Researching Magnaflow Exhaust

Tru-Blu

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Ok, this is going to be the first of quite a few posts where I ask some questions on pricing, availability, or advice on what you LS Gurus have done for the particular item in question. What I'm trying to do is come up with a grocery list of the mods I want to do, and start tracking the price and source to get them. I have tried to search on some of this, but haven't yielded enough results to prevent me from asking everybody. I will humbly accept any flaming that is necessary if I should have found some of this in a search.

First up - Magnaflow Exhaust

I know a ton of you have done this one, and it pretty much seems to be a no-brainer for me. I won't pull the trigger on this until next year (most likely), but in my initial research I can't seem to find anyone selling the full exhaust kit for a Gen II (2006) LS. LSKoncepts only shows their kit fitting a 2000 - 2002 LS.

Can anyone with a Gen II or better yet, a 2006 point me in the right direction on where they got their Magnaflow kit from and how much they paid?

Thanks in advance,

TRU
 
No kit. I bought my mufflers and had my friend bend and weld up some 2.5" pipe. That's the way you're gonna have to go with the Gen II.
 
They have them all over Ebay for the Gen 1 and 2. And are going for 730 and less.
 
Geez, you guys are being too kind. I didn't even THINK of checking Magnaflow.com first to see if there even was a kit available.

NYC, thanks for the heads-up on what you had to do. I don't have a local resource but could start calling some shops to see what they could do for me.

TRU - the search continues...
 
I am GEN I but totally going Magnaflow

Have heard all good things about them
 
i have flowmaster, isnt too bad sounding, i want to go with a xpipe and a little bigger diameter in the piping and hopefully that will get the sound im looking for.
 
I made a few calls this afternoon, and found out that everything is the same between a Gen I cat-back system and a Gen II cat-back system (which, btw was never made by Magnaflow even though they have it on their website, and some online parts places list it) - except for the tips (which should have been easy to realize on my own, I guess).

So, for any Gen II'er out there that wants this system just buy the Gen I system wherever you want, put it on your ride and take it to just about any exhaust shop. Have them cut off the bent-down tips and put your choice of straight tip on it and you're golden.

Hottexhaust.com (I talked to John) even offered to throw in a set of Magnaflow straight tips if I bought the kit from them.

Food for thought

TRU - hungry for new exhaust
 
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The Gen II's never actually went into production!
 
I assumed this, the gen 2 is exactly the same as the Gen 1 LSE V8's. They just had round tips with circular cut outs instead of quad tips on a rectangular cut out.

Im still undecided whether I want a nice LOUD LS (glasspacks) or if I should go with nice low tone, (flowmaster or magnaflow mufflers) I havnt decided yet :( I have till spring to figure it out though.
 
The stock system on the Gen II is more efficient than the system on the Gen I so one would only have to assume its more than just in the tips.

I dont have a Gen II so I cant confirm by looking myself so just do as said before. Get the pieces of your liking and have them installed. I would honestly just splice in a different set of mufflers and be done with it, and maybe a X pipe giving the fact that you wont get much more power out of the LS and have no real need for a major exhaust upgrade.
 
JWerner2, how do you know about the difference between the two versions' exhaust system? Can you post any references or links?

I definitely don't want to take a step backward on this if that is indeed the case.

TRU
 
Use the search function. Its been covered here which is how I know.
 
Sorry, I will do that - any tips on what words to search for to help narrow down the amount of results. There's a lot of Magnaflow threads to go through.

Thanks,

TRU
 
You'll find the search function is cluttered up anyway and the only good way to find stuff is to just use something simple and systematically check each thread.

The odds are you might even find the information you need in a totally unrelated topic. Thats how we roll here on LVC:D
 
Yeah, it doesn't help that search results are cluttered with topics that have a question, a guy telling them to search, and no answer. :D

If you want to be nice for the next fella who asks this question and finds this topic, you could reply with any relevant info or links to good forum posts that you find :)
 
Yeah, it doesn't help that search results are cluttered with topics that have a question, a guy telling them to search, and no answer. :D

If you want to be nice for the next fella who asks this question and finds this topic, you could reply with any relevant info or links to good forum posts that you find :)

:Beer

:p

:D
 
I've spent well over an hour looking, and I could spend plenty hours more. Without a realistic way to narrow down the search, I could be looking through hundreds of posts. That's probably gonna be too much for trying to find out the original data that was shared on the differences between the two.

Considering the fact that the Gen II's put out a little more HP in the motor, I could accept that there might be some differences in the exhaust system.

However, this puts me back to square 1 on trying to find out what I'll need to get and where I'll need to get it from to eventually mod/replace the exhaust system.

I'm pretty much set on Magnaflow. The cat-back complete system made the most sense to me, as I could put it on myself and take it to a shop and have them whack off the turn-downs and weld on some straight tips. If the Gen I system is not right for a Gen II, then I guess I'll have to come at it piece-by-piece, but this would not be my preferred way to deal with it.

I thought Adam Monroe had a 2004 LS with the cat-back system on it (at one point he was trying to sell it). I figure there's got to be at least 1 or 2 Gen II owners out there that have tried to put the cat-back system on their rides.

I'm really hoping I'm right. So, PLEASE - any Gen II owners out there with the Magnaflow cat-back system on your rides, speak up. I need your help.

Thanks,

TRU
 
-From the limited knowledge I have-
Gen II LS came with 2.5 piping from the factory Gen I had 2.25 piping from the factory.
The Magnaflow full setup offered for the Gen I gave the Gen I a 2.5 conversion plus mufflers. Thus if you put mufflers on your sencond Gen then it would offer the same 2.5 piping and mufflers.
I have asked 3 or 4 guys on here with Gen II's and they all have said that the piping on the seond Gen was already optimally tuned for flow so they only changed out the mufflers and some did X-pipes as well.
Really hope this helps, and if I was misinformed then please someone speak up!!
 
And gen1 had 2". after the resonators it looks even smaller because of all the bends.
 
Every one I talked to said that the pipes on the Gen II were bigger than the gen I. Was the gen 1 2 and the Gen II 2.25 then? The part numbers that I have been given for various mufflers people have used have all been 2.5 inlet but maybe they meant 2.5 outlet?
 
Man, I feel like I'm in a pinball machine. I appreciate everyone's input/help with this, but I gotta admit that I'm thoroughly confused.

So, based on what I've seen in this thread so far, a factory Gen II exhaust may or may not be 2.5" and it may in fact be 2.25". The Magnaflow cat-back exhaust system for Gen I is a 2.5" system, and may not be the right size or efficient for a Gen II LS. I would be better off with getting a cross-pipe and new mufflers for my Gen II LS.

I don't know if I missed any other major inputs/updates, but I'm still not much closer to my goal of trying to nail down what to do and where to get it from. I guess if I know for sure what the factory exhaust size is, I can maybe start looking at muffler and x-pipe replacements. The other thing I don't know is whether the factory exhaust is stainless or not - primarily talking about pipes. If it's not, then I really want to put stainless on (Michigan winters are murder for exhaust systems).

I have a friend at Napa I can call hopefully to nail down the exhaust size.

I'll post an update when I get it.

TRU
 
Every one I talked to said that the pipes on the Gen II were bigger than the gen I. Was the gen 1 2 and the Gen II 2.25 then? The part numbers that I have been given for various mufflers people have used have all been 2.5 inlet but maybe they meant 2.5 outlet?

If they are using Magnaflow as a reference thats why. They themselves have them advertised as the wrong sizes.

To be on the safe side its best to just go to a muffler shop and have them look at it and go from there.
 

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