AJMBLAZER

I didn’t take anything off. Waited until everything was dry and I could leave it sit for a few. Trimmed cap as small as I could still use, jammed it in, then start filling.

I’d seal it up. I bet you’ll never have a leak again.

You don’t really have to do a lot of spring compression. Pop the tie rod end and the upper BJ off and there’s enough droop to get the coil over out easily. I put my clamps on after it was off the truck just to contain the spring when I took the top plate off.

Can down. I live dangerously and cut my boots off.

Your money to spend. You can also repaint it any color you want and put Lambo doors on it. It’s yours. Also doesn’t make it any better. If you’re letting a crappy exhaust shop that can’t weld do your work then that’s your fault.

Again, gone are the days when factory systems were undersized, crimp bent, poorly routed, and the cats and mufflers were horrible flow restrictors. Now at best you're getting a less restrictive muffler and eliminating whatever the flapper causes. Especially with a 6.2L where the exhaust is already 3.5"...why replace all that perfectly good pipe?

...but...but...but... If you don't replace all that welded, stainless steel, mandrel bent factory pipe with new, mandrel bent, 1/4" wider welded pipe then you're just a hack and a fraud and wasting everyone's time! Nice work! I attempted to do about the same thing but got trigger happy with the Sawzall and cut the factory pipe off too long. Whoops. Still, less than $200 including the trip to the muffler shop to fix my goof and the truck sounds great without any noticeable drone. Notice he used a longer muffler everyone?

You can’t use 4x4. The tires would be turning at different speeds front and back and as soon as they grabbed traction something would break.

The front gears are not “welded to” the front carrier. That’s been disproven many times. There’s pictures around here to prove it.

Deeper is better.

Well, I agree on the flappers.

Welds never rotted out on my trucks in the 26 years I lived in Michigan. The rest of the trucks did but eh… This is why you ask questions and look for good answers. I bet if you look at that Corsa or Borla $1000+ exhaust you’ll find long mufflers too. The rest of the systems are damn close to the factory setup. Only so many ways you can do it. Not like this is the old days of aluminized, crimp bent, undersized factory exhausts put on as an afterthought. No one can leave that performance or efficiency on the table any more. So far in about 3 years on this site the guys complaining about the drone/choppy noise have either put in short or very loud mufflers or were probably better off leaving it stock.

Yeah. Replace a 3.5” mandrel bent, welded, stainless steel exhaust with a 3.5” mandrel bent, clamped on, stainless steel exhaust with a different muffler. For over $1000. Just replace the muffler. Even if you get a nice muffler and pay to have it welded on you’re far less than $500 into it.

Longest muffler you can use. Get rid of the flapper. The louder the muffler the more noticeable the drone, if any, will be. I have a Jones 3” in/out 26” long muffler on mine. Removed the flapper. At about a steady 40mph if it’s sort of lopping along you can hear a bit of a drone. Otherwise nothing. Just a nice rumble at idle and a deep but not obnoxious roar if I get on it. If I had put a short muffler on it would definitely drone at more times.

Find a different dealer. The one in my town sucks. So does the GMC dealer. Now we use the dealership south of us about 20 minutes and they’re frankly awesome.