cents

 

that sounds like a great setup. but im doin the cheap/broke country boy thing. i dont have much right now and probly wont til next summer

 

Thats how i done mine bought 1 part at a time and put it all together when i finally got everything