Anyone have any experience with these mufflers? went to exhaust shop yesterday and this is what he told me.
$346.00 for a catback Magnaflow with 2.5" piping and stainless tip, Aero muffler for around
the same price.(he said its a better muffler than Magnaflow, I never heard of them).
He also said that you ony need mandrel bent pipes if you are pushing 700+hp.
To me this sounded a little pricey, and I dont want to spend that much and not be happy with the sound, because at first I told him I wanted a Flow super 44, and he hates flowmaster and said go with the Magnaflow or Aero. I think he hosed me on the price of the muffler so today I am going to another shop and ask about the price if I bring the muffler in and have them weld it up. What do you guys think about the advice he gave me?

 

I would go with a magnaflow stainless muffler.
I have a magnaflow catback on a 2.5 turbo subaru, and had one on our VR6 Jetta and they both sounded awesome. They are a straight through design.
You are probably not going to notice much difference in power no matter what you do with a catback. Mandrel bends are less restrictive, but again probably not to a degree that you will notice. Ask him if he has a mandrel bender though. Most shops don't, which is probably why they will say they are not worth it. lol

Check around online for complete bolt-on catback systems, you could probably find a stainless prefabbed exhaust for what he wants to charge anyway, and it would come with warranty.

 

Ok thanks, right now i am leaning towards the Magnaflow, checked with another shop
last night and he wanted to charge $300, and thats if I brought the muffler in, otherwise
he said $400, and yeah he told me none of the shops around here have a mandrel bender,
so I am going to check out 1 or 2 more shops and go from there, its just kind of overwhelming when there are so many choices and different opinions, but this guy told me Flowmasters are garbage too. anyways thanks again.

 

Don't worry about the mandrel bends, really. All you are going to get is noise anyway most likely.
Flowmaster are just kind of over rated, they sound alright but they also drone really bad. I had a 40 series on my 98 4.0L, it sounded good but had drone on the highway, didn't do anything for power.

 

I called Magnaflow yesterday and talked to one of their techs, very nice and helpful. The
guy asked me what I was looking to get out of it, and he recommended the part # of
the muffler I should get, and told me that 2.5" piping is ideal for the Ranger, he said that
he owns a Ranger with a 3.0 engine anyways I can run down to Summit and get
the muffler for $69.95, went to two more shops today, one guy said $325 for 3" piping from
the catback, I called him on the 3" pipe and he said for the 4.0 its fine, I dont like it when they tell me what they are going to do to my truck without listening to me. Another shop
said $210 for 2.5" catback, so I might be going that route. I will hopefully run down to Summit today and pick up the Muff, and maybe get it installed today or tomorrow.

 

Don't go any bigger than 2.5", you lose too much back pressure and will probably lose low end power with it.

 

ok, but is it really worth the money to have it 2.5" from the cat back? because for $75 they will just weld
up the muffler for me.

 

A lot of shops will tell you some off brand is better than a big brand because they ordered too much and need to get rid of them. That happens all the time around here. If you just want sound, just get them to weld the muffler to the stock pipes and just run a turn down.

 

I don't know, that's your call. Honestly I don't think you are going to get much power by going to 2.5", but it isn't going to hurt and it should look better than stock, depending on the metal. Some shops use thin wall tube that rusts quickly it seems like, but you probably don't have that problem in NV.
If it were me I would probably do the whole thing while they're messing with it.
I would make sure to tell them you want the muffler mounted as high as practical, I see some people weld on mufflers than hang below the frame. Especially the big flowmaster mufflers.

 

Well, I picked up the Magnaflow muffler at Summit, after work yesterday, So I will stop by
the shop and get it put on today after work. I decide to just go ahead and do the catback
with 2.5", they are the cheapest I could find around here $210 just to do the piping plus
what I paid for the muffler, so I just hope they do a decent job, I cant wait to hear it. and
thanks for the replys and advice.

 

The Magnaflow was installed Friday evening, went ahead with the catback. Overall I am pretty happy with it, It sounds good, deep and throaty with some gurgle, exactly the sound I was after, and no crackle and popping, sounds very smooth. At idle you can barely tell it has been done, I only wish it was maybe just a tad louder, but the girlfreind likes it and says im too old for it to be louder anyway

 

What was the part number for the magnaflow you used

 

part #12226, recommended to be by the tech at Magnaflow
MagnaFlow Performance Exhaust