i have a 3.0 v6 and all i have is straight pipe down to a magna flow at the end and sounds just right..a nice deep tone... it doesnt really crackle like a tin can on a honda civic... and isnt to loud but it still turns heads

 

I just put in a magnaflow high flow cat and magnaflow 14" performance muffler (the straight through non-baffle one that's a step above the xl turbo) with 2.25 pipe past the cat.

It's a deep-ish tone but just a little ricey at times. I probably would have gone with a larger muffler to get a little deeper tone but I'm not unhappy.

Also, for what it's worth, Ted over at Engnbldr gave me some interesting info that was basically how he doesn't bother with headers, at least for mostly stock engines. According to him the factory design is very good and quiet. And if you look at it it's similar to a header already. He said the only gains for headers are at really high rpms, and I know for my truck I rarely hit 5k on the tach. With this in mind I put together my system keeping the stock manifold and collector, and then using 2.25 pipe (Ted's recommendation) after the cat. I can say I definitely noticed a seat of the pants power increase with this over the stock stuff, especially at 2.5k and up on the revs. I've had several toyota 22re trucks (some with headers some without) over the years and I can say from my experience adding a header won't take my truck any further. Ted's recommendation put this thing at just about the strongest 22re I've ever driven.

I know this is contrary to most people automatically putting the header on there but I don't think I'll ever do that. (this truck has plenty of other ways to suck up 400 bucks...) Well, maybe if the stocker cracks or something...

 

That's really interesting what Ted from Engnbldr said, I just installed a Street RV head with the 268C Torkr cam earlier this year. I did feel a small increase with the new head and oversize valves with the cam. I wonder if headers would help even more over the stock exhaust manifold??

The guy at the exhaust shop said something similar with my Nissan Frontier, in that the stock exhaust manifold actually flows really well compared to headers. He made it sound like adding headers probably wouldn't do much more then stock.

 

Yeah Ted said (and maybe he'll chime in) that headers won't hurt you, just that an increase is minimal and generally seen at high rpm. So more like racing applications than day to day stuff. He also mentioned tri-y design as better than 4-1 for normal driving. 4-1 is even more skewed toward high revs.

I plan on going the same route with head/cam when funds allow. I'd get the 2.25 straight-thru exhaust (muffler w/o baffles) and see where that puts you before shelling out the header dough. Even the 14" magnaflow isn't all that loud, and you're looking at under 300 for the whole system ($60 muffler, $60 cat, around $150 for pipe and labor.)