Well hello, I am new here! Nice to meet everyone. My journey began when I was looking to buy a new daily driver to keep the miles off my twin turbo 300zx, and well, here I am today. Bought a beautiful 2004 3.0 4x2 white edge, and its my first truck ever! And man, do I love it.

Anyhow, I have two simple (hopefully) questions. I tried searching the forum first, but didnt find any clear answers.

1) When I shift into 2nd gear at low speeds, I can hear a slight "gurgling" noise. It is very faint. One ironic thing to note is that before I bought the ranger, I test drove another 2004 and it had this same 'issue', but when I drove it initially I attributed to this being a mileage-induced symptom (that truck had 80,000 miles). However, my truck only has 45,000 miles, so I don't think that's the case...just wanted to find out if anyone else has noticed this noise before, and if it is something to be concerned about? I am going to buy a haynes manual tommorrow to begin further investigation on tranny fluid changing for this vehicle (gonna switch to royal purple synthetic MT fluid anyways, already did the oil, and I use royal purple in my Z so why not????).

2) Exhaust. Yeah lets get this out in the open, I am not at all impressed with this trucks power in all honesty, but that's OK because I didnt buy it to go fast...ITS A TRUCK! $ into mods on this truck will give marginal gains at best, and therefore aside from fuel economy / power recuperation from lifting etc, I find the whole concept of 'upgrading' this truck for power purposed pointless at best. However, I do want a flowmaster 40 delta. Yeah I know, there are lots of posts on this issue, however my question is a bit more specific. I already know I want single in/ dual out with turndowns (aka 'dumped' as ive seen it called???), but my question is regarding the pipe diameter. I want to retain what little low-rpm torque exists in this truck, so I need to keep back pressure...what is the ideal set up you guys have found? I still want the exhaust to be boomy, and also "unrestrictive" to a degree, but definately not to the point of hindering the vehicle. And on that note, what is the true stock post-cat pipe diameter? 2" ??? So ideally I think im looking for either: (2"in/2"out) (2"in/2.25out) (2.25"in/2"out) (2.25"in/2.25"out). I have seen some members running 2.5" in, but I might question: why? Was that the muffler available at the time, or are there any real gains/sound enhancement from using the larger in? Just seems like more work having to add an expander before the inlet, and that maybe just running stock 2" in would be more straightforeward/easier (with the assumption stock is 2").

Im thinking maybe just 2"in/2"DO is going to be best. Comments? Thanks for reading guys, hope to get pictures soon!

-Lee

****EDIT**** P.S. I would like to know what kind of headlights some of the members such as member: (Silver) have? They look black and very clean, and would be especially appealing on a white truck I think. Is this a difficult modification? Are they cheap aftermarket headlights that leak in a few months and dont fit right half the time? Thanks!

 

The post cat pipe is 2 1/4"

The 2 1/4" inlet to dual 2" outlet would be fine.

The gains or losses from different size exhaust is not measurable on a dyno and is probably filed under "placebo effect".

I have the stock y-pipe, cut the 5th cat out and replaced it with 3" mandrel bends. It necks down 3" to 2 1/2" to 2 1/4" in like 1" to the ball flange. Then 2 1/4" muffler pipe to 2 1/2" muffler back to the 2 1/4" tailpipe.

I spent around $90 including the price of the muffler.

It made 171rwtq on the chassis dyno with all the bolt-ons except roller rockers.

 

how did cutting that cat out of the equation affect emissions? I live in TN and we have to pass unfortunately.

Anyhow i should add, thank you for the response, it helped clear up a lot of things.

 

It doesn't. The 5th (and last) catalytic converter is after the 3rd (and also last) o2 sensor. It really doesn't do much other than quiet the engine down.

I doubt after three pre-cats and a normal cat the emissions is that different.

On a side note, do you ever go to brainerd? I have been meaning to go up that way to run the truck and I am just waiting on a few people to go up there with me. I have a buddy we just put a NX wet kit on his lexus gs300 and another friend with a 90 notch and a 347. I imagine we will be up that way in a month or so.

 

Well actually, the Z has been on jack stands ever since the first week I bought it, so i havent had the chance to go yet. Ive been doing all kinds of work - upgraded clutch, lightened flywheel, downpipes, testpipes, cat-back, AIV/EGR/PRVR delete, HICAS delete, JWT intake, switching over to the NA's power steering system and hopefully the NA gearing ratio as well, amongst other things. I wish I had dyno'd it before or at least taken it to the strip to get some numbers. I honestly have no idea what kind of power it was making before, all i know is that it had 300hp at the crank (which doesnt mean crap) but i dont know the rwhp. Anyhow, Im almost finished with the aforementioned upgrades, so im probably going to leave it like that for a while to save money again...the next step is the big boy stuff. Looking to upgrade to HKS 2530 turbos, weisco forged internals, 740cc fuel injectors, amongst other extremely expensive things Ill keep its progress posted.