Tell me about it....I pulled my truck into the garage when I got home from the exhaust shop and it smelled like somebody had put a jar of Vasaline in the microwave!

 

Banks is know for desiel engine performance parts and this kit has a diesel feel to it. The pipe is a huge mandrel (sp?) bent 3in pipe and the exhaust tip looks like something you would see sticking out from behind a dually fender. It even has the same kind of sound a hopped up diesel truck has (less the turbo wine).

As for the questions....1) I can honestly say I can't see how this system would be any more restrictive than an open pipe at the end of the cat. The pipes are huge and the muffler is a straight through shot. Honestly I don't see how its not louder than what it is.
2) The single out option was purely a cosmetic one on my part. I can't see how a dual 2.5 system would flow any better than this one...or flow any less. You still have the 2.5 conecting pipe between the cat and the muffler so in either case that will be the restricting point.

 

I really like the looks of this exhaust, I am glad to hear you are not experiencing cabin drone as this seems to be a common complaint with this exhaust. Maybe Banks has improved the exhaust for this year. Post when your edge is hooked up to it please.

 

yeah, I thought I read past reviews on this exhaust and people said it was pretty loud and had cabin drone as well.

 

Don't worry Ram it'll get louder as it breaks in. I've over 20k on mine & it sounds very nice. A lot louder that my friends Mangaflow SISO. I've nothing bad to say about it & have loved it since day 1. I just need to save some dough for 22's to finish the job. Two things I did notice is my muffler looks shorter & I don't have any of the stampings on my system. Mine is one of the 1st ones manufactured. I think I had less than 2k on the truck before I installed it (July of 04).

Anywho, Grats on the system I'm sure you'll love it.

 

1. Looks awesome...
2. Probably not as loud as me being young like it..
3. Nice rims they are sweet
4. I hated that stupid smell when I got my exhaust first I was like wooooo dear jesus! What is it? is it just the muffler getting it's first exhaust in it?

 

Looks good I like it

 

I assume that prospective = perspective? Looks good, by the way.

 

I like it, I'm always a fan of SISO setups. I think the system is coated with a light coat of some sort of oil to keep it from rusting or any corrosion on the shelves. I put mine on and went to the track that night and while I was sitting in the staging lanes it was puffing blue smoke out like crazy, it looked like I was burning oil. I had to tell the people....new exhaust...........

 

I'd be interested in knowing whether there's any loss of low-end power with the Banks exhaust.

Some threads on this board talk about how our trucks require some back-pressure to maintain low-end power. The free-flow after market exhausts may decrease back-pressure, thereby decreasing low-end power. You may have also read that Troyer's research has shown the Magnaflow SIDO/SISO aren't subject to this problem.

Has anyone found this to be true? I'm holding off until I install my Edge, but I'm concerned about losing power and mpg.

 

The back pressure thing is a common myth that some people don't seem to understand. Back pressure in ANY engine is a bad thing. You do not want back pressure, any back pressure is gonna prevent the bad stuff from getting out and making more room for the good stuff to get in. It is the VELOCITY of the exhaust that is what makes or breaks your torque. People think the size of the piping has to do with backpressure and it has nothing to do with that, it is about matching the right sized piping to the flow of the engine so that the exhaust has a constant velocity to create the cylinder scavenging effect which = low end torque. Too small piping, you get back pressure and restriction in flow and loose power, too big piping and the exhaust looses its velocity and doesn't scavenge the cylinders as well (suck the exhaust out) just right and the flow is constant and it carries the exhaust out of the cylinder. I just wanted to make sure people know what they are talking about when they refer to exhaust size and loosing power. Its not backpressure.....it is velocity and scavenging effect that matters.

 

Well I got my Edge back from my dad this afternoon and put it back on my truck and did a Level 3 tune. It feels much different than it did before...the shifts feel harder (or crsiper) even just tooling around. I am not sure why since I have always left the shift points and other stuff at the factory Edge settings. Maybe I am imaging it...I dont know. At any rate I ran one good 0-60 pass in the same place I ran my others and ran a 7.38!!! Again this is with 24s so IMO thats pretty fricken good! Stock (with airaid) it ran a pathetic 11.11...Airaid and Edge level 3 it ran a best 8.12 and now Airaid, Edge Level 3 and Banks Cat-Back it ran a 7.38. Almost 4 seconds better than stock. All these times were ran in the same spot with truck fully warmed up and using the Edge 0-60 timer feature. I know they aren't scientific but you have to admit even if they are off by a second thats still one hell of an improvment.
I also noticed my ECT runs about 6 degrees cooler with the Banks kit installed. As for low end loss, I can't tell of any. The truck from a dead stop going straight will actually lay rubber about 6ft...stock it wouldn't even dream of spinning a tire...with just the Edge it would spin about 2-3 ft.
One question I have is will the truck get stronger as the computer updates and relearns "things"? It seemed to have done this when I first put the Edge unit on a couple weeks ago (I know the times got better and better over the first couple of days)...but since I returned it to stock won't it have to go through this process again? Also when I am through playing I plan to put it in Level 2 and leave it...are the shifts a little softer in Level 2?

 

i think i might do the same thing u did, is it safe to use the edge on level 3 all the time?

 

I've had my Banks system on for about 12k miles now and I love it.
I've only experienced once issue with the system; when I had it installed (by the shop) they did the complete bolt-on. Only problem was that after all that driving the road loosened some of those muffler bolt clamps and the entire system slid back an inch thus vibrated against the frame of my truck in drive. Scared the crud out of me, thought my truck was gonna explode until I found out what happened. So... took it back to a shop, and they adjusted it back to norm with the addition of a few spot welds.

So, just a tip, spot weld it and you won't lose it.

But all-in-all I think it's a completey awesome system, hope you enjoy yours!

 

I had a Banks system put on my motorhome (460 ci) (ram air, headers and exhaust) the tip they used on it looks big even for a 34 ft. motorhome.