Exhaust & Tuner Advice

riake · February 13, 2018

Hey everyone, as the title says; I’m looking for your advice/input on an exhaust and tuner set-up. I have the AirAid MIT and K&N filter installed on a leveled 2016 Sierra with the 5.3L V8.

Muffler: I was originally planning on installing the Flowmaster Super 40 single in/dual out, but I’m reading mixed reviews. I want to notice the exhaust, but I do not want to be annoyed by it as it is our “family” vehicle at the moment. I like the refined deep growl way more than an obnoxious cackling. What comparable mufflers are out there around the same price as the FM S40(~$110) with possibly better performance and a more refined sound?

Tubing: Which is better sound/performance wise? Would a single muffler with 3” in/3” tubing to 4” tips sound more refined as opposed to a single muffler 3” in/dual 2.5” tubing out to 4” tips? I will be removing the resonator.

Tuner: My truck has the infamous throttle lag/fish bite/etc. where it always seems to be in too high of a gear then makes a hard downshift. I am looking into a tuner to modify the shift points and firmness, as well possibly turn off the AFM above a certain speed if the V4 drone becomes too annoying. I am also planning on purchasing new tires a little larger than stock in the future, so being able to adjust the speedometer for tire size will be required. Right now, the cheapest option to accomplish this is the $200 TruXP Xtune Plus from Auto Anything. From what I’ve read, it is basically just a re-branded Superchips Flashpaq F5/EdgeEVO HT2. Is there anything wrong with this particular tuner and its “canned” economy/87/91 tunes? Can I still customize the shift points/firmness and throttle response outside of those tune?

SWOYER · February 13, 2018

As for a tuner, I would recommend something better than canned. If you want to run canned, at least get a diablo to keep your options open later. I would say the canned tune is going to make a small amount of difference and the real difference is with the experienced tuner changing things in the background. I personally went with the diablew because the buy in price is cheaper on the equipment. No matter what anyone says on this particular forum, there is minimal amount of difference between tuners besides the equipment they use and the end results on a bolt on truck. Most popular tuners are more than competent to do what they need to work out the bugs of the stock programming. With that said, going with the email tune is much better than a canned tune because canned tunes arent based off any other data besides the wide variety of trucks they made test runs on. You want a file designed for YOOUR truck. The best thing is a dyno tune, but honestly for a stock or bolt on truck, its pretty much overkill.

SquireSCA · February 13, 2018

My Colorado throttle response was like that, always running too high a gear, jerky shifting when you did mash the peddle... Didn't drive like a 305hp truck should... My solution was always running in trailer mode. It basically took the motor out of it's "eco" mode and made it much nicer to drive.

On the Silverado I straight piped it from the CAT's on back, single exit with a nice Chevy chromed tip. Cost me $200 parts and labor at a local muffler shop, sounds awesome. Added the Range box and plugged it into the diagnostic port under the steering column, no more AFM. And when the truck goes to the dealer for warranty work, I simply unplug the Range box and no worries about my warranty.

I don't care about fuel economy. If I wanted that I would have a Prius. I bought a big 4x4 v8 truck and did so knowing the mileage would suck and I am fine with that.

In total, I spent about $400 on the K&N air filter, straight pipe and tip and Range box. Drives really nice.

wforrest08 · February 13, 2018

On mine I went with a Blackbear tune I’m happy with it but I mostly was interested in the tranny tune, AFM delete, and torque management adjustment as I hated the factory tune. Truck came with enuff power for my needs.

I went to a local well established exhaust shop as I couldn’t see changing out the whole system (cat back) for a minimal performance gain at a outrageous price. The owner of the shop is a hell of a guy and a straight shooter anyway he is a authorized Flowmaster & Magnaflow dealer. They put the truck in the air cut off the muffler back and had me come out and listen to different mufflers one was a 40 series “knock off”, a Magnaflow (forget what #) a 50 series and something eles I forget what but it was loud as hell. The 40 knock off was by far my favorite but I was afraid it would be to loud on the highway so I went with the 50 that They dumped behind the axle using the rear hanger(I asked for it) 50 sounds awesome on start up and has a nice light rumble at idle I can hear it in the cab with the windows up if I get on it but it’s not loud at all if I have the windows down can hear it good off the line but by the time I get to 25mph the wind noise over takes it. Overall I’m content with the 50 it does what I wanted it to do without being to much even though sometimes I think I should have went with the 40 knock off.

