Installed Gibson Single Side Swept Catback

[wgnorth]

Hello all. I just installed my Gibson catback in the aluminized version yesterday. Install took about 1 hour and was a piece of cake. Quality, fit, and finish was pretty good for aftermarket. My first impressions are thus:

1. System is about twice as loud as stock, a nice deep mellow tone.
2. There is very little drone at 2000-2250rpm at highway speeds although you can hear it.
3. I haven't noticed any torque loss through the lower rpm ranges, but then again, there hasn't been any performance gain either. (What I expected)

Overall I'd say its a good sounding exhaust that didn't harm the performance of the truck. With all the information here about exhaust and the performance problems people have had...I thought I chime in with a positive result.

[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by wgnorth

Hello all. I just installed my Gibson catback in the aluminized version yesterday. Install took about 1 hour and was a piece of cake. Quality, fit, and finish was pretty good for aftermarket. My first impressions are thus:

1. System is about twice as loud as stock, a nice deep mellow tone.
2. There is very little drone at 2000-2250rpm at highway speeds although you can hear it.
3. I haven't noticed any torque loss through the lower rpm ranges, but then again, there hasn't been any performance gain either. (What I expected)

Overall I'd say its a good sounding exhaust that didn't harm the performance of the truck. With all the information here about exhaust and the performance problems people have had...I thought I chime in with a positive result.

Yeah, Gibson is good, indeed very good for people who want a quiet performance muffler. But to actually get a performance gain from a Gibson muffler, you have to have headers (because the stock manifold is the main "plug" in the exhaust system, not the stock muffler)...or you have to install the muffler by itself in the stock exhaust pipe and not use the Gibson catback "system". And for best results, you use headers and just muffler (not "system").

The problem with all the catback systems is they use 2 1/2 inch pipe which is larger than the stock 2 3/8 inch pipe and thereby results in loss of low end torque. You came out about even in low end torque gains/losses because the torque gains you got from the muffler were countered by the torque losses from the too-large pipe that Gibson includes in their system.

I went with just a Gibson stainless muffler (not the system, though the muffler I used is the one that Gibson uses in their single sideswept system) and installed it after I already had JBA headers installed. By taking this approach, I had a very noticeable gain in low end torque from the muffler replacement yet still had quiet, mellow power for towing. Although it cost about $75 to have the muffler welded into the stock pipe, the muffler (in stainless) was only $154 so the net cost was much less than the cost of their system (particularly in stainless).