[cHurt]

i recently went to one of my local muffler shops because i'm getting a custom exhaust for Christmas, and am planning on going with a flowmaster 40 with 3" piping from the cat back. The shop said that 3" piping would work fine and sound good, however i am having doubts about how wide the piping is. I'm just looking for opinions on whether people think the 3" tubes would be too big? answers preferably from people who are running the 3" pipe... thanks guys

 

[Terdar]

Well, you're running 2.25 piping from each cat and 3" in and out of the stock muffler, So i'd say you'd be fine. Just don't run 3"x2. I am running 2.25x2 into the muffler and 2.25x2 out of the muffler and feels fine. I'd suggest going with magnaflow over the flowmaster though. Magnaflow is what I am running and the drone is on the edge of tolerable, but it is plenty loud outside.

 

[cHurt]

Well, you're running 2.25 piping from each cat and 3" in and out of the stock muffler

are you saying we're already running 3" piping? because I thought it was about 2.25" or something around there...

 

[Terdar]

No, you're right. Just went and measured the pipe post muffler and it is 2 1/4. The pipes coming from the cats are just shy of 2", like 1 7/8. But still 2x1 7/8 is still more than 3".

 

[cHurt]

Yeah. Thanks for the clarification. If all goes as planned the exhaust will go on Monday. Pics to follow...

 

[USArmyX]

Keeping the piping smaller in diameter will help a little bit in the muffler not sounding as "ricey" (unless that is what you are after). The V6 just doesn't put out enough exhaust gases to make the Series 40 Flowmaster sound like it was designed to. I had that same muffler with the stock piping (2.25") and it was extremely loud on the inside and sounded very "ricey". I only kept it on for about a week or so, just long enough to order and receive the Gibson Cat Back system, so it may have gotten better with time, but I didn't want to wait and see. So bottom line, IMHO, the 3" piping is too big.

 

[XVTer]

I dunno. My gibson was "ricey" when I first put it on, but after ~1k miles, it turned to a nice roar. I think that it takes a while for the muffler to break in (baffles to get coated) and for the exhaust note to sound as it was designed to. Just my two cents.

 

[atekt]

I personally think 3" is too big but that is just my opinion...

 

[redewenur]

i have the 40 series on mines with stock piping..it did sound ricey in the begining..but after time...it has a nice roar to it...espically when you start it up!

 

[Xguy4life*]

vehicles can take a bigger exhaust pipe, but if i remember correctly, engines need a certian amount of backpressure to still function well. IMO 3 inches is way to large. i would think that the biggest size pipe would be about 2.5 or a little bit bigger. If u get rid of all the back pressure, ure engine wont run as well and ure gas milage will decrease. a perfect example is a honda civic. from the factory, they have an exhaust that looks like a pee shooter. there has to be a reason. so in my professional opinion (which isnt much lol :cheers: )3" is too much

 

[cHurt]

thanks for all the replies guys. i was just shopping around and saw that banks makes an exhaust for the 4.0L frontier which comes with 3" tubing from the y pipe back... i think i'll ask the shop a little more in depth questions, but it's things like that which keep me confident that it won't be too big. as for the ricey sound, i've been there before when i put a flowmaster on my v6 grand cherokee, after it broke in it sounded great.

 

[Terdar]

I am running a dual in dual out magnaflow muffler with 2.25 piping in and out. Even with my heavy foot I am getting 16mpg all city driving. I noticed no low end loss but it loves it up high now. After I had my system done I towed a '89 300zx totaling 6500 lbs and had no problems with tourqe. Single 3 inch piping will be fine. When I was getting my system done I asked the same questions. Just make sure you replace the stock Y pipe, it is really horable.