JBA Catback exhaust review

I installed this on my 2006 4.0L taco. As far as performance before this installation, it was completely stock. I order the stainless steel JBA cat back from autoanything.com. Price was only $268. Great price for a stainless steel cat back from a company as well known as JBA. Shipping was fast. Showed up in 3 days via FedEx. Not my favorite carrier but they got it there in great shape so that's a +1 for them. As far as packaging on JBA's part, also great. Lots of protective paper, exhaust tip was wrapped in a very thick layer of bubble wrap, and the whole system looked beautiful. The tip will catch your eye. It's polished with "JBA" engraved on it. All parts to get the cat back in were included. No welding required. All you need is a 14 mm wrench. So far, so good.

First part of getting this baby in was getting the stock one out. I would recommend WD-40 and a narrow flat head screwdriver to help get the hooks out of the rubber holes holding the stock exhaust to the frame. I didn't have a screwdriver but I did have some WD-40 which helped alot, but still left my fingers hurting like hell. Getting those out took me about an hour and that's with help from two friends of mine, holding the exhaust as I disconnected it and handing me tools so I could stay under there the whole time. I'm not gonna go into detail about installing the JBA since it comes with detailed instructions. I can asure you that the whole process of putting the JBA cat back in is very easy and that 14 mm wrench is all you'll need. Total installation time was about 3 hours. About 90% of that time was getting the stock exhaust out and picking crap out of my eyes. I strongly recommend safety glasses or something to substitute that. It was dark when i was installing this so sunglasses would not have been the best idea and I left my safety glasses at home (this was all done in my bud's garage).

Once it was in, just seeing it was worth all the time, sweat, and dirt falling in my eye every time i touch something. The muffler is a straight through with holes for all that raspy sound to be caught into the rest of the muffler, so you get zero restriction to exhaust flow while having great sound. I have had this in for about two weeks and I love it. Takes a few days for it to break in and to growl as it normally will so be patient and drive a lot. Not sure if it actually gave me slightly better performance or if it's all in my head but I don't care. I cruise down the road and it sounds like a deep, steady moan that isn't too loud, but when taking off or going heavy on the gas, I sound like a beast and still have no rasp!! I can go WOT and not sound like a ricer or a straight pipe, just a muscle roar.

I would definetly recommend for anyone wanting a great sound to their truck but don't want to drop a ton of money on a Flowmaster or something overpriced. Also, it's not too loud where I can't handle it, leaving me room for some long tube headers and cold air intake in the future. I'll post pictures pretty soon along with some audio (keep in mind I have an iPhone 5C, so the audio is gonna be crap but it's better than nothing. Also, I will soon be cleaning my stock cat-back and selling it for anyone who wants to buy it for whatever reason. I don't care what you do with it. Use it for your truck, scraps, decoration, cut some holes for light and air and make it a hamster jungle gym, or throw it in your neighbor's yard. I just want to get rid of it

 

Here's some pictures:

 

Does it drone? If yes, how bad?

 

Drone? As in monotonic sound in the cab? Not that bad. When cruising, i dont hear much until 1400 rpm. Even then, not very much. At least not by my opinion. I like the faint tone. Reminds me how great my exhaust is. If you dont want it, turn on the radio and its gone.

 

Ibwould definitely reccomend it

 

I had one and it is a very nice sound. Not loud, not ricey! I wanted to get a Magnaflow recently and went with an Aero 2525xl. Sounds ok. I would still like to change.... JBA is a nice set up. Mine was not flared when I received it and had to have a shop put it on.

 

Agreed. I love my jba. And what do you mean flared?

 

The pipe the goes to the stock part had no flare, so I had it put on at a shop. They flared the pipe and tack welded for good measure. I would not slip on the stock pipe.

 

It was a nice sounding system for sure. Not really digging this AERO 2525XL...

 

No drone, at least in my case.

 

Nice. Sounds like a pretty solid set up

 

I don't like the jba I had and it had drone sound inside the cab!