To clarify a 40 series knock off is just that there is some Chinese company making copies of certain series of Flowmasters. The shop owner stocks these and says he has cut open a 40 and a knockoff side by side and says if anything the knockoff is built as good if not better than the 40 and that he has sold them for years and they hold up as well as the real deal. The way to tell is the knock offs don’t have Flowmaster stamped in the case. He says if you buy the real deal your paying for the name. At his shop the knockoffs are less than half the price.

Unfortunately for me they don’t make a knockoff 50 so I got the real McCoy...

boombalatty · February 13, 2018

From recent experience, I'm going to say you'll notice any new muffler that is louder than stock .. at first. I recently put a Carven R series on in place of the stock muffler and flapper valve. I left all the cats/resonators in place and it has a nice growl at low RPM, but you'll notice it at highway RPMs. It isn't anything that can't be covered up with a little bit of radio since the trucks are pretty quiet, but I definitely paid more attention to it at first. The R series is their most aggressive model, but with the rest of the stock exhaust in place it isn't obnoxious. I may pull the third cat at some point in the future.

SirenRed16 · February 14, 2018

From recent experience, I'm going to say you'll notice any new muffler that is louder than stock .. at first. I recently put a Carven R series on in place of the stock muffler and flapper valve. I left all the cats/resonators in place and it has a nice growl at low RPM, but you'll notice it at highway RPMs. It isn't anything that can't be covered up with a little bit of radio since the trucks are pretty quiet, but I definitely paid more attention to it at first. The R series is their most aggressive model, but with the rest of the stock exhaust in place it isn't obnoxious. I may pull the third cat at some point in the future.

Cut off the resonator and you'll hear a total difference. I have the Carven R with no flapper or resonator and it screams at WOT.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

boombalatty · February 14, 2018

29 minutes ago, SirenRed16 said:

Cut off the resonator and you'll hear a total difference. I have the Carven R with no flapper or resonator and it screams at WOT.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

I'll get there eventually I'm sure. Right now it's just right for me.

riake · February 14, 2018

It sounds like I'll be happy with whatever muffle I go with. Any input on single in/singlenout vs single in/dual out mufflers/tubing? I'm wanting to run it out the passenger side behind the rear wheel either way, but don't know if either will make a huge difference. The cost is negligent at this point, just looking for advice one way or the other.

As for the tuner; I've seriously looked into both Diablew and BBP, but I just can't seem to find how they could be worth the additional $300+ from an off-the-shelf tuner...

14BlackSilverado · February 14, 2018

43 minutes ago, riake said:

It sounds like I'll be happy with whatever muffle I go with. Any input on single in/singlenout vs single in/dual out mufflers/tubing? I'm wanting to run it out the passenger side behind the rear wheel either way, but don't know if either will make a huge difference. The cost is negligent at this point, just looking for advice one way or the other.

As for the tuner; I've seriously looked into both Diablew and BBP, but I just can't seem to find how they could be worth the additional $300+ from an off-the-shelf tuner...

You do realize they customize your tune right?

riake · February 14, 2018

32 minutes ago, 14BlackSilverado said:

You do realize they customize your tune right?

Absolutely. I understand that their tune is specific to my vehicle, but is that custome tune really worth the $300+ over a regular tuner? What makes the custom tune that much better and is that difference worth the money? It appears that I could accomplish the same goals with a regular tuner and from my understanding I don't know that the difference between a custome tune would be extremely noticeable. I could very well be speaking out of ignorance so please lease feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!

wforrest08 · February 14, 2018

Off the shelf or custom all depends on what you want to do now and what you want to do later. I started off with a Hypertech speedo calibrator and a Range that did what I wanted then as I started to do more mods I out grew that set up. I chose a custom tune for the fact it can be fine tuned or refined to fit any future needs I might need. For example most of the canned tuners I looked at have certain settings for the torque management ie. 100% 75% 50% 25% 0% well what if I say 50 is to much but 25 isn’t enuff if I want something in the middle no dice but with a custom I can do 37% if I want. Also I felt that Black Bear has done 100s of these trucks by now so I told them what I wanted the truck to do send in my base run file so he sees my driving style and what the truck does then he sent me my tunes for the fuels I requested including stock tunes then I sent in an after file so he looks to see everything is good. I’d love to have a good local tuner to just drop off the truck at and say call me when done but I live in the middle of a corn field so this for me was the next best thing. I don’t like the idea of trying to find the best combo of everything for me on a canned tuner not my idea of how to spend my weekend but like I said that’s me.

