I purchased the Aluminized Gibson Swept Side 3 years and 1 month ago for my 5.4 liter 2005 F150. I put it on in the late spring and it did a nice job for me. I felt like I got a small bump in power and the sound was a slight improvement over stock.

However, I noticed it sounded like I had a leak in it about two months ago.
I couldn't find an issue other than some rust. Last weekend I went camping and noticed my pipe was hanging lower. I checked it out and the pipe was completely rusted off behind the muffler. There was a 2 inch hole on the top of the pipe and the entire pipe rusted off where the pipe connects to the muffler. The muffler is rusting off in layers too.

I drive my truck in the winter, but it is garage kept and well maintained, and it is mostly driven on the weekends. I only put on 36k on this exhaust. This makes me disgusted! What kind of quality is this? It only survived two winters in Pennsylvania. What crap. I will never buy a Gibson Exhaust again not even the stainless steel.

Now I am going for the stainless steel Magnaflow SI/SO system. I will let you know the difference once I put it on.

Moral to the story, don't buy aluminized Gibson products. They are trash!

 

everytime I hear aluminized I cringe. It's not just gibson.

stainless is the way to go.

 

I had a swept side gibson exhaust on my ranger! It lasted about 5 years until the exact same thing happend to me. I WILL never buy aluminized exhaust again

 

It really is required that you go with stainless pipes if you live up in the salty part of the US. You can get away with aluminized here in the south or the desert, but no where else.

 

Stainless steel will be the cure.
It's not Gibson's fault that they sell both types of piping.
I've been running their stainless steel dual swept side cat back for 4 years now and no problems.

 

Three years out of an aluminized exhaust is doing pretty well but I have to agree that stainless is the way to go.

 

Stainless FTW

 

I installed and ran a Borla SS cat back system for 18 years and 225k. And would have been more except an 185 year old woman t-boned me at an intersection.....

 

Hand wash your exhaust pipes seasonally, and spray the hell out of your under body after you coat it in the winter salt, you will have no problems. I have t-409 stainless pipes which will surface rust like crazy, but still looks and feels great after 2 years in the Tioga County PA winters.

 

Yeah, here I've had aluminized pipes last 11-12 years, my '77 is on it's second set with the first set put on in '87.

My '07 has a catback with aluminized, very well done, tips perfectly located, etc .... don't know how old but I'ld say maybe 2-3 years max on it, probably get another fewout of it. I'll maybe get a SS systyem next time for it.

Pennsylvania winters are rough I hear.

 

Don't buy the kit theres a guy in osterburg Pa not far from you that will do mandrel bent stainless steel maganaflow for $477

 

I swear your the only guy I have ever heard of that "hand washes" his exhaust.

It's good that you take pride in it though!

 

I was able to pick up a SI/SO Stainless Magnaflow catback system with free shipping for $458 on etrailer.com with their price match guarantee. (110% the difference) It arrived on my doorstep in 2 days. I am going to install it myself tonight. Autoanything had the same system for $461 with free shipping using their 10% coupons.

Thanks for the help. I learned a lesson with the aluminized exhaust. Never did I think that the aluminized exhaust would dissolve that quickly.

 

Just got an updated coupon code from Autoanything.com. They have their Magnaflow exhaust systems at 15% off now with free shipping.

Use code PBEB3 at the checkout for the discount if you are interested. The deal goes until July 3, 2010.

I should have waited. I could have saved another $23.

 

no salt corrodes stainless, just not as bad. my pypes is already getting a nice little bit of surface rust going on.