Muffler vs. Catback

I am very new to the Toyota truck world and have tried to research as much as I can. I have Googled and searched all over and I have not quite received the answer yet. I have read that stock exhausts on our trucks (4.0L) are going to be as efficient as they can be. Adding a cat-back that is the same size piping as our stock exhaust will not change the power at all and just the sound (correct me if I am wrong). A larger diameter exhaust is going to improve the top end power, but your power band for tq will be cut out. So, with that being said. I am not interested in adding a larger diameter piping to my truck. So if I want the sound, would I be fine with simply changing the muffler, or does an actual cat-back (at 2.5") make a difference in power? Thanks all.

 

ur thought process is perfect...............get a muffler u like the sound of

 

appreciate the feed back. I have looked all over to see if there are any benefits of a cat back on a non- F.I. vehicle. I am used to the turbo subaru world. A cat back is not going to make a difference is what I am gathering from your response.

 

while n/a its easy to HURT ur tq curve by going too free flowing, and the stock setup is already mandrel bent, so the gains are minimal.

I had long tube headers, a URD y pipe, and URD 3" exhaust on my truck n/a and I HATED driving it. It had no low end grunt, it was like driving a honda.........you had to EARN any tq.

 

Perfect. That is what I wanted to know. Its really different coming from a turbo subaru to an N/A v6 truck. With a V8, they respond well to "breathing mods". I read as much as I could and the engineers of toyota have made our exhaust as efficient as they can.

 

yeah, I started out with a flowmaster super 40 muffler........... then got a magnaflow muffler..............

Then went to long tubes, y pipe, and a 3" urd exhaust with a maggy muffler.

The swapped out the maggie for a flowmaster super44...................then added inline a Borla.

And finally swapped for short tube headers.

Now and only now am I happy.

 

Justus can any gains be expected from shorty headers without going F/I?

 

ambien is starting to kick in here...........


I never ran shortys while n/a to be honest.

yup, its ambien 30........the room is spinning, I gotta go ladies and gents.

 

Hope you're not driving! Thanks for advice.
OP, you seem to have it figured out. Honestly if you wanted real performance I would save up for a S/C. You can get it and not worry about the butt dyno - the result will make itself known.

 

nah, just a short stumble and crawl

 

Lots of memories or lack there of on ambien haha. Thanks for all the help. I plan on a SC but that'll be down the rd. I want as much functionality of my truck as I can while enjoying it. The 4L paired with the right muffler can sound great. Most likely Borla due to its quietness and deeper sound.

 

The only other benefit to a catback, is that it's a driveway install job for you. Muffler should be welded in, so unless you have a welder and skills, a muffler is a take-in job.

 

That's true. It's still cheaper to buy a muffler and have a shop do it though.

 

Unless you get aftermarket headers most cat-back systems no matter what brand they are wont give you any increases in power. In fact I lost a few horses when I installed my cat-back Flowmaster dual 50 series.

 

Absolutely, I always recommend a muffler over a catback, but for some cases, catback may still make more sense.

 

Thanks for the input guys. This makes it a no brainer to simply do a muffler. When I do get around to the trd charger, headers, intake, exhaust will happen.

 

I wonder what the gains could be when paired with aftermarket headers. I am more interested in lowering the torque curve than gaining higher numbers. My truck spends 99.9% of it's miles between 1500 and 2200 RPMs. So why not have all your power there?

Here is something interesting to look at if you're researching how far you can get without supercharging. And with supercharging... Yeesh


From performance vendor URD:
http://urdusa.com/store/URD-Perform...Package-2005-2008-Tacoma-V6/product_info.html

Some empirical data from TW member Torspd:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/performance-tuning/229882-n-power-gains-dynos-w-mods.html

 

It looks like doing header back exhaust and other mods really does change the power output. I imagine some of the mods listed in your links will void the warranty which is something I do not want to do. As far as catback options, it seems they hurt the low end of the truck, move the power to the top end, and MAYBE 1-2 hp increase. To me, that is not worth a 3-400 dollar cat back system.

 

Nope. Me either, unless I was ready to spend a ton of $$ on the truck for every gain I could find. I just posted that so it could be known that there are ways to improve the power (in some places) without supercharging. I'll just leave mine as is. Lol.

If you really wanted to turn the truck into a speed machine, check out Torspd's build.

 

I know I did not buy my truck for speed that's for sure lol. My buddies have diesels and like them for speed. They have also blown their transmission twice. A simple muffler will suffice for a little bit of a nice tone.