I really dont like the sound of my Stock Exhaust on my 99 Tahoe. It has the Vortec 350. I was looking under it and its got a strange exhaust setup. Im looking for a mildly cheap upgrade. I plan on going with a set of headers later down the road but for now What would be a cheap good exhaust upgrade? Would a good strait pipe from the cat back replacing the stock muffler with something like a Magnaflow give me good horsepower gains? Im new to chevrolet so i really have no idea what to go for. What i was thinking about doing is replacing the stock muffler, and running the one side and going in later with the duals when i get the headers. Would a notice any gains other than the sound of it with a strait pipe?

 

A five chamber flowmaster will give a nice tone, anything less will put a drone in the people compartment that could make long trips less then enjoyable.
I had the 5 chamber with duel 4x18 chrome echo tips going straight out the back on my 1997 with the 5.7 looked really good and sounded really good.
And on the occasion that had to bring something home from Home Depot that required the rear doors to be left open while driving it sound really sweet...

 

As far as a power increase w/ a cat-back exhaust change out, don't hold your breath. Now w/ headers, dual hi-flow cats, and true dual exhaust, you might see some increase at mid to hi rpms. But you're talking about quite a bit of money. If you're just looking for a better sound, in2pro had the best suggestion. Just replace the muffler.

 

agreed with above, minor varient, is check the size from cat back, many mfg's reduce and choke it at that point. on my s10, 4.3 vortec, I did cat back w/smaller magnaflows, with full 2" (I think) to match the headers connect, at a local muffler shop for about $210. the flowmasters were just a bit more. but for the v6 not much difference, and as stated,I felt a little improvement, but until you do a little more will you Feel the additional power, doing the above is worth it for the note change and letting the engine "exhale" better.

If you really want to make it sound like the v8 it is, I might get some critisism for this, but go with "glasspacks" in lieu of the better magna/flowmaster lines. I did this on several of my older muscle cars, camero's, mustangs, and really amplifies the tone! same as straight pipe with some resonation. might be a little louder then you want, but better the just str8 piping.

 

i have the flowmaster 50 series on mine and i have been happy wiht it so far. you can hear it when you put your foot in it but other than that you cant really notice it at all

 

Yeah S10s are 2" from the Cat back. 2.5 is better.

If you get duals on a 350, its better to go H-pipe duals that are 2.5" from the cat back. Strait pipes are definately not the way to go. They are annoying.

 

Ha i might try a glass pack first. They are pretty cheap and it seems pretty simple. I could run the glasspack until i get the headers. I really dont mind it being loud, I just dont want it to sound hoopty rusted out muffler loud. Ive had cherry bombs on my old dodge and they sounded ok. Ive heard 350s with just strait pipes before and 350s sound pretty good opend up

 

Everyone has a different opinion of good I guess... I always thought straight pipes on a 350 was just a loud and uncontrolled racket.

 

thanks for confirming, so yes, I went from 2" to 2 1/2" with cat bak magna flow.

 

I have H-pipe 2.5" duals on my Silverado and most every muffler shop I checked with said that was was the best thing to put on it. It was my Dads when I had the exhaust put on it. I convinced him buy Flowmasters because I liked how they sounded on my Blazer. The exhaust on it to begin with was a true dual system with cherry bombs.