Just curious about this. Been on the fence for some time about what to do with the exhaust on my 03. I've had the 04.5 elbow sitting in the garage since May as I want the 4" downpipe or systems for an 04.5 truck. .

I was leaning towards the Silverline 4" aluminized system for $300 but I have also thought about using the Donaldson 51" in which case I was wondering if I can get away with using the stock tailpipe and just ordering the 04.5 down pipe and maybe a little bit of pipe for in between?

Looks like it is 4" right after the stock muffler. Can you get a pipe welded or clamped to that?

The last thing I want is the just plain nasty straight piped sound. Sounds like a ricer on the 3rd gens I've heard. Just plain terrible. Loved the straight pipe on my 01 but the 3rd gen just isn't the same.

The Silverline is one of the few deeper sounding systems I've heard, along with the Donaldson.

Anyone out there reuse the tailpipe and put their own system together?

 

Yes, just cut off the 3.5" reducer on the front of the TP and weld on 4". You'll need to redo the front muffler hanger with the 51" muffler. Craig

 

I bought the downpipe from dodge, $75 I think, couple of clamps, little xtra pipe from napa, 51" donaldson, and stock tailpipe

 

I ran 575 hp through that same exhaust for years...it is fine.

 

Thats what I did, I have pic in one of the Donaldson threads if needed.

 

Has anyone made an adapter (little Z type shape) for the inlet and outlet for the donaldson to fit a little better? that has really been the only thing holding me back is that it looks a little "cocked" because of the centered inlet/outlet design...

Wouldn't that be a great "Geno's item" those 2 fittings/adapters... I also wondered what a 5" muffler would sound like when coupled with a 4" pipe... It sounds a little silly, but sometimes that space is like an "expansion chamber" and allows the turbo to spool just a tad quicker... We use to have great luck doing this with little 2.2 turbo dodges, if you hollowed out the cats, it was actually better then installing a "test pipe" because of the expansion chamber area the turbos spooled noticeably faster.

 

Thanks for the help guys

Does anyone if the 04.5 Dodge 4" downpipe has nice clean mandrel bends? If it does, does anyone have a part # for the downpipe? I think I have two clamps for for the elbow which I think is all I need.

Or do I go with an aftermarket 4" downpipe? Any recommendations?

The tail pipe looks to be mandrel bent and seems to have nice bends in it. I don't see any reason to throw a perfectly good tailpipe away.

 

When I replaced my turbo, I purchased a new 4" downpipe and eliminated the elbow. I also bought a stick of 4" pipe from a local truck shop along with a 40" Donaldson. The stock tailpipe was a perfect fit into the end of the muffler.

 

I added a 4x40 straight through muffler and used the stock tail section. Works great and looks good.

 

I had mine welded up using two 45*x4" elbows right off the CAT to align the muffler and it came out perfect. It looks stock unless you crawl underneath for a look.

 

Part # for stock '04.5 and up downpipe is 5212100AA. I plan to do the same with the 51" donaldson. A few clamps and a small chunk of 4" pipe and away you go. Probably not a huge benefit but I like to work on my truck. Not really that expensive compared to aftermarket exhaust.