As far as your exhaust the factory exhaust pipe is one of your best choices for pipe I got a 01 2500HD and the exhaust is literally the only thing that hasn’t rusted off yet brake lines all replaced rockers 90% gone cab corners shot manifold bolts rusted the exhaust pipe a ok. In fact on the 15 the tech at the shop used the rear half of the factory pipe to make my dump as he said it will last longer than the stuff they stock. I wanted a dump as I don’t give a crap about seeing my exhaust as every vehicle has exhaust so who cares plus I live on gravel and was tired of listening to rocks bounce of the pipe behind the wheel. I don’t think sound wise it will make much difference if you single or dual it or where the pipe/s end that will be mostly cosmetic only so do what you like. If your still going to use your AFM (v4 mode) that may make a difference as a lot of people on here say they get the helicopter sound in v4 with some custom exhausts. I would search out a exhaust shop in your area that does mandrel bending as a posed to crush bending and I’d ask what kind of pipe and the expected life expectancy of it is as you don’t want to do this again in 5 years when the pipe rots away. Back in the day the local shop would do true duals on our trucks off our headers with glass packs within 3 years of daily driving year round we would be back in there doing it again cause it would rot out we didn’t care cause it was like 150 for the whole set up.

If you need ideas on routing or mufflers look up Kinney’s exhaust(Dallas TX)on you tube I think guys name that posts the vids is Kirk Robinson. They have tons of vids of these trucks with just about every set up poss. If it wasn’t a 12 hour one way trip for me I would have taken mine there.

http://www.kinneysmufflershop.com/kinneysmufflershop.com/HOME.html

wforrest08 · February 14, 2018

Oh yeah if your going to do tips on your pipes you get what you pay for. Cheap tips will pit fast no matter how clean you keep them. Pay for the name brand stainless/painted ones and still expect to maintain them.

SWOYER · February 14, 2018

11 hours ago, riake said:

Absolutely. I understand that their tune is specific to my vehicle, but is that custome tune really worth the $300+ over a regular tuner? What makes the custom tune that much better and is that difference worth the money? It appears that I could accomplish the same goals with a regular tuner and from my understanding I don't know that the difference between a custome tune would be extremely noticeable. I could very well be speaking out of ignorance so please lease feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!

A canned tune is a 'safe' tune that can virtually be applied to any version of that truck and can give a little boost in performance while adjusting some other parameters. With any third party tuner, the real benefit is in the details. Why would you get a dyno tune? Because the truck is there in as close to a working condition as possible where the tuner can monitor real time measurements, most importantly AFR, and get the ECU in harmony with the desired results. And he can prove it on the spot. The next best thing is a mail order tune, where they can make all of the same adjustments, with the lack of the real time data steam and a bit of a best guess based on your data logs. Why is it better? It's better because the amount of things changed by superchips, canned diablo, etc... are a small handful. They change no where near the same amount of parameters that a custom tuner can change and massage based on your specific setup. The benefits obviously increase with the amount of complexity in your setup. Regardless that your truck has X.XL engine with xxxx transmission and xxx mods, to a certain extent they all respond differently. Your in a different part of the country. You drive differently than someone else. Your looking for a specific response. You installed different bolt ons. etc. This cannot and never will be accounted for in a canned tune.

So here's the deal, at least from my point of view. If you'r going to spend whatever amount of money on a tune, the only choice is a reputable tuner. A person that can adjust my files if necessary, a human that understands and has done hundreds of similar setups. Not pre-determined software that's kinda OK and gets mediocre results. That's a complete waste of money. Spend the money to get it done right OR spend a little and don't expect serious results. If you just want to ditch the v4 mode, adjust tire sizes etc, then get a canned tuner thingy. But, if you expect the truck to drive like it should and shift like it should, there is no choice but a custom tune. The reason your paying 300 less is because they didn't really do anything.

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